A little over a month before the Yankees would face the Athletics in the first round of the playoffs, they were out in Oakland for a four-game series against the eventual AL West champions. New York had swept a three-game set in the Bronx earlier in August, but Joe Torre’s club suffered a beatdown in the Coliseum opener. After an ugly defeat like that, the Yanks needed an offensive step up and they received that early in the second game.
August 26: Yankees 10, Athletics 6 (box score)
Record: 71-55
(1st in AL East, 3.0 games ahead)
Mark Mulder was among the A’s intimidating “Big Three” at the beginning of the century alongside Tim Hudson and Barry Zito, but this would not be the lefty’s night. In the top of the first, the Bombers saw the offense come to life. Derek Jeter and Luis Sojo smacked a single and a double, respectively, to put two men on base for Bernie Williams, and he was able to convert, sending a ground-ball single in his at-bat to the outfield, scoring Jeter and putting Sojo at third base. After two straight outs, Tino Martinez sent a line-drive single to left-center field and scored another two runners, putting the Yankees up 3-0 after the first inning.
The Yankees had Orlando “El Duque” Hernández on the mound, and the veteran worked through his first inning without any issues before the Bombers added more runs on the scoreboard. After a Scott Brosius groundout to lead off the inning, the Yankees collected three straight singles from Clay Bellinger, Jeter, and Sojo, scoring another run and putting New York up 4-0.
El Duque worked through the bottom of the second easily as well, giving way for the Yankees offense to continue to add to their early total on the scoreboard, which they did via a José Canseco leadoff home run and a Jorge Posada double, with the run coming from Martinez after his walk against Mulder. Following the Posada double, Mulder was pulled in favor of Omar Olivares, who gave up a wild pitch but didn’t allow a baserunner following the change.
Eric Chavez hit a two-run home run to right-center field following a Matt Stairs leadoff walk, putting the contest at a four-run deficit, but the Yankees didn’t let that stay the same in the top of the fifth inning, when their offense added three more runs. After a leadoff flyball out, Posada walked against Olivares, bringing up Brosius, who promptly singled to right field and put the Yankee catcher in scoring position. Bellinger then tripled, bringing Posada and Brosius in to score and setting up the leadoff hitter Jeter to knock in an extra run. The future captain obliged, sending a sacrifice fly into center field to score Bellinger.
El Duque pitched through the seventh inning, and in that time, the Yankees and Athletics both added an extra run, with the score being 10-3 following Hernández’s 11-strikeout gem. Jeff Nelson took over for El Duque following his start, and despite a couple of bumps in the road, he did not allow a run scored.
However, the Athletics did make things interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning. After Jason Isringhausen put down the Yankees in order in the top of the ninth, Mike Stanton replaced Nelson in the bottom of the ninth to close out the game. A leadoff double by Chavez put a man in scoring position for the Athletics. but a strikeout looking by Ramón Hernández put the A’s down an out with Terrence Long up to bat. Long singled to left field, and Frank Menechino stepped up and demolished a 2-0 pitch over the Coliseum fence. Suddenly, the Yanks were only up four.
Stanton let two of the next three batters get on base, and Mariano Rivera took over to get the final out, which he did with Miguel Tejada sending a pop-up to second base to end the game.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
