The Yankees entered this one having split the first two games of their series with the Seattle Mariners, who led the American League West and loomed as a possible playoff opponent. For the rubber game, New York sent venerable right-hander David Cone to the mound. Coney, for anyone who’s been reading along with this Diary or who remembers the 2000 season, was in the midst of a nightmare campaign.
But on this night, he channeled some vintage Cone, holding a powerful Mariners lineup down through five-plus
innings. The offense did its part, giving the pitching staff five runs to work with. After Cone departed, the bullpen took over. Seattle stormed back and could easily have won this game on a couple of occasions. But the ‘pen did just enough to get the 27th out with the lead intact.
August 30th: Yankees 5, Mariners 4 (box score)
Record: 74-56, .569 (5 GA)
The top of the first was emblematic of the Yankee offense writ large in this one. They scored runs. But it wasn’t pretty. With one out in the frame, Jorge Posada doubled. The Yankee backstop advanced to third on a wild pitch. Then, Paul O’Neill brought him home with a sacrifice fly. No bombs from the Bronx Bombers on this night. Instead, small ball was the order of the day.
The potent Seattle offense had traffic on the bases in each of the first three frames. But the wily Cone escaped jam after jam, keeping the Mariners off the scoreboard and giving his bats time to fortify that tenuous 1-0 lead.
Finally, in the top of the fourth, the Yanks gave themselves some breathing room. The first five Bombers to come to the plate in the frame all reached base. Tino Martinez, with an RBI double, and Luis Sojo, with a two-run double, provided the big hits. Seattle starter Aaron Sele eventually recovered but, by the time he did, New York led 4-0
Seattle finally broke through in the home fifth with a lone run. But Coney limited the damage and returned for the sixth inning. After recording two outs, he gave up a single and that was enough for skipper Joe Torre to come collect his starter. It was only the fourth time all season Coney had thrown at least 5.2 innings with one or fewer runs allowed. As I said above, this was a tough campaign for Cone.
In the bottom of the seventh, still trailing by three runs, Mike Cameron came to the plate for Seattle facing Dwight Gooden with the bases loaded and two out. Cameron unloaded on Gooden and for a moment, it looked like the Mariners had taken the lead with one swing of the bat. But the ball died on the warning track and Gooden returned to the dugout having held the lead.
New York put one final run on the board in the top of the eighth via a groundball double play with runners on the corners and no one out. But considering the next three men all reached base, it’s easy to wonder what could have been with that inning.
Now with a four-run lead, Gooden came back out for the eighth. This time, he did not escape unscathed. A two-run Mark McLemore home run cut the lead in half, sent Gooden to the showers, and brought Mariano Rivera in for a five-out save.
After getting through the eighth with no further drama, Rivera promptly got himself in trouble in the ninth. A walk and a single brought the winning run to the dish with no one out. After striking out Al Martin, Rivera induced a groundball off the bat of Cameron that looked like it might end the game. Alas, Cameron hustled down the line, allowing future Yankee Alex Rodriguez to score, making it a 5-4 game. Rivera, unsurprisingly, didn’t panic. He managed to get another groundball, this time off the bat of future Yankee playoff hero Raúl Ibañez for the 27th and final out.
That one went from pretty comfortable to white-knuckle time in rather short order. Luckily for the Yanks, Seattle couldn’t quite manage the big hit that might have propelled them to victory. The Yanks won the rubber match, stayed five games up in the division, and brought their West Coast road trip to an end on a positive note. I assume the flight back to New York was a happy one.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
