When Brian Cashman dealt for Denny Neagle in July of 2000, the Yankees felt they had imported an ace. The veteran lefty was in the midst of a great season in Cincinnati, and when he arrived in New York, he immediately impressed, pitching eight innings in his first start and a complete game in his second.
But Neagle suddenly started to struggle after that auspicious beginning. He gave up 21 runs over his next four starts, then rebounded with 6.2 shutout innings his most recent time out. Neagle’s ups
and downs were confounding, and he did nothing to ease the tension in a tough loss on this day 25 years ago.
August 22: Yankees 4, Rangers 5 (box score)
Record: 68-54 (3 GA in AL East)
Neagle’s outing initially looked as though it would be a complete disaster, with everything that could go wrong going wrong in the first. The dangerous Rafael Palmeiro strode to the plate with two on and lofted one to center field. Clay Bellinger, filling in for Bernie Williams, misplayed the ball, coming in on it but letting the ball drop and then skip past him to the wall:
Gabe Kapler followed with a line drive to left field that he stretched into a double, and then scored when former Yankee Ricky Ledée singled next. In a flash, it was 4-0 Rangers.
That’s how the score would remain for some time. Left fielder Luis Polonia doubled to lead off the first for New York, but Texas starter Rick Helling stranded him there and would retire the next 17 Yankees consecutively. Though Neagle settled down impressively after his rocky start, the Rangers still led by four with two outs and no one on in the sixth.
The Yankees would roar to life there. Polonia hit a solo shot to break up Helling’s streak, and Derek Jeter walked to bring up Paul O’Neill. Helling laid a high 1-1 fastball over the plate, and O’Neill lined an absolute bullet into the right-field seats, and it was a 4-3 game:
Helling would stay on for the bottom of the seventh, and the Yankees tagged him again. Tino Martinez led off with a double, and Luis Sojo followed with a line drive into the gap in right-center to tie the game. Helling continued on and issued a pair of two-out walks to load the bases, finally giving way to Tim Crabtree. Crabtree got to a full count on Jeter, who swung through a 3-2 fastball to leave the bases juiced.
The game would swing in those moments between the bottom of the seventh and the top of the eighth. After getting hit around in the first, Neagle had recovered to shut the Rangers out over the next six innings. It was the kind of quietly impressive start that is rare these days but was almost a badge of honor in a previous era, one that saw a starter fall behind early but still gut his way through six or seven innings. Having survived seven frames and thrown 119 pitches, Neagle’s day figured to be done.
But with the lefty Palmeiro due to lead off the eighth, Joe Torre got a little greedy. He sent Neagle out there to face the Rangers’ top hitter, and Neagle fell behind 2-0. Neagle challenged Palmeiro with a fastball in a hitter’s count, and Palmeiro made him pay:
Palmeiro’s 32nd of the year made it 5-4, and the Yankees would not rally from this deficit. Neagle exited, a strange outing come undone right at the end. Jeff Nelson worked a scoreless eighth, and Mariano Rivera the ninth, but the Yankees went down quietly against the Rangers’ bullpen, John Wetteland securing the save with a perfect ninth.
The twin decisions in the eighth, by Torre and Neagle, loomed large. Torre let the Rangers’ best player see his starter a fourth time 120 pitches deep, and Neagle gave in to Palmeiro and gave him a pitch to hit at the worst time. Though the Yankees still led the AL East, the Red Sox were within three games, and mistakes such as those stung with the division race still in the balance.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
