Heading into action on September 22nd, Yankees starter Denny Neagle and his agent met with the New York Yankees to discuss a possible contract extension — continuing negotiations that had begun when the Yankees had acquired
him via trade in July, which had begun with Neagle asking for $12 million for 2001. Since then, however, the left-hander faded under the bright lights of the Bronx, posting an ERA upwards of 5.00 in his first 13 starts in pinstripes. A lockdown performance down the stretch to stop the Yankees’ downward spiral and help right the ship heading into the offseason, though, could go a long way towards rewriting his Yankees story.
In the grand tradition of the September 2000 Yankees, though, Neagle continued to step on a rake.
September 22: Yankees 6, Tigers 9 (box score)
Record: 85-67 (1st in AL East, 4.5 games ahead)
It began well enough, as Neagle struck out Damion Easley, Juan Encarnación, and Dean Palmer in the top of the first, working around a two-out single off the bat of Bobby Higginson. In the second, he faced the minimum three batters, capping off the inning by fanning Wendell Magee. The third inning was a perfect inversion of the second, as he opened the frame by striking out Hal Morris, then got Brad Ausmus and Easley to fly out. And in the fourth, Palmer got caught stealing to erase Detroit’s first baserunner since the fourth.
Unfortunately for the Yankees, Detroit starter Hideo Nomo matched him inning for inning. He fanned Chuck Knoblauch, Paul O’Neill, and Bernie Williams in the first, Jorge Posada and Tino Martinez in the second, and José Vizcaíno, O’Neill, and David Justice in the third, and then retired the side in the fourth.
After four innings of futility, both offenses scratched across a pair of runs in the fifth. Billy McMillon worked a walk after a seven-pitch at-bat, and Deivi Cruz deposited the second pitch he saw into the left field seats. In the bottom half of the inning, Jeter sandwiched a single around Knoblauch and Williams walks to load the bases with two outs, and Justice grounded a single through the right side that plated Knoblauch and Jeter to knot things up at two apiece.
Bailed out by his offense, Neagle proceeded to hand the game right back to Detroit in the sixth. Easley led off the inning with a bunt single down the third-base line. After Encarnación flew out to center for the first out, Higginson singled and Palmer walked, loading the bases. Neagle’s first pitch to McMillon went over the batter’s head, scoring Easley. He then reloaded the bases by walking McMillon, prompting manager Joe Torre to hand the game over to the bullpen. Jason Grimsley, however, wasn’t any better. Cruz lined a single up the middle that scored one, Rich Becker (pinch hitting for Magee) drove in another on a groundout to first base, and Hal Morris brought in two on a double. When Ausmus grounded out to end the inning, nine batters had come to the plate, and the Tigers had themselves a five-run lead.
After a quiet sixth, the Yankees began to battle back in the seventh. Knoblauch led off the inning, finally chasing Nomo from the ballgame. Jeter then lined a double down the left field line, putting runners on second and third with nobody out. An O’Neill sacrifice fly brought in Knoblauch, and a Bernie single plated Jeter, to bring the Yankees back within three. Unfortunately, both Justice and Posada grounded into fielders’ choices — the latter robbed of a hit by a diving José Macias — to end the Yankees’ rally.
Following a quiet eighth, Detroit got two runs back, putting together a rally off Mike Stanton, Jeff Nelson, Ted Lilly, and Jay Tessmer that included three singles, a fielder’s choice, a wild pitch, and a defensive indifference. Because of this, the Yankees’ rally in the bottom of the ninth proved too be far too little, far too late; rather than pulling them within one, Williams’ RBI double and Justice’s RBI single simple brought the final score to 9-6.
Thanks to Tampa Bay’s victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Yankees did not lose any games in the standings, and at least publicly, they were not yet hitting the panic button. However, while a postseason appearance didn’t seem in doubt, the reality was that the Yankees simply looked lost. For the first time since September 1997, the Yankees lost six games in a row. They had dropped eight of their previous nine. They were outscored by 44 runs in that span, and had not held a lead in over a week.
That’s not how you want to enter October.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
