September 2000 was a strange time for the Yankees. Even though they were losing seemingly every night, they also were slowly drawing closer to an AL East title, with neither the Blue Jays nor Red Sox were charging
hard enough to make the division race a sweat. Yet despite the club closing in on its goal of yet another division crown, doubts were emerging left and right about the constitution of the team. They were discovering new ways to lose, and new question marks were popping up regarding the potential construction of the postseason roster.
One more heart-breaking loss, this one in Tampa, did not make the answers to those questions any easier to find.
September 23: Yankees 2, Devil Rays 1 (box score)
Record: 87-69 (1st in AL East, 5.5 games ahead)
The Yankees entered this Tuesday night matchup with their AL East magic number at two, and during the course of the contest, the Blue Jays lost to Baltimore. New York knew that clinching the division was possible at the beginning of the evening, and by the end, they were aware that one victory over the last-place Devil Rays would finish the job.
Which made a game full of missed opportunities that much more frustrating. Facing Albie Lopez, a veteran swingman who’d allowed 21 runs over his last three appearances, the Yankees could not crack the scoreboard despite a number of chances to do so. In the first, the Yankees had three batters reach but didn’t score, thanks to Chuck Knoblauch getting cut down at the plate on a grounder to first. In the fifth, two men were left on when Lopez struck out both Knoblauch and Derek Jeter. In the sixth, New York loaded the bases against Lopez, only for Scott Brosius to strike out looking to leave them all stranded.
And in the eighth, they had Lopez on the ropes, the right-hander well past the 100-pitch mark and allowing a single and double to open the frame. David Justice then ripped a line drive to right, but right at Jose Guillen, who made the catch and fired home. Guillen’s throw was fairly weak but on line, and it beat Paul O’Neill to the plate for a double play:
That was the Yankees’ best chance to really damage Lopez, and it was gone in an instant. Still, they remained in the game thanks to superlative work from Orlando Hernandez, who was putting together a strong finish to his campaign. El Duque gave up just two hits and one walk over eight brilliant innings, striking out six. His one blemish came in the sixth, a two-out solo homer from Gerald Williams giving the Devil Rays a narrow 1-0 lead.
The excellence from the starting pitchers brought a tight game to the ninth. Leading off, Jorge Posada gave the Yankees the spark they seemingly needed, taking the very first pitch he saw from closer Roberto Hernández deep to center for a game-tying home run:
Suddenly, the Yankees were oh-so-close. If their bullpen could just hold against a poor Tampa Bay lineup, they would be AL East champions, in spite of the carnage of the previous couple weeks. But that window slammed shut almost as soon as it creaked open. Joe Torre went to Mike Stanton for the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, and Stanton committed the cardinal sin of issuing a leadoff walk. A sac bunt and intentional walk put runners on first and second, before a forceout at first moved the runners over.
With two down and the winning run 90 feet away, the future Hall-of-Famer Fred McGriff grounded one through the hole on the right side, keeping the Yankees’ champagne on ice:
Denied a celebration, questions lingered about the depth on the Yankee roster. Torre didn’t seem to know where to turn beyond his top arms; anyone not named Hernández, Clemens, Pettitte, or Rivera appeared liable to blow up at any moment. The day before, it had been Dwight Gooden, David Cone, and Jason Grimsley getting rocked. On this night, it was Stanton who couldn’t hold the lead. ‘They don’t have anywhere near the kind of depth they had the last few years”, a rival scout told the New York Times’ Buster Olney 25 years ago.
If there was a silver lining, it was that the Yankees’ strong work earlier in the year still had them just one game away from cinching a playoff spot. But the bad news remained obvious, with the roster flatlining at the worst time. The number-one seed in the AL, so attainable at the beginning of the month, was out of reach, and now, even home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs was slipping away. A title defense that looked so solid over the summer was showing deeper and deeper cracks.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
