After the Yankees took a commanding lead in the race for the top of the American League East—which went up all the way to nine games up on Boston on September 13th—they hit a brutal skid in the middle of September. A six-game losing streak put them only four and a half games ahead of now-second-place Toronto. But thankfully for everyone involved, the Yankees ended that streak at six. Granted, it would be only a temporary reprieve, seeing as they would go on another long losing streak to close out
the season, flirting with losing their division lead entirely.
The win 25 years ago today took some late heroics, but the Yankees’ offense came through when it mattered most against Detroit.
September 23: Yankees 13, Tigers 8 (box score)
Record: 86-67 (1st in AL East, 4.5 games ahead)
After the first inning was quiet for both starting pitchers — Roger Clemens for the Yankees and Dave Mlicki for the Tigers — the Rocket was able to work through the five, six, and seven hitters in the Detroit lineup in order in the second. Then, David Justice and Jorge Posada gave the home squad the lead with back-to-back solo home runs. A good start after a terrible week.
Damion Easley followed Justice’s lead-off solo home run in the bottom of the second with a lead-off solo home run in the top of the third, and the Yankees led 2-1 heading into the bottom of the fourth. Martinez flew out to start the inning, but two straight singles from Luis Sojo and Scott Brosius set the top of the Yankees lineup up well. Chuck Knoblauch was unable to create anything of substance, as on the third pitch of his at-bat, he sent a flyball into foul territory on the first base side for a flyout. But with two outs, Derek Jeter stepped up to the plate and came through in a key moment, scoring a run on a single up the middle, putting Brosius on third and advancing to second on the throw. Paul O’Neill followed with a single of his own in the next at-bat, bringing both of the runners home to put the Yankees up 5-1 and sending Mlicki into the dugout for the rest of the day.
However, the top of the fifth elicited as strong of a response by the Tigers. Clemens allowed a single and a walk to the first two batters before a Brad Ausmus double to right-center field scored one runner and put the other on third. José Macias was then plunked, loading the bases for Juan Encarnación, who also walked to make the score 5-3. And after two straight outs with the bases loaded, it looked like Clemens might be able to avoid any further damage, but a mistake pitch to Billy McMillon gave him the perfect opportunity to send one high into the New York sky and over the short porch for a grand slam, putting the Tigers ahead 7-5. Clemens worked the final out and then was replaced in the top of the sixth by Jeff Nelson.
Nelson left one on base in the top of the sixth following Tigers reliever Willie Blair’s one-two-three bottom of the fifth. Then, in the bottom half of the sixth inning, the Yankees punched back thanks to the top of the lineup working with the bottom of the lineup once again.
Sojo and Brosius once again worked two straight singles to bring up Knoblauch, and this time, the Yankees’ leadoff man did not miss, smoking a line drive single into center field, scoring Sojo and putting Brosius at third. Then, Jeter stepped up once again, and this time he smashed a three-run homer over the right field wall, putting the Yankees up 9-7.
The Tigers would make it a 9-8 game in the top of the seventh against Yankees reliever Mike Stanton. But that would be all the runs they would put up on the scoreboard, with New York receiving extra runs from a Bernie Williams RBI single and a Justice three-run home run for a 13-8 victory. For at least one day, the Yankees had stabilized, snapping their losing skid and looking like the championship contender that they were.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
