When you were watching the late-‘90s/early-‘00s era Yankees dynasty teams, every game you went to or turned on the television for felt like it was going to be a win. However, that’s not how baseball works at all. Even the 1998 team lost 50 games between the regular season and playoffs.
On this day 25 years ago, the Yankees really did not win.
Record: 59-47 (3.5 GA in AL East)
Orlando Hernández got the start for the Yankees on the mound, making his first appearance since returning from an injury, but this would not be his finest day. One-time Yankee up-and-comer Stan Javier led off the game with a single, and future Yankee Alex Rodriguez added another two batters later. Yankee killer Edgar Martínez then brought them both home with a three-run homer to give Seattle a very quick lead.
El Duque narrowly got out of a jam in the third that featured him walking two, but he wasn’t as lucky in the fourth. Carlos Guillén led off the frame with a single, which was followed by a sacrifice bunt from current M’s manager Dan Wilson. The next three hitters all then recorded hits, scoring two more runs in the process. That would be the end of Hernández’s day, as Joe Torre went to the bullpen for the fifth. In his four innings, El Duque allowed five runs on eight hits and three walks. Only allowing five runs despite 11 baserunners was a slight win, one that the Yankees would not take advantage of.
The Yankees’ offense had put runners on against Mariners starter Paul Abbott throughout the first couple innings, but failed to cash in. However, that in conjunction with Bernie Williams leading off the bottom of the fourth with a homer made it appear that the game was far from over. Though, the rest of the Yankees’ offense then proceeded to load and then leave the bases juiced. What happened after that did leave the game out of reach.
Reliever Allan Watson came in for Hernández for the fifth inning. While he got two outs in the process, Watson loaded the bases with some wildness, walking two batters and hitting another. That came back to haunt him when a Javier single scored another two runs for the M’s. The wildness continued the following inning, as Watson walked two more batters, eventually leading to a Mike Cameron RBI single.
Jason Grimsley came in for the seventh and finally pitched the first clean inning of the day for the Yankees. He promptly allowed a couple runs in the eighth, though. He allowed a pair of two-out RBI singles to Guillén and Wilson, as Seattle cracked the double digit run mark. The M’s picked up one more run for the road thanks to a David Bell RBI single in the ninth.
What you may notice missing from all of that is much mention of the Yankees’ offense. Other than putting two runners on to lead off in both the fifth and eighth innings, they allowed Abbott to get through the rest of his day fairly cleanly. In eight innings, Abbott allowed just the one run despite seven hits and four walks. The Yankees aided him by grounding into three double plays and went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. José Paniagua finished things off with a scoreless ninth, dooming the Yankees to a blowout loss.
The 2000 Yankees had generally been playing pretty well prior to August 6th, winning 9 of their previous 13 games, so we’ll give them this one and write it off as a bad day all around.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.