After a much-needed comeback victory to open their series against the Athletics, the Yankees followed by opening the floodgates 25 years ago. Entering this game, the Yanks were fresh off a rebound against the Athletics, who had been playing good baseball and had a strong hold on the American League’s Wild Card berth.
With Andy Pettitte tossing a workin’ man’s gem, and the bats lighting up the scoreboard with a double-digit run count, the Bombers took home an easy one.
August 9: Yankees 12, Athletics 1 (box score)
Record: 61-48 (4.5 GA in the AL East)
With the Yankees going up against Kevin Appier for Oakland, things were quiet on both sides for most of the first two innings. Jorge Posada changed that in the bottom of the second, when he put the Yankees on the board with a solo homer deep into right field. An inning later, they really began to separate themselves.
Luis Polonia led the inning off with a double the snuck under the glove of a diving Terrence Long in center, before Derek Jeter was hit by a pitch. Appier then issued back-to-back free passes to Bernie Williams and David Justice, with the latter pushing Polonia across to score and put New York up 2-0. Unsatisfied with just the one run, Tino Martinez delivered the big blow, belting a grand slam into the right field seats, his 11th long ball on the year. The salami job put the Yanks up 6-0 and effectively had them in cruise control the rest of the way.
With the already comfortable lead in tow, the Yankees piled on in the next inning. A Williams double and another walk to Justice had them in prime position with two outs, before Tino continued his huge night with a run-scoring double into right-center. Later in the frame, with the bases full of Yankees, Scott Brosius brought ‘em all home with his double down the left field line. When the dust settled in the fourth inning, the Yankees were leading this one 10-0.
While the offense was firing on all cylinders, Andy Pettitte was grinding his way through what ended up being a very good start. The left-hander completed eight innings in this one, with the Athletics scoring only once, thanks to a Sal Fasano solo homer to lead off Pettitte’s final inning of work. It was a bit of a grind at times, as he allowed seven hits and only struck out two, but he kept the run total to just one over eight innings, which any manager takes every day of the week.
After his heroics the night prior, Bernie Williams continued his big night here when he led off the sixth inning with a booming solo home run into deep center field. The blast put the Yankees up by a commanding 11 runs, and was Bernie’s 26th homer on the season. He finished this game 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and the homer, adding yet another stellar performance to his excellent season, with his OPS now sitting at 1.007 at this juncture.
With the big lead in the bank, and Pettitte cruising though the vast majority of the game, the Yankees needed only one more arm to seal the deal in this one. This time it was Allen Watson, who allowed a couple of hits in the final inning, but worked through a mostly quiet ninth inning to seal the win for the Yankees.
After dropping three straight against Seattle, the vibes were good once again for this 2000 squad, with a thrilling walk-off and a double-digit blowout keeping spirits high to being this series with Oakland. The win also kept their lead in the East at 4.5 games over the Red Sox.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.