Last weekend, the Yankees were out in Los Angeles playing the Dodgers in a rematch of the 2024 World Series. Both that three-game set and — famously — last year’s Fall Classic did not go ideally for the Yankees.
That and my post Wednesday as part of our ongoing 2000 Yankees Diary series got me thinking about something. Said post was about the Yankees game that happened on June 4, 2000, when the Yankees took on the Braves in another game that was a rematch of the previous year’s World Series.
Regular season rematches of the previous World Series are something that have only become possible in recent years. Interleague play only began in 1997, and until recently, teams faced just one division per year (and perhaps one consistent interleague rival, like the Mets with the Yankees). That meant it was often just random luck if the two World Series teams were scheduled against each other for the following season.
However one year where the two teams did meet again the year after their World Series matchup was in 1997, the very first year of interleague play. The Yankees were involved in the matchup against the Atlanta Braves, and it ended up being quite the contest. The 2000 Yanks were off on this day 25 years ago, so we’ll take the occasion to remember this ‘97 showdown.
A little more than eight months after Charlie Hayes caught the final out of the 1996 World Series, the Yankees welcomed the Braves back to the Bronx on June 30, 1997. Andy Pettitte and Tom Glavine were on the mound that day, having respectively pitched in Game 3 and Game 5 the previous year, both of which ended up being crucial Yankees’ victories. Both came out firing as the two teams renewed their hostilities.
While both teams put some runners on base, through five innings, Pettitte had allowed three hits, all of which were singles, with none of the runners making it past first base. His ever-dangerous pickoff move snared one of them, as Tony Graffanino got caught in the third.
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Meanwhile, the Yankees had gotten Glavine for four singles and two walks, but three double plays and a caught stealing from Derek Jeter combined to keep the Yankees from taking advantage.
However, one of the hits off Pettitte had the potential to wreak havoc on the matchup. In the fifth, Braves’ catcher Javy López lined a pitch back up the middle, and it hit off Pettitte’s calf. While the Yankees’ starter wouldn’t end up missing any time, it did knock him out for the day, as Pettitte wouldn’t return for the sixth inning. So in came Kenny Rogers from the bullpen.
Rogers’ stint with the Yankees infamously wasn’t great, and 1997 was the worst of it. Signed to a four-year deal prior to ‘96, Rogers was exiled to the bullpen by mid-June of ‘97 with a 6.10 ERA. However, this particular day was a high point. While he walked four hitters, Rogers came in and threw four crucial scoreless innings for the Bombers, exacting some measure of revenge for his implosion in World Series Game 4 at Fulton County Stadium.
The issue was that the Yankees’ offense couldn’t break through against Glavine. Despite putting runners on in literally every inning and picking up eight hits, the future Hall of Famer managed to get through nine innings without allowing a run. The Yankees managed to hit into five separate double plays on the game, and they would finish it with eight runners left on base in total.
The game drifted into extra innings, and Mike Stanton came in for the 10th to face the team that drafted him for the first time in his career. While the lefty allowed a pair of runners to reach with two outs, he got Chipper Jones to ground out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees finally managed to see the back of Glavine, as Bobby Cox went to Mike Bielecki. Bielecki managed to overcome Jones making an error on what should’ve been a foul out and struck out Mark Whiten. The Yankees then gave Atlanta a huge break when after Chad Curtis singled, he was thrown out trying to go from first to third on a Joe Girardi single.
However, Jeter added a single to bring Luis Sojo to the plate. In what would go down as his best career hitting season as a member of the Yankees, Sojo delivered, sending a bouncing single up the middle. A good through might’ve been able to get Girardi at the plate, but it was offline, and the catcher slid home safely for a Yankees’ walk-off win.
Alas, for as great a battle as it was, the two defending league champions would fall short in ‘97. Both were eliminated by World Series teams, as the Yanks infamously fell to Sandy Alomar Jr. and Cleveland in the ALDS, while the 101-win Braves were upset by the Wild Card-winning Marlins in the NLCS.
In the years and decades since then, World Series have faced off again the next year several times. With the way MLB does the schedules currently, it’s guaranteed. However, 28 years ago, it was a novel event, and the game delivered.
References
New York Times, July 1, 1997