On May 6, 2019, the Yankees jumped “King” Felix Hernandez for a 7-0 lead after three innings on Luke Voit and Thairo Estrada home runs and a Brett Gardner homer and triple. CC Sabathia went five for the win, and the Yanks held on for a 7-3 win.

Going for the sweep over Houston after fans abused Jose Altuve and others from the stands continuously for three days on May 6, 2021, the diminutive Altuve turned the tables with a three-run, eighth-inning home run in a 7-4 Astros win. Leading 3-2 into that disastrous frame behind Gerrit Cole and home runs from Giancarlo Stanton and Clint Frazier, the home team experienced a rare bullpen failure by Chad Green and Lucas Luetge.

You’d never guess it from the final score, but righties Trevor Bauer of the Indians and Yankee Domingo German had a pitchers’ duel as they tossed shutout ball into the seventh on May 6, 2018. But Cleveland pounded Jonathan Holder and Chasen Shreve for four runs in the eighth, and the Yankees rallied for three behind Aaron Judge‘s double. Then the Bombers tied it in the bottom of the ninth before Gleyber Torres walked off the 7-4 win with a three-run home run.

In a game very uncharacteristic of their play in early 2016, the Yankees squeaked by visiting Boston 3-2 on May 6. Immediately down 2-0 on a David Ortiz first-inning home run, they tied it quickly on a Jacoby Ellsbury leadoff first-inning walk, followed by steals of second and third bases, and a Brian McCann rbi, then an Ellsbury rbi single in the second. Unfortunately, Ellsbury was injured trying to stretch the hit. Rick Porcello and Michael Pineda held it right there through six, and then the disappointing Aaron Hicks reached the Red Sox righty for a leadoff home run in the seventh. Ben Gamel made his major league debut replacing Dustin Ackley for defense in the eighth.

The Yankees and their home crowd were stunned on May 6, 2008, when one-time Yank David Dellucci reached setup man Joba Chamberlain for a three-run, eighth-inning home run to beat the Yanks 5-3 on a gorgeous Tuesday night in Yankee Stadium. Jason Giambi had homered off Fausto Carmona earlier, and Hideki Matsui had three hits and a walk. Three members of the NFL Super Bowl Champion New York Giants did the fifth-inning chore, moving the games-left in Yankee Stadium counter from 66 to 65.

One-time Oriole Mike Mussina defeated his former mates for the Yankees in Camden Yards on May 6, 2001, 2-1. Scott Brosius‘s singleton home run in the eighth broke up the 1-1 tie.

Darrell Rasner had one of his finest days in a 5-0 shutout of the Mariners in Yankee Stadium on May 6, 2007, as he threw into the sixth and allowed but three hits. But the day was dominated by Roger Clemens, who announced to the crowd on the Scoreboard at the seventh-inning stretch that he had signed a minor-league deal with the club, and that he would be working his way into shape to pitch in Pinstripes that season. Hideki Matsui came up with his 2,000th hit in professional baseball when he doubled and scored in the sixth inning.

David Wells had a tough one on May 6, 1998, as that was the day he imploded in Arlington, giving back almost all of a quick Yankee 9-0 lead. The Rangers eventually tied the game at 13 in the sixth, but Jorge Posada drove in the tiebreaker in a 15-13 Yankee win. Derek Jeter‘s four hits included a triple and a home run, good for five rbi’s, and Paul O’Neill had three hits, two runs, and two rbi’s, and also homered. Juan Gonzalez had five rbi’s for Texas, but partially via a shameless fit of pique at the official scorer, who relented and made an error a hit, giving Juan the five.

Former Yankee second baseman Willie Randolph, who served with Joe Torre as third base and bench coach, and who has subsequently managed and been fired by the Mets, pulled the hidden ball trick on Bump Wills in the first inning of a game against Texas on this day in 1978. The Rangers won the game, 9-5.

On May 6, 1962, Mickey Mantle hit home runs from both sides of the plate in a game for the ninth time in his career in an 8-0 win over Washington in the second of two. It was Jim Bouton‘s first career win. Roger Maris preceded The Mick’s first shot with one of his own. Although the Nationals won the opener, 4-2, Mantle accounted for the Yankee scoring in that contest with a portsided blast.

Yankee hurler Bob Turley shut out the Red Sox in Fenway on this day in 1955, and Mickey Mantle homered. Frank Sullivan took the loss in the 6-0 contest.

After a tautly played nine innings against the A’s in Yankee Stadium on May 6, 2005, the wheels fell off the Yankee bus in the top of the 10th. With the score tied 3-3, Mariano Rivera loaded the bases on a walk, hit by pitch, and single, but got the grounder he wanted to sure-handed Tino Martinez at first. But Martinez booted the grounder and then threw it away for a double error. Then after nailing a runner at the plate for the first out, Alex Rodriguez made an error as well, and the A’s walked off with a 6-3 win.

When future (at the time) Yankee Roger Clemens earned career victory No. 250 on May 6, 2000, in a 3-1 victory over the Orioles, he became the 39th pitcher to achieve that milestone.

Starting pitcher Anthony Young finally ended his schneid of 27 consecutive losses, most of them as a New York Met, when he got the win for the Cubs in a 10-1 beating of the Pirates on May 6, 1994. The losing streak had started exactly two years earlier.

Power-hitting Mickey Mantle gave the Yanks every opportunity to sweep two against Washington on May 6, 1964. He chipped in a tater to go with the two by Hector Lopez and one by Roger Maris to carry Jim Bouton to a 9-2 win in the first game, then drilled a three-run shot off Claude Osteen in the second contest to give the Yanks a 4-0 lead. The Senators, however, came back for a 5-4 win and a split.

Kerry Wood of the Cubs matched Roger Clemens‘s record 20 strike outs (set twice) on this day in 1998, in a one-hitter over the Astros.

Legendary Tiger Hank Greenberg‘s induction into the army in 1941 came one day too late for the Yankees’ taste. He homered twice in a 7-4 Detroit victory over the Yanks on May 6, the day before he reported for duty. In each case, he went back-to-back with Bruce Campbell.

Submarining righty Carl Mays pitched the Yankees to a 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia A’s on May 6, 1922. He allowed just two hits, both to Bing Miller, and faced only 29 batters in the complete-game win. It was Mays’s 19th straight win against the A’s.

In a 5-0 loss to the Red Sox on May 6, 1945, the Yankees fell to righthander Boo Ferriss, who was tossing his second consecutive shutout.

The Yankees got the best of both sides of the legend on this day in 1915. The Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, blasted his first career home run off Yankee Hank Borowy in the third inning in the Polo Grounds as he pitched for the Sox. But despite the Babe’s two other hits, the home-standing Yanks beat him 4-3 in 13 innings. The Sox made four errors to hand the win to Cy Pieh.

There is a reason that the man who was the best DH in the American League for almost a decade filled that role. Playing third base on this day in 1990, Edgar Martinez tied Yankee Mike Blowers by making four errors in a game. Blowers had set the mark three days earlier.

Gaylord Perry chose the Yankees as victims in his 300th win, as he bested Doyle Alexander 7-3 on May 6, 1982. Alexander took the loss in more ways than one, as he broke a knuckle on his pitching hand punching the dugout wall after allowing five tallies in the third.

On May 6, 2021, the Yankees signed free agent shortstop Keiner Delgado to a minor league contract.

On May 6, 2019, the Yankees optioned lefthander Stephen Tarpley to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders; and sent center fielder Aaron Hicks on a rehab assignment to the Tampa Tarpons. And the team activated outfielder Clint Frazier from the 10-day injured list.

On March 6, 2016, the Yankees placed lefthander CC Sabathia on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to May 5, with a strained left groin. To take his spot on the 25-man roster, the club selected the contract of southpaw Phil Coke from the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. And the Yankees also signed free agent righthander David Kubiak to a minor league contract.

On May 6, 2015, infielders Gregorio Petit and Jose Pirela had their roster status changed by the Yankees.

Although baseball is supposedly a team game, it would be hard to tell that from the game the Giants played on May 6, 1953, as they tied the major league record by playing nine innings and recording only one assist.

The Yanks picked up a Diamond in the Rough on this day in 1930 as they traded for Red Ruffing from the Red Sox. Red had a career 39-96 mark when he arrived in the Bronx, but would post a 221-124 record over the next 16 years, and throw in a 7-2 World Series mark. As reported two days ago on Red’s birthday, the Hall of Famer would notch 42 of his 48 career shutouts with the Yanks; he was enshrined with a plaque in Monument Park in 2004, on which he is credited with leading all Yankee righties in total victories.

The Yankees turned their first-ever triple play on May 6, 1911, in a 6-3 win over the Red Sox.

The bad Yankee news on righthander Michael Pineda, who had been suspended a short time earlier for using pinetar applied to his neck while pitching in a game in Fenway Park, got worse, as he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a right shoulder muscle injury on May 6, 2014. Pineda, who would be out for most of the year, had his roster spot filled as the club activated shortstop Brendan Ryan from the 15-day disabled list.

The most significant of several roster moves the Yankees made on May 6, 2011, was that they placed third baseman Eric Chavez on the 15-day disabled list, with a broken left foot, unexpectedly suffered when he was running the bases. The club also designated utility player Kevin Russo for assignment; claimed righthander Jess Todd off waivers from Cleveland, and optioned him to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre; and recalled infielder Ramiro Pena from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to fill Chavez’s spot on the 25-man roster.

Yankee fans were thrilled when Steve Trachsel of the Devil Rays beat Pedro Martinez and the Red Sox 1-0 on May 6, 2000, but they would not be as delighted five days later when Trachsel pitched in Yankee Stadium. Stay tuned.

Fans up in arms over the Yanks constantly sending prospects to other clubs should be aware that it was in the team’s profile long before George Steinbrenner saved the team from the moribund ownership of CBS. Outfielder Bob Seeds of the International League Newark Bears, a Yankee farm, hit home runs in four successive innings, driving in 12 against Buffalo, on May 6, 1938. He would blast three more the next day, for a two-day total of seven round-trippers, 17 rbi’s and 30 total bases. Then the Yankees sold his contract to the Giants in June.

Bobby Shantz‘s big-league debut stands proudly among noteworthy outings by future or former Yankee players that happened on May 6. Pitching for the A’s, Shantz threw nine hitless innings in a 5-4 win in 13 innings over the Tigers on this day in 1949. And playing for the Tigers, Cecil Fielder clubbed three home runs in an 11-7 loss to Toronto on May 6, 1990.

 
Players Who Have Died This Day

The first two Yankee players who have died on May 6 could have formed a battery, one pitcher and one catcher. Righthander Lee Stine (2005) finished up with four games (no starts) for the 1938 club, for whom he had no record. Stine had gone 3-8 with two saves for the White Sox and the Reds from 1934-1936. Catcher Joe Glenn (1985) debuted with the Yanks, and he hit one home run with 56 rbi’s in 138 games between 1932 and 1938. His numbers grew to five and 89 after playing with the Browns in 1939 and the Red Sox in 1940. Lefthander Paul Doyle (2020) never played for the Yankees, but he spent the 1960 season with the organization before being drafted off the roster by the Giants that November. He posted a 5-3 record with 11 saves in 87 games, all in relief, between 1969 and 1972, with the Angels, the Braves, and the Padres.

Vida Blue SH/TL 209-161-2 in 502 G 473 GS 1969-1077 A’s 1978-1981, 1985-86 SFG 1982-1983 KCR

The other three noteworthy players who have died on May 6 were all righthanded pitchers. Kirby Higbe (1985) won 118, lost 101, and saved 24 before and after World War II, playing mostly with the Dodgers, the Cubs, the Pirates, the Giants, and the Phillies from 1937-1950. Art Houtteman (2003) went 87-91 with 20 saves from 1945-1957, mostly with Detroit and Cleveland; and Vern Bickford (1960) won 66, lost 57, and saved two from 1948-1953, almost all of it with the Braves.

 
Players Born This Day

Three Yankees from yesteryear were born on May 6, however. All Star outfielder (with the Tigers) Dick Wakefield (1921) made three pinch hitting appearances with the 1950 Yanks, going 1-for-2 in two official at bats. The Yanks shipped Dick Kryhoski to Detroit for him in December 1949. Wakefield had been an All Star outfielder with the Tigers from 1941-1949.

Righthander Ivy Andrews (1907) went 8-6 with two saves for the Yanks during five years in the thirties. The Bombers traded him with Hank Johnson and cash to the Red Sox for Danny MacFayden in June 1932, and subsequently repurchased his contract from Cleveland in August 1937.

Finally, infielder Lute Boone (1890) hit six homers and collected 73 rbi’s for New York from 1913-1916, and played with Pittsburgh in 1918, but only long enough to add three rbi’s to his career total.

Other birthdays: Today’s first nonYankee birthday belongs to the one and only “Say Hey Kid,” Willie Mays, who was born on May 6, 1931. The Hall of Famer crushed 660 home runs with 1,903 rbi’s in his career. Other birthdaying players: Bill Hands (1940), who posted most of his 111-110 career record with the Cubs from 1965-1975; Larry Andersen (1953), most famed for the hugely one-sided trade the Red Sox made in getting him for the 1990 stretch run for future All Star and Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell on August 30, 1990; Tom Bolton (1962); Phil Clark (1968); Israel (Izzy) Alcantara (1971); Mike Kinkade (1973); Dustin Nippert (1981); Matt Langwell (1986); Gerardo Parra (1987); Jose Alvarez (1989); Jose Altuve (1990); Joey Meneses (1992); Mallex Smith (1993); Yohan Ramirez (1995); and Matt Thaiss (1995).