Although he would become a Yankee at the coming trade deadline (on July 30), Lance Lynn fell 7-4 to the Bombers pitching for visiting Minnesota on April 25, 2018. Ironically, although Didi Gregorius accounted for the first two home team runs with an rbi single and a home run, Tyler Austin, who would be shipped to the Twins for Lynn, had the big blow, a three-run jolt in the third. Sonny Gray started but failed to finish the fifth, so Chad Green collected the win. Continue reading →
Yankee ace Gerrit Cole was dominant in a 10-2 victory over visiting Cleveland in The Stadium on April 24, 2022, striking out nine while spreading four harmless singles into the seventh inning. The offense was carried early, and throughout, by two-run home runs from Anthony Rizzo, DJ LeMahieu, and Aaron Judge. Continue reading →
April 23 is an amazing day in history. Seventeen years apart in the 16th Century it was the birthday of both Miguel Cervantes (“Don Quixote”) and then William Shakespeare (all those plays and sonnets). And on April 23, 1616, those two giants of Western Literature both passed away! Continue reading →
Three of the Yankees’ runs in a 4-1 win over visiting Cleveland on April 22, 2022, came across on two Aaron Judge home runs, but this was not to be an “All Rise” Day, but rather a coronation. Relieving Jameson Taillon to start the sixth inning, Michael King would strike out eight Guardian hitters through the eighth, seven of them in a row. Continue reading →
Let’s start April 21’s highlights with a thought about that fireplug player and oftentimes Yankee manager, Billy Martin. Billy has been accused of being feisty, a disrupter, of burning out pitching staffs, of many other things. But he won often, handling several different teams. This day in 1977 he reacted to a 2-8 slump in the previous 10 games by throwing up his hands in despair and choosing the day’s lineup by drawing players’ names out of a hat. First baseman Chris Chambliss was buried in the eight hole, but he drove in five runs with two doubles and a homer in an 8-6 Yankee win. Continue reading →
On a day with plenty of Yankee exploits, the one that stands out to this Yankee fan is that April 20, 1961, is the day the beloved, the awesome, the best (perhaps?) Yankee, was born. Happy Birthday, Don Mattingly, former Yankee hitting coach and bench coach, now Marlins manager, who unfortunately departed with Joe Torre as Joe Girardi took over as manager. The Hitman stroked 222 jacks and drove in 1,099 runs from 1982-1995, all of it with the team that plays its ball in the South Bronx. Having managed the LA Dodgers for a few years, Donnie was hired as the manager in Miami in 2016. Continue reading →
Clarke Schmidt was reached for nothing but a Richie Palacios sixth-inning solo shot on April 19, 2024, but he failed to get the W in a 5-3 Yankee victory over the visiting Rays because all five home team runs came in the bottom of the seventh, a rally punctuated by a Juan Soto three-run jack. Continue reading →
Happy Birthday to us. Yankee Stadium opened this day, as the Yanks beat the Boston Red Sox 4-1 on April 18, 1923, behind the pitching of Bob Shawkey over Howard Ehmke, and on Babe Ruth‘s three-run home run. It must have been some party; 74,000-plus were in attendance. It was a particularly poignant anniversary in 2008, and was so again in 2009. Continue reading →
It’s hard to imagine a much bigger day in Yankee history than April 17, 1951. Sure, Babe Ruth certainly performed some pretty historic feats years earlier. But on this day, as the Yankees opened at home and Vic Raschi shut out the Red Sox, 5-0, Mickey Mantle played his first Yankee game, had one hit and scored a run. And if that’s not enough, it was also the debut of Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard, The Voice of God to Yankee fans. Unfortunately, we finally lost Mr. Sheppard in 2010. Continue reading →
Although DJ LeMahieu Gets props for having driven in both runs (with a hit-and-run single and a home run), the April 16, 2023 2-0 victory over visiting Minnesota on April 16, 2023, belongs solely to Yankee ace Gerrit Cole, who used 108 dominant pitches to turn in the 2-0 complete-game shutout. His eighth-inning strike out of Donovan Solano gave him 23 double-digit strike outs with the Yankees, tying him with Ron Guidry for that mark. Continue reading →
