The most bizarre of seasons came to en end for the Yankees, as they lost the fifth game of the ALDS to Tampa on October 9, 2020. Gerrit Cole pitched brilliantly for New York, not allowing a hit until Austin Meadows homered leading off the fifth, wiping out the 1-0 lead the Yanks had built on Aaron Judge‘s home run in the fourth. The game was tight, and stayed that way, until Mike Brosseau beat Aroldis Chapman in a 10-pitch at bat in the eighth, homering to forge the 2-1 final score. Continue reading →
The Yanks evened up their 2020 ALDS with Tampa at two games apiece on October 8, 5-1. Jordan Montgomery went four innings in this one, but relievers Chad Green, Zack Britton, and Aroldid Chapam finished up. Contributing to the Yankee offense were Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres with home runs. Continue reading →
The 2009 Yankee postseason got off to a great start on October 7, with the Captain and the ace leading the way. Once the Twins reached CC Sabathia for two third-inning runs on three singles, a double play, and a passed ball, Derek Jeter equaled matters almost immediately with a two-run home run following an earlier single, then walked twice and scored two more runs in the 7-2 Yankee win in Yankee Stadium. CC struck out eight pitching into the seventh, and Hideki Matsui got his superb postseason going with a two-run jack of his own. The Wednesday evening game got off on a surprisingly early 6:07 pm first pitch. Continue reading →
For many, it is the Thurman Munson performance they remember most, as the gutty Yankee catcher’s two-run eighth-inning homer trumped the three by George Brett and the Yanks fashioned a 6-5 win and a 2-1 lead in games over the Royals in the 1978 ALCS on October 6. Continue reading →
Although it was long balls by Yankees Clint Frazier, Aaron Judge, and Kyle Higashioka that had the Yankees up 4-3 in Game One of the ALDS vs Tampa in Petco Park on October 5, 2020, fans walked away talking about the terrific postseason Giancarlo Stanton was having, as his ninth-inning grand slam forged the 9-3 final score. Gerrit Cole struck out eight in going seven innings for the win. Lefty Shane McClanahan made his major league debut finishing up the Yankee ninth for Tampa, while Luis Cessa closed for the Yanks. Continue reading →
Fans looking forward from the 2018 season might be surprised to see who the offensive star of the Yanks’s Game 1 2019 ALDS 10-4 victory on October 4 over visiting Minnesota was, but not anyone looking back from 2020. Playing first base, DJ LeMahieu went 3-for-4, scored two times, and drove in four runs. Starter James Paxton was lifted once the Twins tied the game 3-3 in the fifth, but rallies of two, two, then three runs in the next three frames put this one away. Oddly, perhaps, usual starter JA Happ pitched a clean ninth inning around a walk to close it. Continue reading →
Righty Luis Severino was powerful through four innings in a 7-2 Wild Card victory over visiting Oakland on October 3, 2018, but he was wild, issuing five walks in that time. Liam Hendriks, serving as an Opener, allowed two runs on an Aaron Judge home run in the first. The Yankees put the game out of reach on a four-run sixth, built primarily on doubles from Judge, Aaron Hicks, and Luke Voit. Continue reading →
Bucky Dent in Fenway Park says it all. The Yanks prevailed in the one-game playoff for the 1978 AL Pennant, 5-4 on October 2. Ron Guidry went to 25-3 with the win, besting Mike Torrez. Reggie Jackson homered as well, and Goose Gossage got the save when Graig Nettles caught Carl Yastrzemski‘s popup. Continue reading →
It sounds memorable enough to simply call it the 240th home run of the Yankees’ record-breaking 1961 season. But it was “61 in 61,” and the greatest significance of Roger Maris‘s 61st home run of that season off Boston’s Tracy Stallard on October 1 was that it finally put an end to the Yankee right fielder’s tortured race to surpass Babe Ruth‘s 1927 record. And it was “big” in another way too, the only score in a 1-0 Yankee win. All these many years later, with contested numbers, the number is bigger than ever. Continue reading →
Babe Ruth gets top billing in a September 30 Yankee history column. He stroked legendary home run no. 60 off Tom Zachary this day in 1927, breaking a 2-2 tie with the Senators and carrying the Yankees to a 4-2 victory. Amazingly, the game also featured the last appearance of early-century pitching phenom Walter Johnson, winner of 417 career games. Johnson pinch-hit for Zachary and flied out to Ruth. Continue reading →
