Effective for some time in the wake of failures from closer Aroldis Chapman, Clay Holmes had a stinker in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Reds on July 12, 2022. With the Yanks up 3-0 on masterful work by Gerrit Cole, with a good eighth inning by Michael King, Holmes, and later Wandy Peralta, allowed a walk, three singles, a fielder’s choice grounder, and two hit by pitches in a four-run ninth-inning Cincinnati rally. Continue reading →
Fans throughout Yankee land were devastated on July 11, 2010, with the disheartening news none of us wanted to hear. The one and only Bob Sheppard, the “Voice of God,” who had served as Yankee Stadium emcee since Mickey Mantle‘s rookie season in 1951, had passed away. Mr. Sheppard, and all of us who loved him and craved hearing his voice so dearly, were bitterly disappointed that he was not healthy enough to appear in the old Stadium’s final season, although video messages from him during the Baseball Cathedral’s last game were a true treasure. We all hoped he would some day christen the new stadium with his voice as well, but that was not to be. It was the beginning of a very bad week in Yankee land. Continue reading →
It was a true rarity on July 10, 2011, when James Shields of the Rays and Yankee CC Sabathia traded four-hitters and complete games in a 1-0 Yankee win, with the run scored on an error. They each allowed one walk, and CC struck out nine to just five for Shields. But when Shields threw wildly trying to pick Robinson Cano off third in the seventh inning, the only run of the game scored. Continue reading →
Hit No. 2,999, a single to left, led off the bottom of the first, and history came two innings later as Derek Jeter powered David Price‘s seventh pitch over the wall in left center for a 2-2 tie in the game, and history, the Yankee Captain’s 3000th career hit. Amazingly, once he scored after his fifth-inning double (No. 3,001), he tied the score again. Although it was followed by a double steal, hit No. 3,002, a sixth-inning single, went for naught, but when he went 5-for-5 on this record-setting day with a single (No. 3,003) in the eighth, he drove in the winning run in a 5-4 Yankee victory over Tampa Bay on July 9, 2011. Continue reading →
It was Clint Frazier‘s biggest 2017 day when his three-run ninth-inning jack walked off the visiting Brewers 5-3 on July 8. With the Yanks struggling to recover from Domingo Santana‘s three-run homer off Luis Severino in the first all game, the first breakthrough was Clint’s rbi double in the two-run Yankee seventh. Sevy went seven, and Dellin Betances and Aroldis Chapman combined to strike out five of the last six Milwaukee batters to set the stage for the Frazier heroics. Continue reading →
Coming from behind, beating the Red Sox, and the exploits of Mickey Mantle are three of my favorite things in baseball, so you know I’m delighted to report that the team went to the bottom of the ninth in a July 7, 1966, game vs. Boston losing 2-0; that the Yanks managed to tie them with two outs; and then that The Mick broke a 1-for-17 slump by blasting a three-run walk-off home run. Continue reading →
Starter Joba Chamberlain was of course not around long enough for the win in a 5-4 Yankee extra-inning victory over Boston in Yankee Stadium in the ESPN Sunday night game on July 6, 2008, but he did have some fun before leaving by throwing yet another pitch above the head of Kevin Youkilis. Alex Rodriguez homered off Tim Wakefield in this one, and Robinson Cano had a key two-run triple that tied the game in the seventh. But the star of the game award goes to Brett Gardner, who got the start in center in place of Johnny Damon, who was placed on the 15-day DL with a strained left shoulder earlier that day. The speedy rookie singled and scored in the sixth, and drove in Cano with the game winner in the bottom of the tenth. Astronaut and Yankee fan Garrett Reisman, who in April had thrown out the first pitch in a Stadium game from the International Space Station, threw out the first pitch in person this day, having returned to Earth in the interim. He also moved the games counter down to 34, following Elston Howard‘s granddaughter, who had moved it down the day before. The Yanks recalled outfielder Justin Christian from AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to fill Damon’s spot. Continue reading →
The inside-the-park homer, a grand slam, that Lou Gehrig hit on July 5, 1934, was the big blow in the Yanks’ 8-3 win over the Senators. It was the 17th of the Iron Horse’s career-record 23 grand slams, a record that would not be matched for more than 70 years, until Alex Rodriguez tied it in 2012. Continue reading →
“I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” More recent achievements on the Yankees field of battle notwithstanding, the day in 1939 that Lou Gehrig addressed a full house in the Baseball Cathedral, and became the first ballplayer to have his number (No. 4) retired, will always be the biggest moment in July 4 Yankee baseball history. It is a rarely reported side note that on the day the Yanks split two games, falling 3-2, but rebounding strongly to blast Washington 11-1 in the nightcap. Continue reading →
Fans expected an explosive night after the game in which the Yankees hosted the Orioles on July 3, 2023, as it had been billed as Fireworks Night. And the postgame display was epic. But they also had to wait a bit for lightning to strike on the field too, as five of the team’s runs scored in the 6-3 win came via back-to-back singleton homers by Anthony Volpe and Kyle Higashioka in the fifth, and Harrison Bader‘s three-run jolt in the eighth. Continue reading →
