It has to be a special highlight to top what happened on May 14, 1996, in this Yankee fan’s report, and it is, as today’s lead item is that Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run off Baltimore’s Stu Miller on this day in 1967 in a 6-5 Yankee win. With that shot, The Mick became the sixth member of the 500-home run club. Continue reading →
What is it about mid-May, the Yankees, and nine-run comebacks? Yesterday’s column included the Yanks’ rally from an 0-8 deficit to the White Sox, from which they recovered to win 9-8 on May 12, 1996. On May 13, 1985, the Yanks’ rally from 0-8 to the Minnesota Twins was crowned by Don Mattingly‘s three-run, two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth homer off former Yank Ron Davis that propelled the home team to a 9-8 victory. Continue reading →
Fans who disregard special promos featuring one player should rethink that stance once they consider the May 12, 2023, 6-5 victory over visiting Tampa. Memorialized with the Star Wars Mandelorian bobblehead before the game, Anthony Rizzo not only homered for a run in the first inning, he also went yard for two in the bottom of the eighth, eclipsing the 5-4 bulge the Rays had achieved on a Josh Lowe three-run shot in the top half of the frame. Continue reading →
Second baseman Gleyber Torres drove in all five Yankee runs over visiting Toronto in a 5-3 win on May 11, 2022. Gleyber’s three-run, fourth-inning home run overcame an early Blue Jays 1-0 lead, and his two-run, sixth-inning single ensured the win. Continue reading →
Putting in an early bid for the 2022 AL MVP Award that he would eventually take home, Aaron Judge blasted a one-out, three-run walkoff home run off Toronto closer Jordan Romano for a 6-5 Yankee win on May 10, 2022. Before winning on Judge’s 10th home run of the year, the team had tied the game 3-3 on Giancarlo Stanton‘s seventh bomb in the sixth inning. Continue reading →
In one of his best starts ever on May 4, 2022, “Nasty Nestor” Cortes” held the visiting Rangers hitless until center fielder Eli White singled with one out in the eighth inning. But Clay Holmes would be credited with the 1-0 win once Anthony Rizzo drove in Aaron Judge, on base with a single, in the bottom of the eighth. Cortes struck out 11 Texas batters in a game over in 2:41 before MLB’s 2023 rules dramatically shortened the game. Continue reading →
If you want the least distinctive thing about the Yankee 7-2 win over visiting Oakland on May 8, 2023, it’s that Aaron Hicks hit his last Yankee home run to cap the victory. But by then, Oswaldo Cabrera, Gleyber Torres, and DJ LeMahieu had already gone yard, and Harrison Bader had chipped in a triple. Nestor Cortes outdueled JP Sears. Continue reading →
Walkoffs are a delight, and when the comeback starts with your team on the losing end, they’re that much better. Through six, righthander Mario Gonzalez and the Mariners were up on Masahiro Tanaka 2-1 in Yankee Stadium on May 7, 2019. And Tommy Kahnle made things worse by allowing two more runs in the eighth. But once the home team scratched out a run on righty Cory Gearrin, who would be a Yankee later in the year, in the frame’s bottom half, third baseman Gio Urshela brought New York back to even with a two-run jack in the ninth. Then Cameron Maybin singled, and stole second, and DJ LeMahieu did not waste the opportunity, sending Maybin home with a game-winning single, 5-4 Yankees. Continue reading →
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. Continue reading →
On May 5 (Cinqo de Mayo), 2001, Andy Pettitte beat the Orioles 5-2 by holding them to two hits and no earned runs over seven. Derek Jeter became the first Yankee to steal home in eight years when he accomplished that feat in the fourth inning.
Mammoth home runs and Mickey Mantle — the two just go together, and none more so than the bomb that almost went out of Yankee Stadium altogether until it struck the right field facade just inside the foul pole on May 5, 1956. The Mick hit another prodigious bomb the same day, Yogi Berra homered, and Hank Bauer delivered an inside-the-park job as the Yanks topped the A’s, 5-2. Continue reading →
