On August 23, 2003, when Ron Guidry Day was celebrated in Yankee Stadium, the team played uninspired baseball in a 7-2 loss to the Orioles in the game that followed. No such problem occurred on August 29, 1964, when the Yanks held Elston Howard Day. The Yanks took two from the Red Sox, 10-2 and 6-1. Joe Pepitone went yard three times, including a grand slam, and Roger Maris hit six singles. It was highlights all around, as Mickey Mantle hit his 447th career homer in the first game, and tied Babe Ruth‘s career strike out record (1,330) in the second. Continue reading →
Giving the lie to all the claims floating around Yankee Stadium in 2009, Robbie Cano sent a soaked fanbase home happy on August 28, 2009, when his 10th-inning three-run walkoff bomb against Chicago lefty Randy Williams gave the Yankees a 5-2 win. Rumor had it that Cano could only hit in non-rbi situations, and the game only went into extras because Nick Swisher made a great throw to nail a runner at home in the top of the seventh. Brian Bruney pitched the top of the 10th and got the win. Continue reading →
Ask a number of Yankee fans with a sense of history individually about 1978, and two arcs will emerge. In light of the day held in his honor in Yankee Stadium in 2003, we’ll mention the incredible 25-3 Cy Young season of Louisiana Lightning, Ron Guidry first. And hand in hand with that, of course, was the stirring comeback from 14 games behind, with the Yanks finally wresting the pennant from their Boston rivals in the playoff game that has made “Bucky Dent” two thirds of a three-word epithet in much of Massachusetts and New England ever since. But what should be obvious to even the most casual fan is that you can’t mount a comeback drive like that on the strength of just one starting pitcher. Catfish Hunter beat the Oakland A’s, 6-2, on August 27, 1978, to complete a six-win/no-loss August that helped propel the Bombers on their way. Utilizing a spin windup he may have copied from the wily Luis Tiant (with the Sox at the time, but who would pitch for the Yanks too), Hunter brought to mind the old saw that has it that a flashlight burns brightest just before the light goes out. Guidry’s brilliance would have gone for naught without him. Continue reading →
Manny Machado homered twice off Luis Cessa for visiting Baltimore on August 26, 2016, but that is the last of the bad news, as a six-run second-inning onslaught against Yovani Gallardo drove the O’s righty from the mound after having recorded just four outs. Young Gary Sanchez singled, doubled, and homered in this one, scoring three times and driving in four, and Mark Teixeira also went yard; he drove in three in a 14-4 drubbing. Continue reading →
Maybe the Bombers were angered after losing two straight to the A’s at home, or perhaps once the skies closed and stopped pouring rain on the field, Yankee bats took their place, raining hits all over the field in a 22-9 win on August 25, 2011. Oddly, the visitors led in this one, 7-1 after three, which was before not one, not two, but three different Yankees chipped in with grand slam home runs. Of the three, Russell “the Muscle” Martin gets first billing because he knocked in six runs and scored four times, while Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson had five rbi’s apiece; they scored once and three times, respectively. Derek Jeter moved into 20th place on the all-time runs scored list, but in maybe the coolest highlight of the day, Joe Girardi inserted Jorge Posada into the game playing second base in the ninth; he got the game-ending assist, though almost threw the ball past Nick Swisher at first. Continue reading →
With the unfortunate career-threatening injury to righthander Nate Eovaldi in August 2016, it is appropriate to look back at one of his best Yankee starts when he matched blanks (eight scoreless innings) and pitches (109 each) with Houston hurler Scott Feldman in a 1-0 Yankee win in the Stadium on August 24, 2015. Nate allowed just four hits to Scott’s six, and Andrew Miller retired the Astros in order (a leadoff single was erased by a caught stealing) in the ninth, but lefty Oliver Perez walked Brett Gardner to start the bottom half, then a wild pitch, intentional walk, and unintentional walk set it up for Carlos Beltran, who delivered a first-pitch sac fly to center off righty Chad Qualls. Continue reading →
The day after the Yanks retired Jorge Posada‘s number 20 in 2015, they retired Andy Pettitte‘s number 46 on August 23. Unfortunately however, home runs by Cleveland’s Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor keyed a 4-3 Indians victory. CC Sabathia left this one with an apparent injury in the third. The ceremonial first pitch was what you would figure, Andy throwing to Jorge. Continue reading →
The Yankees honored two of their core four, plus Bernie, on back-to-back August days in 2015, with catcher Jorge Posada getting his ceremony, and plaque, on the 22nd. Then the Bombers jumped on Cleveland’s Danny Salazar for five runs through two frames, featuring home runs from Brett Gardner and Brian McCann. Rookie Luis Severino went six innings to record the 6-2 win on the day No. 20 was retired in Monument Park. Continue reading →
The Yankees owed their 4-2 win over visiting Toronto on August 21, 2022, equally to two offensive players, as DJ LeMahieu had rbi singles in the first and third innings, and Andrew Benintendi homered for two in the bottom of the seventh. Continue reading →
The fact that Cleveland was building a stellar starting rotation in 2015 came as a surprise to many MLB observers, but not to the Yankees, who would lose three of four to the visiting Indians in mid-August, the first a 3-2 defeat on August 20. Righty Josh Tomlin allowed just two hits through seven, one of them an Alex Rodriguez home run in the fourth. Ivan Nova allowed single runs in the second, third, and fourth, enough to withstand a one-run, bottom-of-the-ninth rally, started again by a Rodriguez single. Honoring one-time Yankee President/CEO Al Rosen, a career third baseman with Cleveland who had passed away earlier in the year, Al’s brother Robert Rosen threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Continue reading →
