I had my worst ever experience in Yankee Stadium on June 27, 2016, when a rain delay declared with one down in the top of the ninth — a 3:56 rain delay! — halted what should have been a hard-fought 6-5 Yankee win over the visiting Rangers. A Mark Teixeira seventh-inning home run gave the Yanks a 6-4 lead, and Rougned Odor halved the Yankee edge with a blast off Andrew Miller in the eighth. With a hard rain having fallen for innings, Aroldis Chapman couldn’t even stand on the soaked mound in the ninth, much less push off from it. Each team had batted for eight innings, with the visitors having scored last; the field was unplayable, with the rain expected to continue for hours — it did not disappoint. It should have been called right then, an eight-inning, rain-shortened 6-5 Yankee win. Kirby Yates had a disastrous ninth inning four hours later, twice hitting batters with pitches when it seemed he might escape early trouble. Texas scored four, and had themselves a 9-6, eight-hour win, played before 25 or 30 rain-drenched fans. That home plate ump John Tumpane still has his job in 2017 baffles and infuriates me. Continue reading →
Not only did the Yanks fashion a win over the visiting Astros on June 26, 2022, they did so in the same fashion they earned their only other ’22 victory: a walkoff. Jose Altuve‘s lead off homer in the first and a two-run single from Mauricio Dubon had the visitors up until Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu bombs tied matters. Then Giancarlo homered for three in the bottom of the 10th for the 6-3 win. Continue reading →
Eighth-inning rbi’s from Harrison Bader and Giancarlo Stanton forged the three-run rally that carried the Bombers to a 5-3 win over Texas, in a game the Yanks trailed 3-0 in the second inning. DJ LeMahieu‘s two-run double in the bottom of the second represented the only early Yankee scoring. Continue reading →
It was a little disconcerting, as the Yanks held Mickey Mantle Triple Crown Night on Friday, June 24, 2016, a gorgeous night in the Bronx, because ex-Yank Eduardo Nunez promptly put the visiting Twins up 2-0 with a double in the top of the third. But Masahiro Tanaka righted the ship, and the home team prevailed 5-3, with five different pinstripers scoring, and five knocking in a run apiece as well. The only players to notch one of each were Carlos Beltran and Aaron Hicks, the latter by stroking the game’s lone home run. Continue reading →
The June 23 game in the Stadium was that rarest of 2022 happenings, a walkoff home victory over the despised Houston Astros. It was Pride Night in the Bronx, and I’m Coming Out by Diana Ross was the Eighties in the Eighth musical highlight. The Yankees survived the three-run home run James Taillon surrendered to Alex Bregman in the first (Giancarlo Stanton equalled it in the boittom half), but not the Yordan Alvarez shot plating three in the third. Almost unbelievably, Aaron Hicks tied it — you guessed it — with a three-runner of his own with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, and two outs later, Aaron Judge delivered the game winner with an rbi single, 7-6 Yankees. Continue reading →
Gio Urshela‘s two-run fifth-inning shot off Houston’s Wade Miley on June 22, 2019, could be looked as a reverse game winner in the 7-5 Yankee victory, because each team then went on to score two, then three runs in the sixth and the seventh for all the scoring. Austin Romine homered, and oddly, Giancarlo Stanton caromed two-run singles off the body and glove of Yuli Gurriel at third base in back-to-back innings. Masahiro Tanaka went six innings for the win. Continue reading →
Home runs from Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney, and Anthony Volpe carried Jhony Brito to a 4-2 win over the visiting Mariners on June 21, 2023. Continue reading →
They’re all emotional events, but Old Timer’s Day on June 20, 2015, in Yankee Stadium was a particularly poignant affair. The retiring of No. 30 and a plaque in Monument Park for Willie Randolph was expected, but the presence, and then addition to that honor, of an ailing Mel Stottlemyre brought many a tear. The Clippers beat the Bombers 3-2 in two innings in the game that followed, then the Yankees blasted the Tigers, 14-3. Driving Alberto Simon from the mound in the third, the offense was led by five rbi’s from Alex Rodriguez, with three more from Carlos Beltran, and two each from Didi Gregorius and Chris Young. Continue reading →
Take your pick, and most take The Streak, but he was MVP twice (in a career during much of which that award was a once-a-lifetime honor), and won the Triple Crown. He homered in four consecutive at bats in one game and led everyone with 23 career grand slams for eight decades until he was tied, then passed, by Alex Rodriguez). He had a .340 lifetime batting average, gathered 175, then 174, rbi’s in 1927 and 1930, respectively, and the 184 in 1931 are the most ever in the American League. Yes, this Yankee hero, Lou Gehrig, the Iron Horse, was born on June 19, 1903. It’s another Hallelujah day in Yankee Land. Continue reading →
You had to wonder if the practice the Yankees introduced to their game entertainment in 2019 of “Eighties in the Eighth,” playing a 1980s song in between the top and the bottom of the eighth inning, utilized songs decided upon early in the day, because Lionel Ritchie‘s All Night Long was just too fitting for a game delayed an hour-plus by rain. With J.A. Happ going five, the Yanks took the visiting Rays 6-3 as Cameron Maybin had three hits, including a home run, and Gary Sanchez knocked in two. With the team already up 5-3 in the eighth, DH Edwin Encarnacion contributed his first Yankee bomb to close the scoring. Continue reading →
