Coming off having stroked a two-run single that gave the Yanks a lead they would not relinquish in his second Pinstriped game just two days previous, Jay Bruce gave the Bombers an early lead with a home run in a 7-2 win over visiting Baltimore on April 6, 2021. Alas, it was to be his lone roundtripper and the third of Jay’s three Yankee rbi’s, as he would retire after playing six more games. Aaron Judge would carry the action following Bruce’s blast, with a home run and four rbi’s. Gerrit Cole would strike out 13 over seven innings for the win.
On April 6, 2021, righthander Michael King paid the price for having pitched six [superb] innings in relief the previous day, when he was assigned to the Yankees Alternate Training Site. Also on this day, the team sent outfielder Josh Stowers and catcher Antonio Cabello to Texas for second baseman Rougned Odor, who would provide solid play the rest of the season. In addition, the club designated second baseman Thairo Estrada for assignment; and signed free agent pitcher Mike Montgomery.
It was small consolation that a player with local roots buried the Yankees with a 14th-inning grand slam, as Pedro Alvarez put us out of our six-hour misery with a blast off Jonathan Holder in the visiting Orioles’ 7-3 win on April 6, 2018. Holder, off to a horrible start, would recover to have a fine year, and Didi Gregorius would continue his fine start with an eighth-inning home run that sent us into extras. The Yanks were in the midst of losing three of four to the hopeless Orioles at home, a primary reason why they failed to beat the Red Sox for the division title. The loss was even more frustrating because right fielder Aaron Judge, whose late-season broken bone in his finger was another reason the team came up short, made a briefly game-saving, homer-denying catch off a Caleb Joseph shot in the 13th.
After a tough loss in their home opener the day before, the Yanks gave their fans false hope for a big year with 12 runs in the first three innings in a 16-6 win over visiting Houston on April 6, 2016. Loading the bases against righty Colin McHugh on an outfield error and two walks, five hits later they had a 6-1 lead, which Michael Pineda almost surrendered with a grand slam by George Springer in the second. But three-run jacks by Starlin Castro and Alex Rodriguez in the second and third innings, respectively, restored order. Pineda even managed to last five frames for the win, but not before Carlos Correa‘s second homer of the day smacked off the facade of the Mohegan Sun club in dead center.
The second April 6 “highlight” ignominiously features the foot of snow that forced the cancellation of the Yankees’ 1982 home opener against the Rangers. It stayed cold, and the Yanks cancelled another against Texas, two against the White Sox and opened on Easter Sunday (4/11) by dropping both ends of a double dip to the Palehose. It is the last home opener this observer failed to personally attend.
Opening Day has been kind to the Yankees in the Bronx for a few decades, but not so on April 6, 2015, when they would fall to the visiting Blue Jays 6-1, largely due to an ugly five-run third inning uprising Toronto built against Masahiro Tanaka. The frame was set up by a single, walk, and Chase Headley‘s throwing error on a sac bunt, and crowned with Edwin Encarnacion‘s two-run home run. Super rookie second baseman Devon Harris, who would soon be lost to injury for the rest of the season, homered for the visitors’ last run, nullifying the lone Yankee tally, a Brett Gardner sixth-inning homer to right. The “Bombers” had only three hits against starter Drew Hutchison and two relievers, including righty Miguel Castro, who was making his MLB debut.
The first Sunday home game in the old Yankee Stadium’s last year, April 6, 2008, filled the 50,000-plus in attendance with optimism, as Yankee ace Chien-Ming Wang bested Tampa’s James Shields 2-0 in a pitchers’ duel. Offensive heroics went to DH Hideki Matsui, who highlighted his 3-for-4 day at the plate with a two-run home run to right center in the fourth inning. This came shortly after Wang had retired Willy Aybar at the plate on an attempted suicide squeeze by throwing to catcher Jorge Posada. Injuries to the three Yankees featured in this game would go a long way toward ruining the Bombers’ season. In a rite that was still featuring stars daily, Yogi Berra advanced the home-games-left counter from 76 to 75, after Joe Pepitone had done the honors the day before.
They say a contest in which you’re blown out early produces a “painless” loss, but tell that to young Christian Parker. The righthander was sitting on top of the world, having claimed a spot in the bottom of the 2001 Yankee rotation in Tampa. But Carlos Delgado‘s second multi-run bomb of the night, following Jose Cruz, Jr.‘s two-run jack in the fourth, put the Jays up, 8-0. This outing took place on April 6, 2001, in the Stadium. The few of us who stayed and rooted on might have reconsidered that decision had we foreseen the Yankee arms that would follow Parker to the mound: Carlos Almanzar, Randy Choate, and Todd Williams finished up the eventual 13-4 Toronto romp on a rainy night in the Bronx. And making matters worse, Mr. Parker hurt his arm that night, and has not returned to the majors since.
We’ll mention two more losses on April 6, one to the Red Sox in 2005. The Yanks took a 3-2 lead and with it a chance to sweep a three-gamer into the bottom of the ninth. But Boston loaded the bases with none out in the top of the ninth on a walk and two ground singles. Mariano Rivera recovered to strike out Trot Nixon and got the tailor-made double-play grounder from Manny Ramirez that he craved. But the high hop caromed off Alex Rodriguez‘s glove at third and when the smoke cleared, the Red Sox had a 7-3 win.
The only Yankee highlight of a 6-4 loss to Baltimore on April 6, 2007, was that the Captain, Derek Jeter, doubled off Adam Loewen in the second to skip past Don Mattingly into sixth place on the Yankee hit list. Nick Markakis doubles keyed first- and third-inning rallies off Mike Mussina, who surrendered all six runs in four frames on a bitter-cold Friday night in Yankee Stadium. The bullpen continued to throw most of the innings, very well, but it was soon to implode from the heavy workload.
On April 6, 1974, the Yanks played their first home game in Shea Stadium, beating Gaylord Perry and the Indians, 6-1, behind Mel Stottlemyre. George Steinbrenner was absent, two days after being indicted for making illegal campaign contributions; Graig Nettles‘s two-run homer did the most damage.
One year earlier, Luis Tiant walked Yankee prospect Ron Blomberg with the bases loaded on April 6, 1973, in the first official designated hitter at bat in baseball history. Blomberg got the mention in the history books, while Boston got the win, as the Sox came back to batter Mel Stottlemyre and the Yanks, 15-5.
That battering by the Red Sox closed a rare bad chapter in Yankees/Red Sox history. The Bombers also lost their first game in Fenway in 1972, which thankfully wasn’t the Season Opener, because they had already opened in Fenway and lost in both 1970 and in 1971. In the latter contest, Ray Culp outpitched Stan Bahnsen 3-1. Reggie Smith powered three hits and his throw from right field nailed a runner at home to end the top of the eighth inning of a close game, also on April 6.
Further responding to early-season injuries, the Yankees optioned infielder Thairo Estrada to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, and transferred shortstop Didi Gregorius, recovering from right elbow UCL surgery, from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list on April 6, 2019. This allowed them to make an extremely significant move, selecting the contract of third baseman Gio Urshela from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
On April 6, 2022, the Yankees signed free agent first baseman Greg Bird to a minor league contract. Many in the fanbase hoped for a return to glory for the former hot prospect, who won a 1-0 playoff game with a home run in 2017, but it was not to be.
On April 6, 2018, the Yankees signed free agent shortstop Deivy Munoz to a minor league contract.
On April 6, 2013, the Yankees activated righty starter Phil Hughes from the 15-day disabled list, creating room on the 25-man roster by optioning righthanded reliever Cody Eppley to the AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
The second of two instances of note in which future or former Yankee players made April 6 news is the trade of David Cone from Kansas City to Toronto for Chris Stynes and two minor leaguers in 1995. It was Coney’s last stop before the Bronx. Two years earlier, Braves outfielder Otis Nixon, who briefly got his start with the Yanks, singled off the Cubs’ Jose Guzman with two outs in the ninth to break up a no-hitter. Guzman did get the complete-game, 1-0 win.
On April 6, 1989, Orel Hershiser of the Dodgers gave up a run in the first inning of a 4-3 loss to the Reds, thereby ending his record consecutive-scoreless-inning streak at 59, all achieved in the 1988 season.
There are two April 6 trades affecting one-time Yankee players. Ex-Yank Roberto Kelly and future Bomber (briefly) Tony Tarasco were traded by the Braves to the Expos for Marquis Grissom on this day in 1995. Also a guy with Pinstripes in his future, knuckleballer Joe Niekro was purchased from the Braves by the Astros on April 6, 1975.
Kansas City is the common factor in two weird major league baseball occurrences that have taken place on April 6. In a 1989 complete-game win over the Blue Jays, the home-standing Royals’ batters amassed only 20 at bats, one short of the all-time record. (KC played in the game when the record was set too, vs. the Orioles in ’64.) In the 1989 game they batted in eight innings, received eight walks, bounced into three double plays, and had a sac bunt and two sac flies. And on this day in 2002, young KC righthander Miguel Asencio appeared in relief vs. the White Sox in his mlb debut, and walked four men on 16 pitches.
Players Who Have Died This Day
Lou Berberet (2004), who managed four hits and five rbi’s in just 10 at bats while debuting with the 1954-1955 Yankees, is one of four catchers and one of four Yankees to have died on April 6. Lou upped his numbers to 31 long balls and 153 runs driven in during a 1956-1960 stretch playing mostly for Washington and Detroit. Righthander John Wyatt (1998) lost two and neither won nor saved any of his seven games (no starts) with the 1968 Yankees. In a 1961-1969 career spent primarily with the Athletics, Wyatt went 42-44 with 103 saves. Left fielder Bob Cerv (2017) debuted with the Yankees, and served as a valuable reserve from 1951 through 1956, and also in stops in 1960, 1961, and 1962. The 26 long balls and 118 runs he drove in in the Bronx pale in comparison to the numbers he put up with the Athletics from 1957 through 1960, because he largely started in Kansas City. His final totals of 105 and 374 also include 18 games playing for the Angels and 19 for the Colt 45s. John Ellis (2022) caught and played first base as well in debuting with the 1969-1972 Yankees, for whom he hit 16 home runs with 96 rbi’s in 235 games. Finishing up his career playing with the 1973-1975 Indians and the 1976-1981 Rangers, John posted overall totals of 69 long balls with 391 rbi’s in 883 games.
The 2020 entry into the April 6 baseball death club is a huge one, Hall of Fame Detroit outfielder Al Kaline, who had among his most ardent fans Yankee legend Mickey Mantle. Kaline played with the Tigers from 1953 through 1974, and he hit 399 home runs with 1,583 rbi’s. Doggie Miller (1909), who hit the better part of his 33 home runs with 567 rbi’s from 1884-1896 for Allegheny; and Al Evans (1979), who from 1939-1950 hit 13 home runs with 211 rbi’s with the Senators and others, are two other noteworthy catchers to have died April 6, until 2023 with a new one. Shortstop Glenn Wright, who reached 94 fences good for 723 rbi’s mostly playing with the Pirates and the Dodgers from 1924-1935, passed away on April 6, 1984. And lefty hitting, righty throwing catcher Hobie Landrith (2023) played for the 1950-1955 Reds, the 1959-1961 Giants, the 1957-1958 Cardinals, the 1962-1963 Orioles, and in three other stops. In 772 games, Landrith hit 34 home runs and drove in 203.
Players Born This Day
A few years ago when acknowledging April 6 Yankee birthdays, I reported that there was only one Pinstriper who qualified, and three Hall of Famers too. Yankee pitcher Ken Clay (1954) was selected in the second round of the 1972 draft and went 6-14 from 1977 through 1979. He was traded with minor leaguer Marvin Thompson to the Texas Rangers for Gaylord Perry on August 14, 1980.
But infielder/first baseman Andy Phillips (1977) joined the fold in 2004, and made noise doing so. Though restricted to part-time duty in just five games (four at third, and one as Designated Hitter), he managed two hits in eight at bats. He played briefly with the 2005 team, then played more than 100 games in 2006 and 60 before being injured in 2007, good for 11 career home runs with 60 rbi’s in Pinstripes. Andy added three dingers and 10 rbi’s with the Mets and the Reds in 2008.
And we got a third Yankee April 6 birthday in 2007, when outfielder Bronson Sardinha (1983) got into 10 games, mostly as a pinch runner, which is what he did in his one postsesason performance. He did play six games in the field, five in the outfield and one at third base. In addition, he posted a fine .333 ba on 3-for-9 hitting, reached on two walks, knocked in two runs, and scored six times as well. He was selected by New York in the first round of the 2001 amateur draft, but has not appeared in another major league game since ’07.
The Hall of Famers born April 6 are catchers Ernie Lombardi (1908), and Mickey Cochrane (1903); and Negro League official and player Joe Williams (1885). Lombardi blasted 190 homers and knocked in 990 runs from 1931-1947 with the Reds and the Giants. Mickey Mantle‘s father actually named him after Cochrane, who reached the fences 119 times and delivered 832 runs with Philadelphia and Detroit. Other birthdays: Phil Regan (1937); Marty Pattin (1943); excellent curveballer Bert Blyleven (1951), a near-miss Hall of Famer (so far); Tommy Greene (1967); the recently retired Bret Boone (1969); Lou Merloni (1971); Blaine Neal (1978); Thomas Diamond (1983); Alexi Amerista (1989); Alex McRae (1993); Ralph Garza (1994); Jesse Scholtens (1994); Bennett Sousa (1995); and Jake Ahu (1997).
