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Top 10
Greatest Yankee Postseason Victories and Defeats of the
1995-present era
by Bill
Hazell billny33@hotmail.com
Top 10
Victories
10. 2000 ALCS (Game
6)
David Justice 7th
inning homer puts Yanks ahead after El Duque gives up homers
to fall behind 4-0. The Yanks pile on runs after Justice
goes deep to lead 9-4. A-Rod goes deep off Rivera in the 8th
to cut the lead to 9-7 and the final out is recorded on a
grounder to short off the bat of Edgar Martinez, the game's
tying run, to give the Yanks the 2000 pennant. This edges
out game 1 of the 1998 World Series because of the impending
fear of a game 7 in the air in this game.
9. 1999 World Series
(Game 3)
Trailing 5-1 the
Yanks come back off a barrage of homeruns off Tom Glavine,
Knoblauch tying the game with one off Brian Jordan's glove
in the 8th. Then Chad Curtis wins it with a walk off blast
off Mike Remlinger in the 10th to break Atlanta's backs and
take a 3-0 series lead.
8. 1998 World Series
(Game 3)
A pitcher's duel
until the 6th, then San Diego scores 3 and the Yanks have to
answer back. Brosius goes deep in the 7th and the Yanks
manufacture another run in the inning. Then in the 8th
Trevor Hoffman comes in to put out the fire. Brosius tells
the best closer of 1998 where he can stick it...over the
centerfield 405 sign that is. The Padres threaten in the 8th
and 9th, Greg Vaughn nearly went deep in the 8th but only
managed a sac fly and a 9th inning rally off Rivera brought
SD one single away from tying the game, but Mariano struck
out Andy Sheets to end it.
7. 2000 World Series
(Game 1)
This game had the
infamous Todd Zeile play, a long fly off the top of the wall
confused Timo Perez long enough for Jeter to gun him down at
home plate on an incredible play. Then trailing by a run in
the 9th off Benitez O'Neill earns a tough 10 pitch walk,
then singles by Vizcaino and Polonia lead to a Knoblauch sac
fly to tie the game. It ends in the 12 with a 2 out RBI
single by Jose Vizcaino off Turk Wendell to win it for the
Yanks.
6. 2001 Division Series
(Game 3)
A tense scoreless
pitcher's duel with the Yankees season on the line, Mussina
vs. Zito. Zito finally blinks in the 5th with a bleeder
homerun by Jorge Posada. Then in the 8th Terrence Long
doubles with a man on first. Jeter is the magic man again
with his famous shovel pass to Posada just in time to save
the tying run from scoring. Rivera faces some trouble in the
9th when Jermaine Dye doubles with 1 out, he strikes out
Eric Chavez and gets a groundout to Jason Giambi to end the
game.
5. 1996 ALCS (Game 1)
Trailing 4-3 in the
8th things aren't looking good for our heroes. Derek Jeter
pops one into right field and Tarasco has his glove under
it...until fan Jeffrey Maier reaches over the fence and
claims it for his own unbeknownst to visually impaired
umpire Richie Garcia who was right there. The homer counts
and the game goes into the 11th, where Bernie Williams ends
it with a scintillating homerun to deep left. This game
sparked the beginning of the Yankee dynasty and went deep
into Yankees lore as did choice six, however this game ended
on a walk off homerun and the Yanks went on to win the World
Series in 96, that's why this gets number 5.
4. 1995 Division Series
(Game 2)
This thriller was a
slugfest that saw Don Mattingly's last homerun ever. He
crushed it into a delirious Yankee crowd as ABC announcer
Gary Thorne shouted "Hang onto the roof!" The game went into
the 12th when Seattle scored the go-ahead run. The Yankees
had an answer though, when a Ruben Sierra double into left
scored the tying run in the bottom half of the inning.
Bernie Williams rounded third and tried to score the game
winner. The throw came in from left just in time to nail him
at home and force the 13th inning. Finally in the 15th in
the pouring rain, Jim Leyritz went deep the opposite way to
end it and give the Yanks a 2-0 series lead. This had no
added significance as they went on to lose the next three
but what an incredible game thanks to that 12th inning play
that no one remembers, and all Yankee fans at the time felt
they had clinched the series with that win it was a truly
thrilling experience.
3. 1996 World Series
(Game 4)
The Yankees trailed
6-0 in the 6th in Atlanta staring a 3-1 series deficit with
Smoltz, Maddux and Glavine lined up for the next three
games. Then Jeter's foul pop was partially blocked from
Jermaine Dye's path by an umpire, he would single and start
a 3 run rally. Then in the 8th more strange bounces, Charlie
Hayes's swinging bunt had no business rolling and staying
fair, Duncan's double-play ball booted by sure handed Rafael
Belliard, who could only get the out at second. Then of
course Leyritz went deep off Wohlers after fouling off 3
fastballs he got the slider he needed to tie the game at 6.
Both teams made serious threats in the 9th. The Braves
survived with a diving catch off Duncan's bat by Jermaine
Dye, the Yanks survived with a double play ground ball off
the bat of Fred McGriff (thank God Jeter was playing him up
the middle) both times with the winning run in scoring
position. In the 10th off Steve Avery the Yanks had 2 out
and no one on and rallied to load the bases forcing Wade
Boggs 3-2 pitch count and walk to win the game. In the
bottom of the 10th the Braves came close again and only
stopped when Tim Raines caught Pendleton's blast to deep
left at the warning track as he stumbled and fell
over...whew!
2. 2001 World Series
(Game 4)
You know the story.
AZ takes a 3-1 lead in the 8th and the Yanks look done for
as Byung-Hyun Kim strikes out the side in the 8th. An
O'Neill single in the 9th leads to Martinez first pitch
blast with 2 out to tie the game, miracle of miracles. The
Yanks almost won it in the 9th by threatening with a walk
and another hit but Kim escaped. In the 10th though, Jeter
wins it with an opposite field bleeder that came just after
the stroke of midnight on Halloween...or of course,
November.
1. 2001 World Series
(Game 5)
The previous night
set the stage for an even more incredible scene. The same
improbable drama playing out the exact same way the night
after. This game also saw a touching 9th inning tribute by
the rightfield fans to Paul O'Neill, playing his last game
in pinstripes. Then of course Brosius ties it with 2 out in
the 9th off Kim with a 2 run homer of his own. Announcer Tim
McCarver utters the words with slow meaningful delivery "I
have never seen anything like it." Buck compliments that
with "It borders on the surreal here in the Bronx." Jon
Miller of ESPN radio can be heard screaming "THEY HAVE DONE
IT AGAIN!" Either way, in the 11th the D-Backs have the
bases loaded with 1 out when young kid Alfonso Soriano saves
them with a diving catch of a line drive up the middle for
the 2nd out to help Rivera get out of it. Then in the 12
with Knoblauch on 2nd, Soriano wins it with a base hit to
right. The throw had Knoblauch beat but it got away from the
catcher and he slid in to win the game and give the Yanks a
huge 3-2 lead in the series.
Top 10
Defeats
10. 1998
ALCS (Game 3)
The Yankees just don't have a great number of big losses.
This one was hard to swallow for the 1998 squad simply
because it was the first serious threat to a flawless
season. Andy Pettitte got shelled as the roof came off in
the 5th and 6th inning, allowing a barrage of homeruns to
Thome, Ramirez, and I believe 2 by Mark Whiten, all in the
span of two innings to blow open a close game in Jacobs
Field, all off Pettitte who had been pitching a decent game
up until then. The feeling of fear and dread and pain I
remember after that game was so strong that a season that
had been so great and flawless and destined for championship
and a place in the record books was going straight down the
drain. But then again...we all know what happened next
.
9. 1997
Division Series (Game 5)
The momentum was not in our favor from the start, especially
when Cleveland took a 4-0 lead on a barrage of hits early
on, surprise, Andy Pettitte. But New York had an answer.
Suddenly it was 4-3 and the Yankees were alive and kicking,
only needing to push across one more run. But as the final
innings passed the Yankees could not get that final run
across. Enter the top of the 9th, the top of the order was
their last hope in Cleveland. Their glimmer of hope was
O'Neill who was batting red hot, over 400 in the series. The
first two Yankees, Raines and Jeter made outs on the first
pitch, which really upset me. O'Neill also swung at the
first pitch...and just missed a homerun to right center. Off
the middle of the wall, right to Marquis Grissom in center,
perfect bounce. O'Neill rounded first feeling he had
entitled himself to a double but Grissom had a surprise in
store for him. His throw was waiting for O'Neill at 2nd
base. But then O'Neill found a way to slide around the tag
to reach second safely. Yet after all that, Williams had to
swing at the first pitch just like everyone else. The
routine fly to left gloved by Giles ended the Yankee season.
8. 2002
Division Series (Game 4)
Well
at least the game did start off as a close contest, with the
Yankees being deprived again and again of runs when they
deserved it. Robin Ventura hit a section of the Anaheim wall
about 8 feet wide that would have been a home run on any
other area of their outfield. He brought home one run when
they could have had more. Raul Mondesi and Juan Rivera both
missed homeruns to left just foul. Soriano then hit one deep
to left, this one stayed fair but bounced down off the top
of the wall back in play for a double, but no runs. Jeter
also tried Anaheim's LF dimensions but was robbed of extra
bases by an incredible Sandy Amoros-like catch in left by
Garret Anderson. As a result, the play was nothing more than
a sac fly. Then came the merciless execution in the bottom
of the 5th. 10 hits, 8 runs in excruciating machine-gun
fashion. It was as if the firing squad didn't know when to
quit.
7. 1998
ALCS (Game 2)
Leading 1-0 in the series this game went
into extra innings thanks to a late run in the 8th. In the
Cleveland 11th Travis Fryman tried to bunt the leadoff
runner over on a play that would become infamous in New York
baseball lore. Tino Martinez throw would hit Fryman in the
back and proceeded to keep rolling. Fryman was running
inside the first-base box when he was struck which should
have rendered him out, but no call was made. Then Knoblauch,
stopped and pointed to first base signaling to the umpire he
should have been called out. It took Knobby several seconds
to go after the ball, by which time runner Enrique Wilson
had scored all the way from first, just ahead of the tag for
the go-ahead run, and the eventual game-winner. The series
was tied going to Cleveland for 3 games.
6. 2002
Division Series (Game 2)
A
wild offensive see-saw battle. A 6th inning homerun by
Alfonso Soriano that gave them the 4-3 lead seemed to be the
game winner. But then Garret Anderson stunned every Yankee
fan with a leadoff homer in the 8th inning to tie the game.
Then Troy Glaus hit a second dinger for back to back shots
and Anaheim now had the lead. They would score 2 more and
take a 7-4 lead. In the Yankee 8th though, NY scored a run
and had the bases loaded, 2 outs for Derek Jeter against
closer Troy Percival. Jeter was called out on one of the
worst outside strike calls I have ever seen. In the 9th with
2 out Nick Johnson had a chance to be a hero with runners on
but he could not handle Percival's heat either and the Yanks
were stunned by the upstart Angels at home.
5. 2002
Division Series (Game 3)
But neither of these Angels losses are worse than blowing a
6-1 lead in a pivotal game. An early explosion lead many of
us to believe the game was in their pockets as early as the
bottom of the third. But Anaheim roared back, scoring 2 runs
quickly to make it 6-3. Then a homerun in the 4th to cut it
to 6-4. Mussina was taken out with a possible injury, then a
pair of bloop RBI singles in the 6th and 7th tie the game,
one of which was painfully close out of Soriano's reach at
2nd. Then in the 8th the Angels took the lead on a Bengie
Molina single (I think, all their hits seem a blur to me)
and finally Tim Salmon with the crushing blow with a 2 run
8th inning homer to left to put the game out of reach for
NY.
4. 1995
Division Series (Game 4)
Here's another 6-1 lead for NY in a very similar game.
Little could still haunt me worse than the memory of that
Kingdome and the high powered Mariner offense. With the
Yankees in reach of moving on in game 4 with that 6-1 lead
Seattle made their comeback. Edgar and Tino Martinez went
deep, but Edgar's job was not done until he faced Wetteland
with the score tied in the 8th. He crushed a ball to dead
center for a grandslam homerun, (Shut up Dave Niehaus, we
can all hear you, oops guess that's just my paranoia) his
second of the night to give Seattle a 10-6 lead themselves,
9 straight runs and they would go on to win 11-8 and force
the dreaded go-or-die game 5.
3. 1997
Division Series (Game 4)
The Yanks looked headed for a showdown against division
rival Baltimore after taking a 2-1 lead early on in
Cleveland on this night. In the 8th the Yanks turned to
their new closer Mariano Rivera to preserve their thin 2-1
lead. With 2 outs he faced Sandy Amoros...er...Alomar
(what's the diff. they both killed the Yankees) Alomar who
was having a Cinderella season, took Rivera's outside
fastball over the wall the opposite way to tie the game. The
Indians who were left for dead suddenly had new life and
were clearly rejuvenated. In the 9th with Lofton on 2nd and
2 outs, Omar Vizquel hit a ground ball back to Mendoza. It
deflected high off his glove as Jeter started towards second
base. By the time the ball had deflected back towards the SS
position Jeter had gone too far the other way to turn back,
and the awkward base hit turned into the game winner as
Lofton scored. There would be a tomorrow for the Indians
after all. The beginning of the end.
2. 1995
Division Series (Game 5)
Ok, Seattle had come back and won games 3 and 4 after they
were supposed to be long gone, now it was personal. The
Yanks had to put 'em away once and for all. With a tie score
in the 6th, Don Mattingly, playing in his final year, first
in the playoffs, lined a double to left to plate 2 more and
give NY the lead. What a moment if Mattingly after waiting
so long could have just won his only postseason series with
that hit, but it was not to be. Even with David Cone on the
mound, in the 8th Griffey jacked one nearly into the
upperdeck in right to cut it to 4-3. Later that inning a
bases loaded walk to Doug Strange on a 3-2 pitch tied the
game, and Cone hunched his body over in heartbroken pain. In
the 11th the Yanks were facing Randy Johnson, making his
first ever relief appearance. Yet they rallied anyway, and a
base hit by Randy Velarde through the hole in short plated a
sliding Pat Kelly and the Yanks had done it. But then in the
Seattle 11th Joey Cora reached with a little drag bunt.
Mattingly took it and reached for Cora who squirmed around
it and touched first with his hand on a slide. Despite
Mattingly's pleas the ump refused to call Cora out of the
baseline. Then Griffey Jr. hit a ground ball up the middle
just barely out of the reach of Pat Kelly at 2nd, Cora to
2nd. Edgar Martinez played executioner for the second night
in a row as he ripped a McDowell pitch down the left field
line. Runner scored from 2nd, tie game, 5-5, but wait a
minute, there's Griffey still going strong around third!
He's not supposed to score from first! To watch the throw
come in from left was futile, it couldn't beat him and the
ensuing celebration at the Kingdome was one of the most
painful I can ever remember watching.
1. 2001
World Series (Game 7)
I don't think there is any doubt about this one. This will
go down onto the short list of one of the greatest games of
all time, deciding a series that will go down onto the short
list of one of the greatest series of all time. It was truly
an epic 7 games and recent events had made the Yankees
national good-guys. These factors made this loss all the
more devastating. After quite a pitching exhibition, Clemens
finally blinked in the 6th. With a line drive to left center
by Danny Bautista, Steve Finley scored from first. All hope
seemed lost. But dont tell Jeter that, he gunned down
Bautista at 3rd to minimize the damage, with an impossible
throw! The Yanks had an answer in the 7th. Single by Jeter,
single by O'Neill, base hit to right by Tino Martinez to tie
the game off Schilling, what a relief. Shane Spencer had a
deep fly to right center but Steve Finley got a great jump
on the ball and ran it down. Then in the 8th Soriano took a
shoetop splitter and sent it deep into the left-center field
seats. What a triumph! This would go down in history, far
greater than the Leyritz homer in 96. Randy Johnson's
courageous relief appearance seemed little more than a moot
point. Rivera stormed through the Arz lineup w/3 Ks in the
8th. Only 3 more to go. Bottom 9: I think all of us know
play for play what happens here. Grace singles, Damian
Miller bunts, Rivera throws it away going to 2nd, Then Jay
Bell bunting. This is the most overlooked play of The Rally,
but it shouldn't be. Why? Rivera throws to Brosius for the
force at 3rd. The FOX telecast showed a great overhead
replay which revealed that Brosius had recorded the out
clearly before Bell was halfway down the 1B line. A throw to
first to double him up would have been easy but it never
even crossed his mind. Womack's double ties it and saves the
D-Backs, Counsell gets beaned to walk the bases loaded and
LuGo's cheap bloop single ends the series over a drawn in
infield, otherwise its just a flyout. If the Yanks had been
able to survive to extra innings, well Schilling, Johnson
(pulled for a pinch hitter in 9th), and Miguel Batista
(brief relief appearance in the 8th) were all unavailable.
The Yanks had plenty left in their pen. But it was not to
be. Neither was a parade down the canyon of heroes.
Writer's
Note: Those are my lists and I'm sticking to them. I'm
interested to see who thinks I'm off and why or what should
I have put on there instead.
The
Pinstripe Press:
https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/pinstripepress
The Highlander:
https://www.angelfire.com/ny5/thehighlander
Editor's Email: StlrsFan1@aol.com
Copyright © 2002-2003 Pinstripe Press.
All Rights Reserved.
This online newsletter is not affiliated with the New York
Yankees.
The opinions expressed solely represent the contributor's
and not the Pinstripe Press.
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The Highlander
Vol.1 January 2003
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