1999 Yankees Diary: Andy goes eight, Bernie goes boom!

09/15/2024 09:00 AM

Bernie Williams broke a sixth-inning tie and the Yankees took the rubber game from Toronto.

New York came into this one riding what must have been an euphoric high. Six outs from losing a series to the Blue Jays, Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill hit grand slams in the eighth and ninth innings to stun Toronto.

Now, the Yankees had the chance to steal the series with another victory in the Great White North. After the Jays jumped Andy Pettitte and hung a crooked number on him, it might have looked bleak. But the offense immediately responded, and another late game dinger from Bernie sealed yet another comeback in in Toronto.

September 15: Yankees 6, Blue Jays 4 (box score)

Record: 87-58, .600 (3.5 GA)

The bats staked Andy to an immediate lead. After a Tony Fernández throwing error allowed Derek Jeter to reach second with one out in the first, one of the previous game's heroes stepped to the dish. Paulie ambushed Jays starter Pat Hentgen and smacked the first pitch into center, scoring Jeets.

From there, Pettitte and his steely stare took over for the next while. Through the first three innings, Andy only needed 37 pitches to get the first nine outs. He got in a mini-jam in the third with a pair of runners on but calmly retired the Jays and headed back to the dugout with the one-run lead. It likely would have been worse if not for a leaping catch by Ricky Ledée in left, who crashed into the wall but held onto the ball, robbing the Jays of an extra-base hit.

The fourth frame, however, was an entirely different beast. First, Hall of Very Good inductee Carlos Delgado led off with a solo smash. The dinger is unsurprising, considering Delgado's track record against the Yankees. It was one of 33 he hit off pinstripe pitching, his most against any opponent.

From there, Pettitte developed a sudden aversion to the strike zone. Three walks loaded the bases with two out for once and future Yankee Homer Bush. Bush, dealt to Toronto in the Roger Clemens trade, took a measure of vengeance here. With a second run in the inning already in, Bush doubled. That scored two more and left Toronto up 4-1.

The Yankees were not to be denied on this night though. Tino Martinez led off the fifth with a solo jack to trim the deficit to two runs. After a Chili Davis double, Ledée, who'd remained in the game after smashing his shoulder into the left field wall, tripled to right center to bring the Yankees within one. Finally, Joe Girardi drove Ledée in, knotting the contest at four apiece.

To Toronto's regret, they didn't get to Pettitte enough in the fourth. Because much like the first three frames, Pettitte was nails from the fifth inning onward. After letting the first two batters reach in the fifth, Andy retired nine in a row before an eighth inning leadoff single that he promptly stranded. It was far from his finest start as a Yankee but when it was over, Andy'd gone eight innings and outside of that ugly fourth inning, had consistently confounded the Toronto offense.

It did not take long for the bats to reward Pettitte, With Derek Jeter on first afer a leadoff walk in the sixth inning, Bernie came to the dish to face Hentgen. Hentgen chose to start the at-bat with a changeup — that was a bad idea. Bernie smashed it out to right field, his second round-tripper in as many nights. This one gave the Yankees a 6-4 lead.

With the 6-4 lead intact after Andy got through eight, Joe Torre summoned the GOAT to end this one. Bush reached on a leadoff walk, thereby bringing the tying run to the plate. But with Bush on third and two out, Mariano Rivera summoned the power of the cutter facing Delgado. The bat (or most of it, anyway) went one way into foul territory behind home plate. The ball went another, into the glove of Tino behind first base. Game over. The Yankees win, coming from behind for a second consecutive night.

The win allowed the Yankees to relax a little bit. Postgame, many of the Yankees loaded paper plates with beans and rice and headed to the trainer's room to see the final innings of the Boston vs. Cleveland game. With the former chasing the Yanks in the division and the latter competing with New York for the top seed in the Junior Circuit, the players seemed torn on who to cheer for (against?). "It's tough,'' one player remarked to Buster Olney of the New York Times. "You don't know who to root for.'' LetThemFight.gif, indeed.

I bet the mood would have been exponentially less ebullient without the late-inning heroics of the past two nights in Toronto.

Read the full 1999 Yankees Diary series here.