Once Again, One Big Inning Carries Yankees to a Victory

The Yankees’ offense remained in a deep, ugly, boring funk, but all it took was about five minutes worth of success in the first inning to squeeze out enough runs to edge the A’s and even the series at a game apiece. And today in Pinstripe Past, we say happy 63rd birthday to pitcher Jimmy Key who spent only four years with the Yankees, but they coincided with a critical point in franchise history which led to a World Series title in 1996, ending the Yankees’ 18-year championship drought. Lets get to it.

April 23: Yankees 4, A’s 3

Well, they won. It was a fight to the finish against the pesky A’s, but the Yankees were able to beat them despite scoring runs in exactly one inning, four in the first.

So, to continue updating the misery of this team’s offense, since last Friday, the Yankees have now batted in 43 innings and they have put up a zero in 39 of them. Yet somehow, they’ve won three of the five games. I mean, it seems almost impossible that they could be 3-2 in that stretch, but here we are.

“You want to put together a few big innings to give us some breathing room, but all it takes is one sometimes,” said Giancarlo Stanton. “That was important today, even though it was right off the bat.”

Sure was, because without that first inning, the Yankees would have lost to the A’s again. As I’ve already said, I can’t possibly see how hitting as poorly as the Yankees are and still winning is sustainable. And as we found out before this game even started, they’re going to have to keep finding ways to do so with this lineup because they can forget about DJ LeMahieu coming to the rescue any time soon, not that I was ever counting on that.

LeMahieu started his rehab assignment at Double-A Somerset Monday, struck out in the first inning, then took himself out of the game in the second because his foot is still not right. Now he’s on his way back to New York for more tests.

You’re not going to see LeMahieu for a while, so Oswaldo Cabrera - who is starting to regress back to his norm at the plate - is going remain at third, Gleyber Torres will have to continue playing second despite his average now dipping to .186, and Anthony Rizzo will have to keep playing every day at first because the Yankees do not have a viable backup.

I’m not sure why LeMahieu even went to Somerset. This was supposed to happen last Friday, but an MRI convinced the doctors that he wasn’t quite ready. What the hell changed in three days that made them feel he was good to go? Clearly, he wasn’t, so this becomes another banner moment for the Yankees crack training and medical staff.

Here are my observations:

➤ How surprising was the first inning? In their first 23 games of the season the Yankees scored only six runs in the first inning which was tied for second-fewest in MLB. And A’s starter Paul Blackburn had given up only three earned runs in 25 innings. So naturally, the Yankees scored four because that’s baseball.

➤ Also naturally, Juan Soto got things started in that first with a line single to right, and then it was rapid fire thereafter. Aaron Judge grounded a double down the third-base line, Stanton ripped a two-run double to left-center, and Rizzo hit his second homer of the season to right for a 4-1 lead. And then? The Yankees had one more hit the rest of the night. Seven innings, one friggin’ hit, and that was a piddly infield single by Anthony Volpe in the second inning.

➤ Marcus Stroman got the win, but outside of his nine strikeouts it was a grind for him. He gave up the three runs on seven hits and two walks and he really struggled to finish innings. In the first he got the first two outs, then was 0-2 on Brent Rooker but walked him, and Seth Brown followed with an RBI double to make it 1-0. In the second, he again got the first two men easily, then served up a solo homer to Shea Langeliers. Two singles followed before he finally ended it by getting a groundout. And then in the fourth, Lawrence Butler golfed a solo homer to right on a good pitch that he had no business hitting a homer on. That pulled the A’s within 4-3, but that wound up closing the scoring as neither team did anything the rest of the night.

➤ Stroman was done after 5.1 innings, so that left 11 outs for the bullpen to cover, and this time, they did it without incident. Ron Marinaccio, Caleb Ferguson, Dennis Santana and Clay Holmes did not allow a hit and the only blemish was a walk by Marinaccio. Even Holmes had a clean inning as he needed only nine pitches to go 1-2-3 so for once it was easy with him.

➤ Tuesday was the rare night when the Yankees won and all four AL East rivals lost, so that was nice. Baltimore’s loss to the Angels moved the Yankees back into first by half a game.

➤ In case you were wondering just how bad home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt was on Monday after he tossed Aaron Boone, here you go. According to UmpScorecards.com, Wendelstedt called 47 strikes and 15 of them were actually balls, a success rate of 68% which is 20% below the usual ump average of 88%.

Jimmy Key Helped Turn Mid-90s Yankees Into Champions

George Steinbrenner was supposed to be banned for life in 1990 from partaking in the day-to-day operations of the Yankees after he was found to have paid shady gambler Howie Spira to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield.

But after just 2 ½ years, baseball commissioner Fay Vincent reversed course and lifted the punishment before the 1993 season, and upon his return Steinbrenner wasted no time jumping right back into the running of the team and planned to come out guns blazing in free agency.

The Yankees finished the 1992 season 10 games under .500, their fourth straight losing record and 11th consecutive year of missing the postseason, just an appalling situation for Steinbrenner who was obviously paying attention and privately gritting his teeth during his exile.

The free agent class was loaded, and Steinbrenner was convinced he would be able to acquire the necessary big-name pieces to end the Yankees misery. Instead, he dealt mostly with rejection, particularly from outfielder Barry Bonds and pitcher Greg Maddux who he made lavish offers to, but also from pitchers Doug Drabek, David Cone, Jose Guzman and Greg Swindell, and position players Kirby Puckett, and Mark McGwire among others.

Rejection, especially those turning down his money, was not something Steinbrenner was accustomed to, but he shrugged his shoulders and said, “We’ll find a way to win without them.”

And it turned out that he was right because two players who did take George’s money - 35-year-old third baseman and future Hall of Famer Wade Boggs, and 32-year-old left-handed pitcher Jimmy Key - went on to eventually help the Yankees end their franchise-record 18-year championship drought.

General manager Gene Michael - who during Steinbrenner’s time in purgatory had begun rebuilding the franchise by getting players into the farm system like Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera - had to sell Steinbrenner on Key, though.

He pointed out that in nine seasons with the Blue Jays, Key had pitched to a 3.42 ERA and a 1.196 WHIP, and in 1987 he was runner-up to Roger Clemens in the Cy Young balloting when he led MLB in ERA (2.76) and WHIP (1.057). He had also performed in four postseasons for Toronto including 1992 when he was the winning pitcher in two World Series game as the Blue Jays defeated the Braves for their first championship. Oh, and he’d also gone 8-1 against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

Michael called Key, “the best control pitcher in the game. When you think about an artist painting a picture, or a genius on the mound, he is it. Obviously, he’s smarter than the hitters.”

That might have been a stretch with a guy like Maddux, another future Hall of Famer, out there on the market, but his point was that Key was always around the strike zone and would be a nice alternative signing.

“You can’t dwell on Bonds or Maddux or Cone,” Yankees manager Buck Showalter said the day Key signed Steinbrenner’s four-year, $17 million offer. “If one part of the equation doesn’t work out, then you move on to the next part. I’m excited about getting a player of his background and with his track record coming to New York. As important as that is, I’m excited that he wanted to come to play in New York.”

Showalter’s point about Key wanting to perform on the big stage in New York was important. There were some who believed that Key, who had pitched in relative obscurity up in hockey-crazed Canada, would not hold up under the bright lights of New York. He always laughed at that.

“The thing I couldn’t understand is that people couldn’t see me pitching here,” Key said. “If anybody’s perfect for this atmosphere, it’s me. I’m not trying to blow myself up, but my personality is as good as anybody’s for facing distractions. No outside factor has ever bothered me. I guess that means I should fit New York pretty well.

“I’ve been in clubhouses for nine years and I know some guys have reservations about New York. Some guys are looking for a comfortable place to play so that when you mess up, nobody gets on you. The good thing about New York is when you do play well, everybody is on your side.”

It did not make for the big offseason splash Steinbrenner had hoped for, and the turnaround of the Yankees’ fortunes did not begin immediately, but by the time Key’s four seasons in pinstripes were complete, the Yankees won the 1996 World Series and he was an integral reason.

He went 18-6 with a 3.00 ERA in 1993 when the Yankees took their first step toward their return to relevance with an 88-74 record. In 1994 when the strike ended the season the Yankees had the best record in the AL at 70-43 and Key was 17-4 with a 3.27 ERA and finished second to Cone in the Cy Young vote.

In 1995, the year the Yankees ended their playoff drought with a wild-card appearance, Key missed almost the entire season due to a rotator cuff injury, but he returned in 1996 and while he was starting to show signs of decline, he made 30 starts and picked up the slack when Cone, who had joined the Yankees in 1995, missed four months with an aneurysm in his shoulder.

Key started Game 3 of the 1996 divisional sweep against the Rangers, and Game 3 of the ALCS triumph over the Orioles - “Jimmy Key was spectacular,” Joe Torre said that night. He was cuffed around by the Braves in Game 2 of the World Series, but then was the winner in Game 6 when the Yankees completed their rally from two games down to win their first championship since 1978. Oh, and the Braves’ starter in Game 6? Greg Maddux.

The Yankees won three of Key’s four starts that postseason and he pitched 24.1 innings to a 3.33 ERA, a fitting end to his time in the Big Apple. That offseason, the Yankees put forth a weak attempt to re-sign Key and he wound up with the rival Orioles, and there was no small amount of criticism that they received.

“They looked at this as a business decision,” Key said of the Yankees’ front office, who ultimately replaced him with Orioles free agent David Wells. “This is the way the game is these days. Players move. It was my time to move again.”

Torre, who would go on to have a frosty relationship with Wells, sounded a warning sign almost as soon as the two players switched uniforms. “I’m partial to the guys who were on the club last year, especially Jimmy Key,” he said. “Jimmy Key proved he can win in the postseason. We’ll see if David Wells can do that.”

Key was terrific for the Orioles in 1997, 16-7 with a 3.43 ERA, then declined in 1998, after which he retired with a career record of 186-117, a 3.51 ERA and a 1.229 WHIP.

⚾ April 22, 1959: Whitey Ford tied the franchise record for strikeouts in a game with 15 against the Senators, although he needed 14 innings to do so. Of course, that was probably the more amazing feat on this day during the Yankees 1-0 victory at Griffith Stadium. Bob Shawkey set the Yankees record when he struck out 15 in a Sept. 27, 1919 against the A’s, but that came in a nine-inning 9-2 victory. Ford got no support from his teammates and the game was scoreless for 13 innings before Moose Skowron hit a home run off Chuck Stobbs in the top of the 14th. Even then, manager Casey Stengel opted against a reliever to close it out and sent Ford back to finish what he started. This was a different time in baseball.

⚾ April 23, 2000: Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada became the first teammates in MLB history to homer from both sides of the plate in the same game as they led the Yankees to a 10-7 victory over the Blue Jays. Since then, it has only been accomplished one other time by Detroit’s Felipe Lopez and Tony Clark in 2009. Williams hit a two-run shot in the first, Posada hit a solo blast in the second, and then during a seven-run fourth, Williams hit a three-run shot and Posada a two-run dinger. The pair combined to drive in eight runs.

⚾ April 24, 1917: The Yankees’ George Mogridge - who was born and raised in Rochester and played baseball for the University of Rochester - produced a double dose of history as he threw the first no-hitter in Yankees hitter, and also the first at six-year-old Fenway Park as the Yankees beat the defending World Series champion Red Sox 2-1. Boston’s run came courtesy of two walks, an error and a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Walsh. But the Yankees won the game with a run in the ninth as Roger Peckinpaugh singled, stole second and went to third on a throwing error, and scored on yet another error, one of four the Red Sox made. Mogridge struck out three and walked three.