1999 Yankees Diary, July 16: An uncharacteristic off-night from Mo

The New York Yankees were coming off their first series loss since early June, suffering at the hands of one of their rivals in the National League East the New York Mets. Now, in their first series since the All-Star break, they found themselves down 1-0 against the perennial NL East powerhouse Atlanta Braves, who entered the contest with a 56-34 record on the year.

July 16: Braves 10, Yankees 7 (box score)

Record: 52-36 (1st, 3.0 GA)

The Yankees came up against one of Atlanta’s “big three” pitchers in the second game of the three-game series. Orlando Hernandez took the ball for the Yankees, and lining up against him was Greg Maddux, one of the greatest pitchers in baseball history. But El Duque struck out a pair to start the game, and the Yanks drew first blood on Maddux.

After a single to left field and a steal of second base by Chuck Knoblauch, a runner was in scoring position for Derek Jeter, who proceeded to walk. After a Paul O’Neill fly out that brought up Bernie Williams with one out and two runners on, he took advantage. Shooting a line drive to left field, Bernie brought Knoblauch home and put Jeter at third. Jeter scored on the ensuing Tino Martinez groundout. The score was 2-0 Yankees, early.

The Braves quickly fought back. In the second inning, Ryan Klesko swatted a solo shot to right field to cut the Yankees lead in half. No further runs were scored despite three men left on base via a single, walk, and a hit-by-pitch. Meanwhile, Maddux settled in for the bottom of the second, going 1-2-3 through the Yankees order, and, once again, Atlanta was on the attack. Bobby Cox’s ballclub tied the game via another solo home run from the second batter in the inning. This time, though, it was soon-to-be NL MVP Chipper Jones.

In the bottom of the third, despite Jeter and O’Neill found their way on base with two singles, but nothing was done thanks to a line-drive double play off the bat of Williams. And in the top of the fourth, the Braves hit another home run, this time from leadoff man Andruw Jones.

Thanks to three solo home runs from Braves hitters, they had a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the fourth, but the Yankees offense woke up again against Maddux. A leadoff backward K for Martinez was forgettable, but three straight singles from Chili Davis, Ricky Ledée, and Jorge Posada loaded the bases for Scott Brosius. And with one swing of the bat, Brosius brought in Davis and Ledée with a single, giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead and still two runners on with one out.

Maddux had to contend with the top of the Yankees’ order, and Knoblauch drew a rare free pass off Maddux to load the bases for Jeter. And, in Jeter fashion, he came through in the clutch, sending a single to the outfield and bringing home another run. That would be all for the legendary Maddux in this outing.

But, in concordance with the ebbs and flows of this baseball game, the Braves hitters did not give the Yankees any breathing room. Chipper Jones worked a walk for Atlanta and Brian Jordan drove a double to center field, bringing the third baseman around to score. Then, another home run from Klesko gave the Braves another lead over the Yankees, this time at 6-5. And that would be all for El Duque.

The two relievers who replaced the starters, Mike Remlinger for Atlanta and Ramiro Mendoza for New York, did not allow runs in the bottom of the fifth or the top of the sixth. So the Yankees turned to their future captain to deliver, and Jeter blasted a homer off Remlinger to tie it at 6-6 in the sixth, helping ensure an exciting ending to this ballgame.

Mendoza hurled a smooth top of the seventh inning where he faced the minimum, and the Yankees gave the home crowd more to cheer about after the seventh-inning stretch. Williams hit a triple to right field, giving Martinez an easy task, which he completed by hitting a sacrifice fly that plated Williams to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead heading into the eighth.

With the Sandman, Mariano Rivera, coming to the mound to close the game, it felt like everything was inevitably settled. He remains the best closer in baseball history for a reason. But even icons have bad days from time to time, and this one would end in disaster for Mo. Boone began with a fly ball for the first out of the inning, but Chipper battled his fellow future Hall of Famer for a seven-pitch walk, Atlanta's first runner of the top half of the ninth. Veteran Otis Nixon came in to run, and on a single to center field, he made it to third base still with one out.

For the third time in this game, Klesko contributed to the scoreboard for the Braves with a groundball through the left side, bringing home the tying run. Rivera induced a pop fly to Knoblauch, giving the Yankees a glimmer of hope that they would only need one run in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. Andruw Jones brought those dreams to a screeching halt, smashing his second home run of the game to give Atlanta a 10-7 lead.

After a major gut punch like that to the best reliever of all-time, it was going to be hard to recover.

Indeed, the Yankees went down in order in the bottom of the ninth to cap off an incredible game, but ultimately, another series loss against an NL East opponent. The solace for Mo was that it would be almost a full calendar year before he gave up another long ball, and on the meantime, there would be multiple chances for sweet playoff revenge against Atlanta.

Read the full 1999 Yankees Diary series here.