1999 Yankees Diary, May 29: Cone cruises in Canada

It can’t have been too much fun to have been an AL East team in the Yankees 1996-2000 dominant period. Just as an example, in the historic 1998 season, the Yankees went 33-15 against their four AL East foes, winning the division by 22 games. The one team that regular played the Yankees close that year was the Toronto Blue Jays, who managed a 6-6 record, while only scoring five fewer runs than the Yankees in those 12 games.

That was not the case in the two teams’ season series in 1999. The Yankees went 10-2 against Toronto in ‘99, and the May 29th game was an epitome of how the season series went: a fairly straightforward win for the Bombers.

May 29: Yankees 8, Blue Jays 3 (box score)

Record: 28-19 (0.5 GB)

On the mound that day in Toronto, it was a battle of semi-recent AL Cy Young Award winners, as 1994 winner David Cone went for the Yankees, and ‘96 winner Pat Hentgen took the hill for Toronto. Whereas Cone had mostly remained a very good pitcher in the time since he won the honor, Hentgen was coming off a so-so season in 1998 and wasn’t much better to start ‘99. However over the first two innings, Hentgen traded zeroes with Cone, until the third inning.

Hentgen issued a walk to Chad Curtis to start the top of the third, and the Yankees quickly took advantage. Two batters later, Derek Jeter followed that up with a triple, scoring a run. Paul O’Neill followed that with a deep fly out that was enough for Jeter to tag up and score another run.

After retiring the first nine batters he faced, Cone worked in and out of some trouble in the bottom of the fourth. Immediately after that, he was rewarded with a bunch more support from the Yankees’ offense. After retiring Jorge Posada to start the fifth, Hentgen allowed two hits, the latter of which was a RBI double from Chuck Knoblauch. In the next at-bat, Derek Jeter drew a walk, but on ball four, Knoblauch attempted to steal third. Jays third baseman and former Yankee Tony Fernández couldn’t corral the throw, allowing Knoblauch to advance another base and score. Hentgen then gave up another single, which would lead to the end of his day after just 4.1 innings.

Toronto manager Jim Fregosi went to rookie reliever Tom Davey after that, but it didn’t stop the Yankees’ offense from adding on. Against Davey, the Yankees picked up two more hits, a walk, a hit by pitch, and a sacrifice fly. By the time the dust had settled on the inning, they had a 7-0 lead. Hentgen ended up getting dinged with six runs on the day, leaving his ERA for the season at 5.08.

Cone followed that slight jam in the fourth by retiring another nine in a row. However, his scoreless day eventually came to an end in the seventh inning. While he quickly got two outs in the frame, a walk to José Cruz and a single by Dave Hollins kept the inning alive. Pat Lennon then got the Blue Jays on the board with a two-RBI double. Cone eventually got out of the inning, but that would be the end of his day. While his final line doesn’t look quite as clean as it could’ve, Cone was very good on the day. In seven innings, he allowed two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out seven batters.

The Yankees were plenty in control already, but they got an insurance run for the road in the ninth inning on a Shane Spencer home run. Toronto picked up a run in the bottom of the ninth off Jason Grimsley, but it was way too little, and way too late for them, as the Yankees finished off an 8-3 win. With the victory, the Yankees moved to 6-0 on the series against the Jays. While they weren’t on a pace to match their exploits from 1998, the 1999 Yankees felt like they were back.

Read the full 1999 Yankees Diary series here.