1999 Yankees Diary, May 20: El Duque shines at Fenway

05/20/2024 10:30 AM

A fantastic outing from El Duque leads a sputtering Yankees team to a win in the final game of an already-lost series versus the Red Sox.

After losing eight of their last ten games, including the last two to the Boston Red Sox in the three-game rivalry series, the Yankees needed to find a way to improve before the end of May struck. They had already sealed a series defeat at Fenway Park before the commencement of this final game of the series. All the same, any time you can beat the Red Sox, it provides a chance to gain some confidence with even more important American League series coming up shortly, including a rematch against Boston at Yankee Stadium in the final week of May.

May 20: Yankees 3, Red Sox 1 (box score)

Record: 22-17, .553 (0.5 GB)

These two AL East rivals at the top of the standings had been battling with each other all series, and this game was no different.

The starter for the Yankees, Orlando Hernández or "El Duque", and the starter for the Red Sox, Mark Portugal, went tit-for-tat through the first four innings scoreless, cutting through their opponent's order like a hot knife through butter. But it was in the top of the fifth when the Yankees were finally able to strike.

Tino Martinez led off the inning with a five-pitch walk and ended up reaching third base by the means of two straight groundouts by the hitters behind him — Chili Davis and Jorge Posada. Then, with two outs and a full count, Chad Curtis brought Martinez home for the first run of the game.

Almost the same thing would happen in the top half of the following inning for the Yankees after the Red Sox hitters threatened but didn't end up bringing a run across in the bottom of the fifth. The leadoff hitter, Chuck Knoblauch, was hit by a pitch from Portugal. He then reached third on a single to left by Derek Jeter and a groundout from Paul O'Neill before Bernie Williams hit a sacrifice fly to bring home the Yankees' leadoff man. Portugal ended up finishing the inning for the Red Sox, but that would be his final inning of work.

Meanwhile, El Duque was seemingly untouchable until the bottom of the seventh. Nomar Garciaparra roped a triple to center field off El Duque to begin the inning and Troy O'Leary also sent a ball to center field (this one ended up being a lineout) that allowed Garciaparra to score a run and cut the Yankees' lead in half. Fortunately, after that blip in the action for El Duque, he returned to the form fans had seen from him all game, setting down the next two batters.

Rheal Cormier was the reliever for Boston who was brought in following Portugal's pull after the sixth inning, and after facing four batters in his first inning of work (he only allowed a two-out double to Knoblauch), he was looking to continue that stretch in the top of the eighth. Although the same number of batters came up in the inning, he ended up giving up the third run of the game to the visitors off the bat of Williams, who crushed a ball over the center field wall almost where the stands and the Green Monster meet. He then faced Martinez, who grounded out and was replaced by right-handed reliever Derek Lowe, who faced one batter (Davis) and retired him.

El Duque faced the minimum in the bottom of the eighth, earning a strikeout looking from two of the batters and being on the receiving end of a fantastic play by Jeter at shortstop to field a ball away from him and throw it on the money to first. His final line would read eight innings pitched, two hits, one run allowed, two walks, and six strikeouts. A fantastic start for a pitcher who had not pitched for almost a month and had struggled up to that point.

Then, all it took was Mariano Rivera to save the day, allowing just one hit and no runs in the bottom of the ninth to seal a 3-1 Yankees victory. That gave manager Joe Torre his first victory since returning to the team from prostate cancer treatment.

The Bombers weren't back on track yet, but beating the Red Sox at Fenway is always a good way to boost morale, and on the back of a fantastic pitching performance, they did just that.

Read the full 1999 Yankees Diary series here.