In addition to everything else that was wrong with the Yankees during 15 games from hell, from their wayward hacks to their joyless nature, they came across as mentally weak. Fragile. No more stomach for battle.
They seemed to be everything their dynastic ancestors were not, at least until Tuesday night, when the Yankees de Braves did what the Yankees of the 1990s used to do to them. They forced them into a tight and tense game, strengthened their at-clubs as the game progressed, released a bullpen, and waited for the Braves to make the fatal mistake.
Nate Jones ‘wild pitch with a tie and bases loaded in the eighth wasn’t exactly Mark Wohlers’ hanging slider for Jim Leyritz in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, but hey, after what these Yanks endured in April, it felt like close enough. It is entirely possible that no modern New York baseball team has ever needed a win on April 20 as badly as the home team needed it in The Bronx.
This 3-1 result that ended a five-game losing streak was not so much a triumph defined by a dramatic upgrade in physical play, but by the strength and spirit it took to win at the highest level . Aaron Hicks sitting on the bench didn’t collapse under the weight of his relegation; he helped his team win instead. He came back in the eighth to make a four-pitch leadoff walk against Tyler Matzek and, after coming to third place on singles by DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge, scored on Jones ’87 mph slider in the dirt.
Aaron Boone would later recount the satisfaction he felt from winning the hard way, doing the little things it takes to survive a strong start from a leading big pitcher like Charlie Morton.
“Even though we haven’t broken it open,” said the manager, “a lot of good things have happened.”
Good things he had sworn did not surprise him. Boone insisted his team’s determination had not been shaken during a period that his boss, Brian Cashman, called “15 games I’d like to forget”.
His players, Boone said, “know they are going to be a beast. They will become a problem, and we will get there. “Beat that down much easier said than done.
Boone was so awful that someone had to take his old friend, Brennan Miller, to a pregame ceremony so the referee could have yelled in the manager’s face, ‘Tighten it up now, okay? Tighten this st. “
In fact, the only Yankee who had the right to feel good walking into the building on Tuesday night was David Cone, who worked on the game as a YES Network analyst. He helped finish the Braves as Toronto’s Game 6 starter in the 1992 World Series. He helped reduce the Braves as the Yankees ‘Game 3 starter in the 1996 World Series. And he helped defeat the Braves as the Yanks’ Game 2 starter in the 1999 World Series.
In total, Cone gave up only five earned runs in four starts and 23 ¹ / ₃ innings of World Series work against Atlanta, with his teams winning all four games. But there is one act that stands out above all others in the Cone-Braves passion play – his decision to challenge his fellow Yankees after losing the first two games of the 1996 World Series at home with a combined score of 16-1. “We’re ashamed here, and they put it right in our faces,” he barked at them. “This has to change.”
Cone changed it by winning Game 3 with a sixth inning breakout that would have put young David Blaine to shame. The Yankees would win five titles after Cone started in Atlanta, or five more than the Braves have won since that night. He ran a clinic where he talked about how to grab a team in crisis by the throat and accepted the immense pressure that came with it.
“I didn’t mind,” Cone said. “I wanted to be that guy.”
A quarter of a century later, when the setting and stakes were completely different, Cone named a number of prominent Yanks who he believes could be that man, including Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge.
“I think they are covered, really,” he said. “They have high-profile, experienced people with strong opinions and a strong dedication. That’s the last thing I’d worry about in that clubhouse. “
And then the 2021 Yankees went out and defeated the Braves like Cone’s Yankees defeated them. When told after the game that the current team finally showed the mental toughness his teams always showed against Atlanta, Cone texted, “Yes. Get the win and run away. “
Don’t look back either. The mentally tough never do.