Hideki Irabu shut out the Tigers and got them to fly out a whopping 19 times, leading New York to 6-0 victory.
As the Yankees entered the month of June, they found themselves in an unfamiliar position: sitting a game and a half out of the division lead, and boasting just the fourth-best record in the American League. A 16-9 month, however, not only erased that deficit in the division, but gave the team a three game lead, and as the calendar flipped to July, only Cleveland stood in their way towards reclaiming their place atop the American League standings.
July 1: Yankees 6, Tigers 0 (box score)
Record: 47-29 (1st, 3.0 GA)
Now in his third season with the New York Yankees, Hideki Irabu had built himself a reputation as a coin flip. On some nights, he’d get the ball and give you six or seven strong innings, looking to all the world like a potential ace; other nights, he wouldn’t even get out of the fourth (and in 1999, that meant a lot more than it does today). His season stats weren’t great — a 4.73 ERA and an opponent slash line of .264/.299/.453 heading into action on the 1st of July — and what’s more, you never quite knew what exactly you were going to get.
Against the Detroit Tigers, though, manager Joe Torre could not have been more thrilled with Irabu’s performance. Although he struck out just four hitters and walked a pair, he allowed just three hits to record the second complete-game shutout of his career. Detroit’s hitters were unable to square up anything all night, ultimately flying out a total of 19 times. Only three runners reached scoring position: two in the seventh when Juan Encarnación doubled with Tony Clark on first, and one in the ninth when Brad Ausmus walked and advanced to second on a groundout.
On the offensive side of things, the Yankees lineup managed to score in only two innings, but thanks to Irabu’s performance, even just one would’ve been more than enough. Paul O’Neill led off the bottom of the second with a solo home run to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.
Three innings later, the lineup put together a rally against Detroit starter Dave Mlicki. Chuck Knoblauch was plunked to lead off the bottom of the fifth, then stole second base. Bernie Williams grounding out to short stranded him there, but he advanced to third on a Derek Jeter single that put runners on the corners with one out. Two straight singles off the bats of Tino Martinez and O’Neill drove in a pair, and a Shane Spencer double cleared the bases. Spencer advanced to third when Jorge Posada grounded out for the second out of the inning, putting him in position to score on a Ricky Ledée single up the middle. Clay Bellinger grounded out to second to end the frame. All said and done, the Bombers managed five runs on five hits in the fifth inning, giving the Yankees a 6-0 lead.
That’s exactly where things would finish, because Irabu continued to muzzle the Tigers’ bat while the Detroit bullpen kept the Bombers largely grounded for the final half of the frame. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many innings you score in so long as you score enough in that inning — and it doesn’t matter how many runs you score in that inning if your starting pitcher throws up nothing but zeroes. By the time the dust had settled, Irabu only narrowly missed what is now known as a Maddux. The Professor’s contemporary finished his shutout with just 105 pitches.
