Beyond anything else that went wrong with the Yankees over 15 games in hell, from their whimsical hacks to their relentless disposition, they ended up being mentally soft. Fragile. Missing stomach for fighting.
They seemed to be all that their dynastic predecessors were not, at least until Tuesday night, when the Yankees did to the Braves what the Yankees of the 1990s had always done. They pressed them into a tight, tense game, they strengthened the bat as the game went on, unleashed a lighted bullpen, and waited for the Braves to make the fatal mistake.
Nate Jones’ wild field with the equal score and bases loaded in eight was not exactly the slide that Mark Wohlers hung on Jim Leyritz in Game 4 of the 1996 World Series, but hey, after enduring these Yanks in April, he felt good enough. close. It’s very possible that no modern baseball team in New York has ever needed an April 20 victory as much as the home team needs it in the Bronx.
This 3-1 result that ended a five-game losing streak was not a triumph defined by a dramatic improvement in the physical game, as much as the grace and spirit needed to win at the highest level. Aaron Hicks of the bench did not collapse under the weight of his demotion; he helped his team win in return. He reappeared in the eighth to take a four-step walk in front of Tyler Matzek and, after finishing third in singles from DJ LeMahieu and Aaron Judge, scored on Jones’ 87 mph slider in earth.
Aaron Boone will later talk about the satisfaction he felt in winning the hard way, in doing the little things needed to survive a strong start from a distinguished big game player like Charlie Morton.
“Even if I didn’t open it,” said the manager, “a lot of good things happened.”
The good things he swore did not surprise him. Boone maintained that his team’s decision had not been shaken in a while, his boss, Brian Cashman, called it “15 games I would like to forget.”
His players, Boone said, “I know they will be a beast. It will be a problem and we will get there. ” File that is much easier said than done.
Things were going so badly for Boone that someone should have brought his old friend, Brennan Miller, for a pre-game ceremony, so the referee could have shouted in front of the manager, “Gather him right now. , OK? Squeeze this. ”
In fact, the only Yankee who had the right to feel good walking in the building on Tuesday night was David Cone, who worked on the game as a YES Network analyst. He helped complete the Braves as the starter of Toronto’s Game 6 in the 1992 World Series. He helped reduce the Braves as the starter of the Yankees Game 3 in the 1996 World Series. He also helped clean up the Braves as a starter. 2 by Yanks in the 1999 World Series.
In total, Cone has allowed just five rounds won in four starts and 23 innings in the World Series working against Atlanta, with his teams winning all four games. But there is one act that stands out above all others in the passionate Cone-Braves game – his decision to challenge his Yankees teammates after losing the first two games of the 1996 World Series at home with a combined score of 16-1. “We’re embarrassed here and they’re right in front of us,” he barked. “This needs to change.”
Cone changed it by winning Game 3 with an escape in the sixth half that would have embarrassed young David Blaine. The Yankees would win five titles after Cone started in Atlanta, or five more than the Braves would win that night. He ran a clinic on how to grab a team with a sore throat, accepting the immense pressure that came with it.
“It didn’t bother me,” Cone said. “I wanted to be that guy.”
A quarter of a century later, with a completely different setting and stake, Cone named a number of prominent Yanks he believes could be that type, including Gerrit Cole, Giancarlo Stanton, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge.
“I think they’re covered, they really do,” he said. “They have people with a high profile, with experience, with strong opinions and a strong commitment. This is the last thing I would have worried about in that club. ”
And then the 2021 Yankees came out and defeated the Braves just as they defeated Cone’s Yankees. When told after the game that the current team has finally shown the mental toughness that his teams have always shown against Atlanta, Cone wrote, “Yes. Win and run. ”
Don’t even look back. The mentally tough never do it.