A big second inning allows the Yanks to coast to victory a quarter century ago.
After a trip down the East Coast, the Yankees returned to the Bronx and opened up a series with the Rangers with a win, and looked to secure a second with David Cone on the bump. The hard-hitting middle of the Texas lineup couldn’t muster enough against Cone, and one big inning from the Yankee bats propelled them to a second straight victory.
June 15: Yankees 6, Rangers 2 (box score)
Record: 37-25 (1st, 1.5 GA)
David Cone was coming off a handful of shaky starts, lugging around a 5.10 ERA over his last five outings. You wouldn’t know it by how he pitched in this one, though, as both he and Ryan Glynn for Texas kept things even in the first inning.
In the second, however, this game was ultimately decided. The Rangers got to Cone first, when Rafael Palmeiro led off the inning with a walk and Lee Stevens promptly scored him with a line drive double. Now armed with a 1-0 lead, Glynn proved unable to replicate his 1-2-3 first inning.
Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez got the party started with a walk and a single, respectively, before the hot bat of Chili Davis tied things up with an RBI knock. Two batters later, with one out, Luis Sojo plated another with a double into center field. Later, with the bases loaded, Davis was eventually brought home thanks to a wild pitch from Glynn. Now up 3-1, Derek Jeter would not lose the opportunity to strike further with a pair of runners still on, so he belted a classic Jeterian homer over the right field wall, his 12th already on the season. When all was said and done, the Yankees put up a six-spot in the bottom of the second. It was ultimately all New York would get in this one, but also all they would need.
From there, David Cone found his groove. In the third, he managed a 1-2-3 frame with a pair of K’s, worked around a walk in a quiet fourth, and was spotless once again in the fifth. In the sixth, after recording two more uneventful outs, a third seemed on the way when two-time MVP Juan González looped a ball into short center field. Bernie Williams uncharacteristically booted the ball off the heel of his glove, but quickly recovered as González took his time getting to second and was thrown out to end the inning. The error-turned heads-up play kept things at 6-1 headed into the final third of the game.
Coney returned for the seventh, and after Palmeiro and Stevens got into scoring position with a pair of hits, the Rangers scored their second run of the game with a sac fly from Gregg Zaun. Cone got out of the inning unscathed from there, as his solid effort would come to a close after seven innings, allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out six.
