Mandatory Credit: Al Bello/Allsport
After scoring three runs in the first inning to give themselves a nice cushion, starter Dwight Gooden gave them right back in the bottom half against an awful Detroit Tigers lineup. In fact, Gooden didn't even make it out of the first, exiting after two outs and four runs. Tonight marked the shortest outing of his 13-year career.
"I'm confused about the whole thing," Gooden said. "It's not mechanical. There's definitely no pain. I have no answers. The pop ain't there. There's no pop."
Fortunately, the Yankees took advantage of poor Tigers pitching, and pulled out a close victory by a score of 9-8. Ricky Bones came in on relief of Gooden, and gave up two runs. Next in line was Brian Boehringer, who also surrendered two runs. Joe Torre then went to Jeff Nelson, Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland, who overall tossed 3.1 innings of scoreless ball.
The Yankee offense was paced by the middle of the order in Cecil Fielder, Tino Martinez and Paul O'Neill - which drove in a combined five runs. Derek Jeter also set the table for the middle of the order with three hits, including two triples.
With the score tied at eight in the eighth inning, Fielder hit into a fielder's choice which brought home Bernie Williams to give the Yankees the lead. Wetteland came on and put the winning run on first base, but was able to shut the door for the Yankees' 80th win of the season.
New York's division lead stands at just 2.5 games.
Box score and current stats
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E - - - - - - - - - - - - Yankees 3 0 2 3 0 0 0 1 0 9 15 1 Tigers 4 0 2 0 1 1 0 0 0 8 12 0Batting AB R H RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG Jeter SS 5 2 3 1 0 0 .312 .371 .425 Williams CF 5 2 2 1 0 1 .297 .377 .506 Strawberry LF 2 1 0 0 1 0 .257 .358 .491 Raines PH-LF 2 0 1 0 0 0 .288 .368 .403 Fielder DH 4 1 1 1 1 1 .254 .354 .483 Martinez 1B 5 0 2 2 0 0 .300 .369 .484 ONeill RF 5 1 1 2 0 3 .299 .406 .474 R.Rivera RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 .246 .375 .404 Hayes 3B 4 0 2 1 1 0 .253 .304 .376 Duncan 2B 5 1 2 0 0 0 .332 .343 .493 Fox PR-2B 0 0 0 0 0 0 .186 .269 .246 Girardi C 5 1 1 1 0 1 .296 .350 .378
2B:Duncan (29) 3B:Jeter (2) HR:O'Neill (18) RBI:Martinez 2 (109);O'Neill 2 (83);Girardi (43); Fielder (103);Williams (82);Jeter (65);Hayes (70).
Pitching IP H R ER BB SO ERA Gooden 0.2 4 4 4 1 1 4.88 Bones 1.2 4 2 2 2 1 6.03 Boehringer 3.1 2 2 2 3 3 5.84 Nelson BS (2) 0.1 2 0 0 0 1 4.54 M.Rivera W (6-2) 2 0 0 0 0 1 1.92 Wetteland S (39) 1 0 0 0 2 1 3.29
