Although you wouldn’t have known it at the time, if you were in attendance at Yankee Stadium on April 30, 2000, you would’ve gotten a chance to see two all-time pitching legends on the mound.
By 2000, you would’ve known that about Yankees’ starter Roger Clemens, who had already won five of his seven Cy Young Awards. However, you definitely wouldn’t have known it about Roy Halladay, who was on the mound for the visiting Blue Jays.
The 2000 season was still very early in Halladay’s career, and he infamously struggled so bad in it that he was sent to the minors to work out some kinks. He did so and soon got back on a path to the Hall of Fame.
On this day, it was the veteran ace who got the better of the up-and-coming one.
April 30: Yankees 7, Blue Jays 1 (box score)
Record: 15-8 (1.5 GA in AL East)
Early on, both pitchers looked at the top of their game. Through the top of the fifth inning, neither Clemens nor Halladay had allowed a run, with Clemens allowing just a couple singles, and Halladay managing to work around some trouble in the second and third innings, but otherwise looking good. Eventually, the Yankees got to the future star in the bottom of the fifth.
A walk to Jorge Posada and singles from Shane Spencer and Scott Brosius loaded up the bases. While Halladay then struck out Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter to keep the runners in place, Paul O’Neill came up with a two-out double into the gap. Everyone came around to score, breaking the deadlock in a big way.
Toronto got one of those runs right back in the sixth. After putting on a couple runners to start the inning, Clemens eventually allowed an RBI single to Marty Cordova, getting the Jays on the board.
It didn’t take the Yankees long to answer back in an even bigger way, though. While the Yankees started the inning in good fashion, Ricky Ledée hit into a force out at second and was then thrown out trying to steal the bag. Once again down to their last out of the inning, the Yankees’ offense got something going.
Following a Posada walk, Shane Spencer went deep for a two-run homer. A Brosius single then knocked out Halladay, but Knoblauch and Jeter recorded back-to-back hits off reliever John Frascatore, scoring another two runs.
Clemens bounced back with a scoreless seventh to definitively win the day on the pitching front. While he allowed seven hits and two walks, he allowed only one run in seven innings, striking out eight batters. Meanwhile, the Yankees got Halladay for six runs on eight hits and three walks in 5.2 frames. Halladay’s ERA for the season went to 10.57. As mentioned, his 2000 season was bad enough that it got him demoted to the minors, but it wouldn’t be too long until he became a legend in his own right.
Following Clemens, Jeff Nelson got the eighth and Mike Stanton the ninth. Nelson briefly got into some trouble by allowing two singles, but in the end both threw scoreless innings to seal the Yankees’ win.
While the pitching matchup on April 30, 2000 wasn’t necessarily anything interesting at the time, in retrospect, that would’ve been a fun little game to be at, even if one of the participants wasn’t at their best yet.
Read the full 2000 Yankees Diary series here.
