1998 Texas Rangers vs New York Yankees ALDS Highlights

[@OccasionalNASCARRaces]

The biggest rivals in baseball always had an AL West team to beat up on in the playoffs (Yankees/Rangers until 2010, Red Sox/Angels until 2009)

[@hmhm856]

David Wells was a STUD, I loved his curveball!!!

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record ala nowadays, the Rangers still would have ended up playing the Yankees- 88 win AL West champ Texas had one fewer win than 89 win AL Central champ Cleveland.

[@hmhm856]

Rangers pitching di not show up in the 1996 Division Series against the Yankees while their hitters did show up, when they faced the Yankees. In this 1998 Division Series, the Rangers pitching showed up, but the Ranger power offense got shut down, as the Rangers only scored one run in three games.

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

And their pitchers DID show up this time. I mean, only 9 runs allowed in 3 games- that's not terrible for the Texas pitching staff.

[@redmustangredmustang]

The Yankees were just on freaking fire from 1998 to 2001. 4 straight World Series appearances, 3 straight World Series wins starting in 1998.

[@josecarranza7555]

Steroids HGH helped the yankees too.

[@adrianselbst6777]

@@josecarranza7555 Really didn't, certainly not in 96 or 98. Bernie led 98 with 28 homers in a year when 7 mlb payers hit 50 or more! Steroids didn't win us those 4 titles, a complete team did. Steroids won it for teams like the Dbacks and Red Sox in that without the roided players' contributions they wouldn't have won. Yanks won on great pitching a young core an amazing bench and timely hitting by guys with great but not HGH level statistics. Clemens is one thing I admit but every start of his he either lost or the Yanks were already up 3-0 in games anyway haha this team for those 5 or 6 years were just perfect. If they'd won with Giambi that'd be an asterisk. But they won World Series such as this one seemingly pretty clean.

[@adrianselbst6777]

@@josecarranza7555 In addition to that the World Series' won in 01 and 04, (Gonzalez hit 57 homeruns, Ortiz went from hitting 10 a year to 50at the age of 29), were at the time that the players were being tested.. which is indicative of what they were in all likelihood on at the time of those series. The late 90's titles were before players like Pettitte and Knoblauch touched that cream stuff they supposedly tried in 2002. Wishful thinking on my part perhaps I know, but hey not proven for 96 or 98 and their stats are solid but not HGH level pop-at-you like the aforementioned of the early 2000's. So no I disagree HGH helped the yanks win those titles. Look at the team on reference. Modest offensive numbers.

[@josecarranza7555]

@@adrianselbst6777 steroids doesn’t always mean hitting a lot of homeruns. People mistake that.

[@adrianselbst6777]

@@josecarranza7555 Very true, but the aforementioned points still stand.

[@iamhungey12345]

You can't blame anyone for thinking the series would be a slugfest since it features two teams that scored over 900 runs, but instead what we got was pitchers' duels.

[@hmhm856]

And after those home runs in game 2 and game 3, along with all those September home runs, Shane Spencer career will be back to what was expected of him. But it was a heck of a run.

[@JahNuhThunDeeTheOneAndOnly]

Just like in 1996, the Rangers lost to the Yankees in the playoffs.

[@ckendall67]

This series wasn't as competitive as their series in '96; the Rangers actually had an outside chance at winning that one vs the Yankees. This time around, not so much. Only 1 run scored in the 3 games played. Not even a 3-hour rain delay during the final game could stop the Yankees from advancing. Especially that '98 Yankees team for sure.

[@Official_Kings_Versus]

@@ckendall67 😉👍

[@Mark-xl1ze]

And will again the next season. They would finally beat them on their way to their first World Series appearance in 2010 before losing to your Giants.

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

@@ckendall67 Don't blame Texas' pitchers- only 9 runs allowed in 3 games.

[@JahNuhThunDeeTheOneAndOnly]

@@Mark-xl1ze Yup

[@cdelano81]

The New York Yankees, on ther strength of their 114-48 record (a 22-game margin of victory in the AL East), open the playoffs as the hunted. The Texas Rangers, winners of the AL West with an 88-74 clip (3 games ahead of ANA), could be a formidable opponent. After all, Texas scored more runs than the Yankees during the Regular Season, and are led by Juan Gonzalez, who drove in 157 to win AL MVP. Yankees' pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre has a dilemma. His son, Todd Stottlemyre is pitching in Game 1 in the House that Ruth Built against the team that gives Mel his paycheck. Well, Mel got the best of both worlds. Todd pitched solidly, allowing only two runs in eight frames, fanning 8. But David Wells fanned 9 in 8 innings allowing no runs, as Rivera finished off the 2-0 Yankees' Game 1 triumph. In Game 2, there were some concerns among the Yankee faithful. Andy Pettitte won 16 games this year but was 2-5 with a 6.46 ERA since late August. Pettite quieted the critics with 7 innings of three-hit one-run ball. And two homers helped Andy's cause as Shane Spencer and Scott Brosius homered off 20-game winner Rick Helling. The Yankees won, 3-1, and went to Texas up 2 games. David Cone stopped any chance the Rangers had of coming back with two-hit shutout ball over five innings. And in the 6th, Paul O'Neill broke the scoreless tie with a blast. Shane Spencer--aka Babe Ruth--added a three-run shot. In two weeks, Shane has 10 home runs. WOW!! Anyway, after a 3 hour rain delay, the Yankees' bullpen finished off the Rangers, 4-0, to sweep the series and move on to the ALCS. But the celebration was bittersweet. Bothered by abdominal pain for two months, Yankees' OF/DH Darryl Strawberry--who hit 24 HRs in 1998, his most in 7 years--finally saw treatment at the advice of his friend and O's OF Eric Davis. Doctors discovered a malignant tumor the size of a walnut in his colon. In layman's terms: cancer. The day after the Yankees' sweep of Texas, Strawberry underwent a successful operation to remove the tumor. Get well soon, Darryl. While Strawberry recovers, the Yankees still need 8 more wins to reach their desired goal.

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

10 HR in 2 weeks for Shane Spencer- that's a pretty good fortnight.

[@cdelano81]

@@chrisuncleahmad666 "Pretty soon, the devil will come back to claim his part of the deal. And 1998's Joe Hardy (Spencer) will have to go back to where he was before he made that deal with the devil. But for now, Shane Spencer is a home run machine." - Bob Costas after Spencers 2nd HR of the series in Game 3.

[@timmylong833]

Those home plate umpires were absolutely horrible, those men should be ashamed of themselves.

[@hmhm856]

WOW, a rain delay of over 3 hours and the game was not called. Makes anyone wonder why the Rangers never got a stadium with a roof, with that extreme Texas weather. And unreal how the stadium looked so empty for a postseason game after the rain delay. Not even the Braves during their postseason era in the 1990s-2000s had so many empty seats when the Braves played division series games during the day Game ended at 1:30 AM Texas time

[@kapo2012fb]

All that offense they had all season ... Texas scored 1 run the whole series

[@hmhm856]

and they would only score one run again in 1999 against Yankees in division series

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

The irony is that Texas allowed only 9 runs in 3 games- that's not terrible for their pitching staff.

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

Only 9 runs allowed in 3 games- Texas pitchers held up better than expected. Can't blame Stottlemyre and Helling- they did their part.

[@adrianselbst6777]

Never even really realized the 98 yanks were kinda kept at bay for this series, texas just did not score.

[@federalbureauofinvestigati6749]

it's fuming when the game ends at 1:30am central time (11:30pm pacific time) that's late! 😡

[@jameslisle7775]

You west coast fans love those early games. Makes sense tho because of those Los Angeles sunsets.

[@federalbureauofinvestigati6749]

lol the games began at 5pm and usually end before 9pm 👍, (I'm from California, BTW)

[@MoveInSilence36]

98 Yankees were dominant

[@hmhm856]

Seriously Rangers, if thats how you gonna hit against Yankees in 98, you should have let the Angels get the AL West

[@chrisuncleahmad666]

If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record ala nowadays, the Rangers still would have ended up playing the Yankees- 88 win AL West champ Texas had one fewer win than 89 win AL Central champ Cleveland. Maybe under a different format, they might have had incentive to pass Cleveland

[@hmhm856]

6:27 OUCH!!!!!!

[@tbewin1z143]

It's 10pm, do you know where your children are?

[@jameslisle7775]

Let’s go Yankees!

[@Official_Kings_Versus]

😉👍

[@Mark-xl1ze]

Ugly series for the Texas Rangers.