1999 Yankees Diary, September 21: Pettite cruises by White Sox

Crunch time was upon the 1999 New York Yankees , with a baker's dozen games left, and a division lead that had crept down to three games. With every win the defending champs could rest a little easier as the season grew closer to October. They had just won five of their last six, and ended a series with Cleveland by earning their 90th victory and scoring 11 runs. Their effort on this day was not so high-scoring, but the result was all the same against a Central opponent, this time back in the Bronx.

September 21: Yankees 3, White Soxbox score)

Record: 91-59, .607 (1st, 3.0 GA)

Andy Pettitte was making his 29th start of the season in this one, on the heels of a gutty eight-inning effort against the Blue Jays. He started opposite of James Baldwin for Chicago, who actually started off better in this one than the Yankees' lefty.

The Sox tagged Pettitte first in the top of the second, when Carlos Lee pummeled his 14th home run into left-center. It was a solo shot, and gave the Sox a 1-0 lead early on. Baldwin defended the slim lead admirably, setting the Yankee lineup down in order in the second, working around a Chuck Knoblauch single in the third, and facing the minimum again in the fourth.

In the fifth, however, the Yankees finally had their say. Ricky Ledée and D'Angelo Jiménez led the frame off with a pair of back-to-back singles, before a well-placed bunt from Joe Girardi plated Ledée to tie things up. Knoblauch followed with what looked to be a go-ahead single, before Jiménez was gunned down at home. They wouldn't let the chance go to waste though, as Derek Jeter pitched in with a single, before Paul O'Neill found the gap on a booming double into right-center, scoring both Knoblauch and Jeter, arming the Yankees with a sudden 3-1 lead after five innings.

Post Carlos Lee homer, Pettitte settled in rather nicely for the Yankees a quarter-century ago, allowing his fair share of baserunners, but finding a way to keep Chicago scoreless from that point forward. With the lead now intact after five, he kept things that way by working around a Magglio Ordóñez single in the sixth, and one from Brook Fordyce an inning later. Nonetheless, the young lefty did all that he needed to do in this one, finishing 7.1 innings pitched, allowing just one run on six hits, while picking up a trio of Ks in the process.

Baldwin put in a solid day's work for the ChiSox, tossing seven innings of three-run ball, but the lineup couldn't muster enough against Pettitte and company. After the lefty exited the game, the Yankees turned to Jeff Nelson to finish off the eighth inning, who was able to do so in relatively short order.

They then, of course, leaned on Mariano Rivera in the ninth, with number 42 looking for his 42nd save on the season. He began his evening by inducing a flyout from Paul Konerko, and finished his 1-2-3 save effort with a groundout from Chris Singleton, and a pop out courtesy of Darrin Jackson.

With that, Mo had locked down his 42nd save, at the time just one short of his career high, as well as the Yankees' 91st win of the campaign. The Red Sox had beaten the Jays on the same day, with Pedro Martinez striking out 12 in a complete-game shutout, but the Yankees had enough of a lead to control their own destiny. Luckily for them, they had two more games on tap with the middling White Sox as the regular season drew closer to the end.