Ugh.... this was the beginning of the end for those Rangers teams of the late '90s. The most successful era in franchise history until 2010 (when they would get their revenge on the Yankees to winning their first-ever pennant).
After the epic season of 1998, the Yankees had a difficult act to follow in 1999, but they still went 98-64 to win the AL East by 4 games. Their familiar first round foes in the ALDS are the same Texas Rangers, 95-67 in 1999, beating out the A's to win the West by 8 games. The Rangers hoped to avenge a sweep by the Yankees in 1998. After all, they scored 945 runs on the year, have AL MVP Pudge Rodriguez on their side. Not to mention Rafael Palmeiro and Juan Gonzalez backing him up. But as the saying goes, the more things change, the more they tend to stay the same. And in Game 1, El Duque and the Yankees trounced the Rangers, 8-0. Bernie Williams drove in five runs as the Yankees held the Rangers to only two hits. "I don't care: Yankee Stadium, Yellowstone Park, we can score more runs like this by accident," states Rangers' Manager Johnny Oates after Game 1. Well, Juan Gonzalez took Andy Pettitte deep in the 4th inning of Game 2 to put Texas up. And the Rangers put runners on second and third with no out in the 5th. But Pettitte escaped with no runs scoring. And the Yankees took it from there, scoring three times to win, 3-1 and take a 2-0 lead to Texas. At Arlington for Game 3, Roger Clemens shut down the Rangers' lineup over his 7 innings of work. Darryl Strawberry homered in the first inning for a 3-0 Yankees' lead. That would end up being the final score for the game and the Yankees swept Texas aside for the second consecutive season. And once again, the Rangers managed only one run TOTAL in three games. For the Yankees, it's back to the ALCS. Question is: against whom?
For a moment, I thought SW uploaded the 1998 ALDS by mistake. Those 98 and 99 Rangers were magical in postseason play. They should have let Angels in 98 and A's in 99 win the division. At least they would have put up a better effort against the Yankees But sadly, this ends the Rangers franchise magical run they have had from 96 to 99. Now comes misery for them for the next 10 years.
If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record without divisional rules ala nowadays, the 95-win Rangers would have ended up playing 97-win Cleveland (they had 1 more win than 94-win WC Boston) You think they would have rather played the Indians?
@@hmhm856 If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record ala nowadays, the Rangers would have ended up playing the Yankees in 98. This year? Had a better record than Wild Card Boston (95 wins to 94). They would have put up a better effort vs the Indians. 98, they'd have been stuck with them even without the 'can't have an LDS between two division teams'. 99, they wouldn't have. The Rangers had a Yankee problem. I doubt they score 1 run in 3 games vs 99 CLE
If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record ala nowadays, the Rangers would have still ended up playing the Yankees last year. This year? Had a better record than Wild Card Boston (95 wins to 94). Would have been the #3 vs #2 CLE. You think they would have rather played the Indians?
Once again, a Texas offensive outage. Games 2-3, Loaiza and Helling did the best they could. If you told the Rangers that NYY will basically score in only 3 of those 18 innings, they'd have taken that in a heartbeat. 6 runs allowed in 2 games combined- I mean, it's not like they gave up 6 runs in each of those last 2 games (Game 1 was a lost cause with 8 runs) But for whatever reason, their bats- which did well all year against other playoff teams- seemingly will never heat up against the omnipotent pinstripers and their October invincibility. The Rangers pitching wasn't great by any means, but quite frankly that was the LEAST of their issues in October. Even in 96, the bullpen was the problem more than the regular rotation.
If the Rangers starters gave them that effort in games 2 and 3, then the offense had to pick it up. But just like in 98, offense got nothing while pitching did their job
Thanks in large part to Cliff Lee. The Rangers won all three road games in that series. For whatever reason, they sucked at home in the postseason especially in the Division Series. All-time home record in the Division Series is 1-11.
This was Juan Gonzalez final season with the Rangers (well, the end of his first stint with the Rangers), as he will be traded to the Tigers in the offseason for many players. Rangers will acquire Francisco Cordero in that deal, who will be a huge part of the 2004 cinderella Rangers.
WOW Rangers, talk about a dejavu from 1998!!!!!!! Once again, getting spanked!!!! Last year, you should have lets the Angels win the division. And this year 1999, you should have let the A's win the division. At least they would have given the Yankees a bit of competition. Pudge-Palmeiro-JuanGon, invisible.
If the 4 playoff teams were seeded by record ala nowadays, the Rangers would have still ended up playing the Yankees last year. This year? Had a better record than Wild Card Boston (95 wins to 94). Would have been the #3 vs #2 CLE. You think they would have rather played the Indians? (Probably would have been a more fun series than another Yankee rerun) Heck, NYY/BOS and TEX/CLE both would have been more interesting LDS.
