9/2 - Oakland Coliseum
GAME 1 - '98-Yankees 1, '73-A's 0
Catfish Hunter just might be the best 2-2 pitcher in the league. Sporting a 1.54 ERA the future HOF'er can't seem to buy a break or get his team's offense to support him. Hunter had one less than perfect inning, and paid the price. With no score in the game Chad Curtis walked with 1 out in the top of the 3rd. DH Tim Raines struck out, but "El Capitan" Derek Jeter walked to move Curtis into scoring position. Chuck Knoblauch sliced a single to right to score Curtis and make it 1-0, which is how the game would end. David Cone kept the A's in check by giving up 1 hit in almost 7 innings worth of work. The Yankee pen was able to hold the A's off the scoreboard until the 9th, when "Mo" came on to do what "Mo" does...crush the opposition's hope. This time Mo actually made it interesting when he walked the leadoff hitter Gene Tenace. DH Derron Johnson fanned for the first out and pinch hitter Dick Green singled to center. Billy Conigliaro, who pinch ran for the lead footed Tenace, made a mad dash for 3rd 
only to be cut down by the soft tossing Bernie Williams in center. Talk about shock. The A's manager vehemently argued with the umps as everyone was in total shock that Williams, who's arm couldn't break a pane of glass, could throw out Conigliaro. With 2 outs Rico Carty pinch hit for catcher Ray Fosse and walked to move Green to second, but Mo threw 3 straight hard cutters to Campy Campaneris to strike out the fleet footed shortstop to end the game and preserve the 1-0 group shutout.
9/3-9/4- Yankee Stadium
GAME 2 - Yankees 6, A's 2
El Duque' did not have his "A" stuff, but battled for 4 tough innings before he finally succumbed to injury. The battle hardened Cuban refuge did not inform anyone that his left knee was killing him and tried to find a way to gut it out. Once it started raining in the 5th and the mound became a slippery nightmare El Duque' finally couldn't take the pain and was replace by Ramiro Mendoza, who was outstanding. The versatile Mendoza threw 3+ innings in relief and did not allow a run. Darren Holmes notched his 2nd save of the season in place of Mo, who threw too many pitches the night before. Oakland's Ken Holtzman could never get it going as the
Yanks nickled and dimed him with a run here and there over 7 innings of work. New York never issued the official knock out blow, but they did manager to score 6 runs in Holtzman's 7 innings of work. New York produced 14 hits. Jeter was 3 for 5 with 2 RBI's and Paul O'Neill and Jorge Posada each had homers. Reggie Jackson went 2 for 4 and had a solo shot in a losing effort.
GAME 3 - A's 16, Yankees 6
G
eorge Steinbrenner called Hideki Irabu a "big fat toad", based on the Japanese star's lack of performance on the grand stage called major league baseball. The "big fat toad" allowed Oakland to post a big fat crooked number on the scoreboard. 11 of Oakland's 16 runs were charged to Irabu, who couldn't even make it out of the 4th inning. Oakland posted 4 spots in the 1st, 4th and 5th innings. Five Athletic batters (Bando, Fosse, Jackson, Kubiak and Mangual) all went deep. Ted Kubiak was the offensive star of stars going 3 for 3 with 5 RBI and 2 runs scored. Campaneris was
4 for 5 and Sal Bando was 3 for 5, which sadly raised his average to .169. Vida Blue went the distance and was humming along until he gave up 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th, which was probably around the point where he lost total interest and the game was well out of reach. Blue went the distance, while New York trotted out a host of no-name journeymen to eat up innings due to the "fat toad's" early exit.
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