Yankees 1998 Tracker: Game 44

Hideki Irabu in 1998.

From now until the end of the season, we will be tracking the progress of the current Yankees against the 1998 World Championship team that won 114 games in the regular season.

Through 44 games:
2018: 31-13

Monday night: Yankees 10, Texas 5

Gleyber Torres had another big night, as he launched two home runs and had three RBI to lead the Yankees to a 10-5 win in Texas.

Torres' first homer was a two-run shot, part of a second inning in which the Yankees put up three runs. 

In the fourth, Torres got hit by a pitch from Texas' Bartolo Colon, and he got his revenge in the sixth when he hit a solo shot to make it 6-4 Yankees. The Yankees tacked on two more in the sixth to make it 8-4, and a two-run homer from Aaron Hicks in the ninth made it 10-5 and put the game away.

Masahiro Tanaka earned the win for the Yankees and improved to 5-2 on the season, as he went five innings, and allowed four runs on three hits and four walks, with three strikeouts.

1998: 34-10

Monday, May 25, 1998: Yankees 12, Chicago White Sox 0

Hideki Irabu threw a complete game shutout, as he scattered six hits and five walks, while striking out six, to improve to 4-0 on the season, with a 1.13 ERA.

Irabu was staked out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning, as the Yankees got a two-run double from Paul O'Neill and two-run singles from Jorge Posada and Scott Brosius. That knocked out Chicago starter Jaime Navarro, who went just 1/3 of an inning.


The Yankees added to their lead in the fourth, when Derek Jeter had an RBI triple, followed by an RBI single from Bernie Williams that made it 8-0.

In the sixth, O'Neill had an RBI single, and Williams followed that with a three-run homer to make it 12-0.

Where They Stand: The 2018 Yankees (31-13) are three games off the pace of the 1998 Yankees, who were 34-10 through the first 44 games of the season.