David Cone’s 2000 campaign can be described as nothing short of a disaster. When the calendar flipped to August, he had a whopping 6.88 ERA in 19 starts, averaging just five and a half innings per game (while that’s pretty decent for today, in 2000 that was atrocious, especially for a pitcher expected to be a top-of-the-rotation starter). Over the month of August, however, Cone seemed to have gotten back on track: he had a 2.74 ERA in four starts, completing at least six innings in three of them. For the first time all season, he looked like the pitcher he had been throughout his career, just when the Yankees, desperate for some stability in the middle of the rotation, needed him.

Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last.

August 25: Yankees 1, Athletics 8 (box score)

Record: 70-55 (1st in AL Eas

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