Kazuhiro Sasaki
The opener at Yankee Stadium on a cool night was a pitchers' duel between Freddy García and Denny Neagle, and the game was scoreless through four innings. In the top of the fifth, Mark McLemore got Seattle's first hit, a two-out ground-rule double lined down the left field line, then scored on a Rickey Henderson single slapped to right field. Alex Rodriguez led off the sixth inning with a home run high off the left field foul pole's screen to give the M's another. In the bottom half, Chuck Knoblauch led off with a double and Derek Jeter walked; Paul O'Neill and Bernie Williams struck out, then David Justice flew out deep to center to end the threat. The Yankees outhit the Mariners by one, but could not score off García ( innings) and relievers José Paniagua, Arthur Rhodes, and Kazuhiro Sasaki; Seattle took the opener with a 2–0 shutout.