2000 American League Championship Series

The 2000 American League Championship Series (ALCS) was a matchup between the East Division Champion New York Yankees and the Wild Card Seattle Mariners. The Yankees had advanced to the Series after beating the West Division Champion Oakland Athletics in the ALDS three games to two and the Mariners advanced by beating the Central Division Champion Chicago White Sox three games to none. The Yankees won the Series four games to two and went on to defeat the New York Mets in the World Series.

Game 1
Tuesday, October 10, 2000 at Yankee Stadium (I) in Bronx, New York

Game 1 at Yankee Stadium started as a pitchers' duel between Mariners' Freddy García and Yankees' Denny Neagle. Neither team would score until the top of the fifth when Mark McLemore hit a two-out ground rule double off Neagle before scoring on a Rickey Henderson single. Alex Rodriguez homered in the sixth to make it 2–0 Mariners. The Yankees could not score any runs off García or three Mariner relievers, so Seattle took a 1–0 series lead.

Game 2
Wednesday, October 11, 2000 at Yankee Stadium (I) in Bronx, New York

In Game 2, the Yankees' offense was again dead silent, this time against Mariner starter John Halama and reliever José Paniagua. Yankees starter Orlando Hernández pitched eight innings giving up just one run, a John Olerud single in the third that scored Mike Cameron, on six hits, but was set to get the loss until the Yankees' offense exploded in the eighth against Arthur Rhodes and José Mesa. David Justice led off with a double before scoring on a Bernie Williams single to tie the game. Back-to-back singles by Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada then gave the Yankees 2–1 lead. Paul O'Neil then hit a sacrifice fly to make a 3–1 game. Mesa replaced Rhodes pitching and gave up a single to Luis Sojo. After Posada was caught stealing for the second out, José Vizcaíno doubled to score Sojo and make it 4–1 Yankees. Vizcaíno would score on a Chuck Knoblauch single before Derek Jeter homered to make it a 7–1 Yankees lead. Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth and the series was tied 1–1 head to Seattle.

Game 3
Friday, October 13, 2000 at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington

The Mariners struck first in Game 3 when Edgar Martínez hit an RBI single off Andy Pettitte that scored Mike Cameron from third. However, the Yankees responded with back-to-back home runs from Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez to lead off the second off Aaron Sele. The Yankees extended their lead to 3–1 when Derek Jeter scored on a double from Chuck Knoblauch. The Mariners made it a one-run game when Rickey Henderson scored on a single from Cameron in the fifth, but the Yankees got that run back the next inning on a Paul O'Neil single to score Bernie Williams. The Yankees scored four runs in the ninth off Brett Tomko to make it an 8–2 game while Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth.

Game 4
Saturday, October 14, 2000 at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington

In one of the most dominant pitching performances in postseason history up to that point, Yankees starter Roger Clemens struck out an ALCS-record fifteen batters in a complete game one-hit shutout of the Mariners. He carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning when Al Martin lined a leadoff double off first baseman Tino Martinez's glove for the Mariners' only hit of the game. Clemens got offensive support when Derek Jeter hit a three-run home run off Paul Abbott in the fifth and David Justice hit a two-run home run off José Mesa in the eighth. The Yankees won 5–0 and were just one win away from the World Series.

Game 5
Sunday, October 15, 2000 at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington

The Mariners struck first in Game 5 when Mike Cameron scored on a sacrifice fly from John Olerud off Denny Neagle in the first. The Yankees responded in the fourth when Luis Sojo hit a two-run double off Freddy García that scored Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada. Their 2–1 lead stayed until the fifth when the Mariners put runners on second and third with one out. Neagle was replaced with Jeff Nelson, who gave up a single to Alex Rodriguez that scored both runners on base, Mark McLemore and Rickey Henderson, giving the Mariners a 3–2 lead. Nelson then gave up back-to-back home runs to Edgar Martínez and John Olerud to make a 6–2 Mariners' lead. Neither team would score afterwards, forcing a Game 6 at Yankee Stadium. Neagle accounted for the loss in the two games of the series that Seattle won and García beat him each time.

Game 6
Tuesday, October 17, 2000 at Yankee Stadium (I) in Bronx, New York

The Mariners again struck first in Game 6, taking a 2–0 lead in the first when Yankees starter Orlando Hernández gave up back-to-back doubles to Alex Rodriguez and Edgar Martínez. Seattle made it 4–0 when Carlos Guillen hit a two-run home run in the fourth. The Yankees responded in the bottom of the inning when Jorge Posada hit a double off John Halama that scored David Justice and Bernie Williams. Posada then scored on a Paul O'Neil single to make it a 4–3 game. The score stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh when the Yankees put runners on first and third with one out off José Paniagua, who was replaced with Arthur Rhodes. Rhodes gave up a three-run home run to David Justice to give the Yankees a 6–4 lead. They would score three more runs in that inning to make a 9–4 game. In the top of the eighth, Alex Rodriguez led off with a home run off Hernández. After walking Edgar Martínez, Hernández was replaced with Mariano Rivera, who gave up a two-run double to Mark McLemore before striking out Jay Buhner to end the inning. Rivera then pitched a scoreless ninth as the Yankees won 9–7 and advance to the World Series.

Composite box
2000 ALCS (4–2): New York Yankees over Seattle Mariners

Television coverage
On September 26, 2000, NBC declined to renew its broadcast agreement with Major League Baseball. After fifty seasons — 1947–1989 and 1994–2000 — Game 6 is the last baseball game that NBC has televised to date. In Houston, due to the coverage of the 2000 Presidential Debate, KPRC-TV elected to carry NBC News' coverage of the debate while KNWS-TV carried NBC's final baseball game.

Aftermath
Alex Rodriguez would leave the Mariners for the Texas Rangers after this series for a ten-year, $250 million deal. Three seasons later, Rodriguez was traded to the Yankees.

The Yankees would go on to beat the New York Mets in the first Subway Series since 1956, four games to one.

The Mariners returned to the ALCS the following season, after they broke the Yankees' record for regular season wins with 116. However, they fared worse in a rematch with the Yankees and were dispatched in five games.