Monday, November 2, 2009
2009 World Series Game 5 Complaint Thread
This was a winnable game, but the Yankees couldn’t quite come all the way back from the hole that A.J. Burnett and Phil Coke put them in. Back to the Bronx for Game 6…
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Yankees.com: Johnny lately: Yanks’ 9th makes it a 3-1 Series
PHILADELPHIA—Johnny Damon and Alex Rodriguez stunned Brad Lidge and the Citizens Bank Park crowd with a memorable rally in the top of the ninth inning on Sunday, stealing a 7-4 victory in Game 4 of the World Series and taking a commanding 3-1 advantage.
After Pedro Feliz put the Phillies back in the game with a game-tying home run off Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning, Damon rose to the occasion by working a nine-pitch at-bat off Lidge before reaching with a two-out single.
In the span of three outs, this game went from awesome to crappy to super awesome.
CC Sabathia pitched pretty well on three days rest again, although his night ended when he gave up a HR to Chase Utley that cut the Yankee lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh. With Phil Hughes’s playoff struggles, Joe Girardi went with Joba Chamberlain to try and hold the 4-3 lead, and after Joba struck out Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez swinging with 97 mph fastballs, it sure seemed smart. Then Feliz took a 97 mph fastball out for a game tying HR. So instead of being three outs away from taking a commanding 3 games to 1 lead, the possibility of Philadelphia tying the series and heading into a Game 5 with their best pitcher going was very real, and very scary.
Brad Lidge was incredibly good last year, and this year he’s been incredibly bad. Of course he’s probably neither as good as he was in 2008 or as bad as he was in 2009. Lidge was able to retire Hideki Matsui and Derek Jeter in the top of the ninth, which brought up Damon with two outs and none on. Damon singled on the ninth pitch of the AB, bringing up Mark Teixeira.
The Phillies, like most teams, play a defensive shift when Teixeira is hitting lefty, like he was against the righty Lidge. So when Damon attempted a steal of second base and slid in, the third baseman Feliz was the one who received the throw from Carlos Ruiz in the attempt to catch Damon. As Damon slid into 3B, he noticed this and also noticed that Lidge was not covering 3B so he took off for third in a foot race with Feliz that he won handily.
With two outs, that didn’t mean that Damon would be able to score on an out, but it did mean he could score on a passed ball or a wild pitch. Whether that changed Lidge’s approach or not, we don’t really know, but it was a smart, heads-up play.
Lidge followed up by hitting Teixeira, which brought up Mr. October, Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez smacked an RBI double, and the Yankees were back on top. Jorge Posada followed with a 2 run single to expand the lead to three, and then Mariano Rivera sliced through the Phillies on eight pitches to close out the win.
As Yankee fans, we know that no lead in a seven game series is insurmountable, but now the Yankees are set up about as well as they could hope to be. All they have to do is win one of three games, two of which would be at home, behind one of A.J. Burnett, Andy Pettitte, or CC Sabathia.
You’ve got to like their chances of pulling that off, right?
Yankees.com: Homers, Pettitte pace Yanks to victory
PHILADELPHIA—Alex Rodriguez belted the first video-reviewed home run in World Series history to support another winning Andy Pettitte effort as the Yankees defeated the Phillies, 8-5, in Game 3 of the Fall Classic on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.
Nick Swisher and Hideki Matsui also homered for the Bombers, who overcame Jayson Werth’s two-homer evening as Pettitte won his Major League-leading 17th postseason game, guiding the Yankees into the drivers’ seat with a 2-1 World Series lead.
So much for the return of ‘postseason A-Rod’, huh? Nice to see Nick Swisher having a good game too. Now if only Robinson Cano could do that…
Pettitte’s pitching line wasn’t great, but he was in there for his bat anyway as he singled in a run. Aside from a solo HR allowed by Phil Hughes, the Yankee pen was great. Damaso Marte has been outstanding after a disappointing start to his Yankee career, and Joba Chamberlain retired all three batters he faced. And of course, the best out-getter in the history of the MLB post-season did what he does best to close it out.
With this win, the Yankees have reclaimed home field advantage, and with CC Sabathia going against Joe Blanton in Game 4 later today, they have an advantageous pitching matchup and a very good chance at a 3-1 Series lead. However, we need to remember that the Phillies have a sizeable advantage on the Yankees in terms of swagger, and we also need to remember that Philadelphia won’t be intimidated by the Yankees. You can’t quantify either of those things, but they’re huge. Huge, I tell ya.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Yankees.com: Behind Burnett, Yanks even World Series
A sixth-inning homer by Hideki Matsui Thursday turned a duel in the Yanks’ favor, sparking a 3-1 win over the Phillies that tied the Fall Classic and ended with six outs by Mariano Rivera.
As one of the few bloggers who didn’t ridicule the A.J. Burnett signing, I feel vindication for one night. For all the crap I see about him being a ‘head case’, I’d ask, would a head case be able to pitch as well as Burnett pitched tonight in the most important game of his career and his team’s season?
Burnett was awesome. With better defensive support he shouldn’t have allowed a run, and you can probably make a case that this was the best start by a Yankee pitcher this postseason. I was dreading the Burnett vs. Ryan Howard matchups, and Burnett struck out Howard three times.
Burnett pretty much had to be awesome, because the Yankee offense once again was not. Granted, a lot of that should be credited to Pedro Martinez, but the fact of the matter is the Yankee offense in the 2009 postseason has made a lot of pitchers look really good.
I never really liked Pedro, but I always respected his ability and his talent. I think I respect him even more after watching how he pitched tonight minus his peak velocity. He essentially matched Burnett for most of the game.
As far as the Yankee offense, they weren’t great, but a couple of HRs by Mark Teixeira and Hideki Matsui and a pinch-hit RBI single by Jorge Posada got them enough runs to back up Burnett’s seven innings of one run ball.
When Derek Jeter showed bunt after Posada drove in the third Yankee run of the game, I didn’t have a problem with it. As I’ve mentioned before, the decision on whether to bunt or not is not binary, and there are a lot of factors involved in determining if it makes sense or not.
With a two run lead, and with no outs and runners on first and second, I can see the logic behind a sacrifice bunt to increase the odds of tacking on at least one run.
That being said, once the count went to two strikes, there iS NO excuse for trying to bunt. Jeter’s a smart player, but that was a STUPID play and basically handed the Phillies a free strikeout. Another blown call by the umpires ended the inning anyway, so I guess it didn’t matter, but it was still stupid.
After the seventh, the Yankees turned to Mariano Rivera to get six outs. In the eighth he got an out then walked Jimmy Rollins and allowed a single to Shane Victorino, which brought up Chase Utley as the go-ahead run. Rivera got Utley to ground into what was called an inning-ending double play, although the replay showed Utley probably beat the throw to first. Unlike the inning-ending bad call by the umpires in the Yankee half of the seventh, Fox did not gloss over this one for whatever reason.
Mo quickly got the first two outs in the ninth, but a Raul Ibanez double to left center brought up Matt Stairs as the tying run. Mo’s 39th pitch of the game, a 2-2 cutter down got Stairs swinging, and the Yankees leveled the Series at 1.
Maybe these guys don’t suck after all…
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Yankees.com: Yanks walk off on Cabrera’s hit in ninth
NEW YORK—Much has been made of the abundance of home runs flying out of the new Yankee Stadium. And while Saturday afternoon’s game saw four balls leave the park, it was another trend in the Yankees’ new digs that landed them the win.
With one out in the ninth inning, Melky Cabrera laced a single into right-center, scoring Robinson Cano and giving the Yankees a 5-4 walk-off win over the Phillies, in front of a crowd of 46,889.
Melky’s making a lot of us look dumb, huh? I hope he can keep it up.
This team sure has been fun to watch lately.
And this is cool too.
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