Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Phillies (93-69) @ Yankees (103-59), Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 7:57pm **Game Chatter**
Philadelphia Phillies
Jimmy Rollins, SS (.250/.295/.423, 1.8 WAR)
Shane Victorino, CF (.292/.356/.445, 2.6 WAR)
Chase Utley, 2B (.282/.397/.508, 7.0 WAR)
Ryan Howard, 1B (.279/.360/.571, 3.8 WAR)
Jayson Werth, RF (.268/.373/.506, 4.3 WAR)
Raul Ibanez, DH (.272/.347/.552, 4.0 WAR)
Ben Francisco, LF (.257/.329/.447, 0.2 WAR)
Pedro Feliz, 3B (.266/.307/.386, 0.8 WAR)
Carlos Ruiz, C (.255/.351/.425, 2.0 WAR)
Total, (.270/.347/.475, 26.6 WAR)
New York Yankees
Derek Jeter, SS (.334/.404/.465, 5.7 WAR)
Johnny Damon, LF (.282/.364/.489, 3.1 WAR)
Mark Teixeira, 1B (.292/.383/.565, 4.7 WAR)
Alex Rodriguez, 3B (.286/.402/.532, 3.5 WAR)
Jorge Posada, C (.285/.363/.522, 1.3 WAR)
Hideki Matsui, DH (.274/.366/.509, 1.9 WAR)
Robinson Cano, 2B (.320/.352/.520, 3.5 WAR)
Nick Swisher, RF (.249/.369/.498, 3.0 WAR)
Melky Cabrera, CF (.274/.333/.416, 0.9 WAR)
Total, (.291/.372/.502, 27.6 WAR)
Yankee Win Probability: 56.2%
Phillies in four.
Two former Cleveland Cy Young winners face off as the World Series kicks off tonight in the Bronx.
For much of the season, I’ve harped on the importance of the games. In general, they were all important because of what they meant as far as the Yankees making the World Series. Well, guess what? They made it.
By my estimation, the Yankees played 110 important games this season, and they went 110-0 in those games. Importance is cumulative, so the first game was important, and the second game was twice as important, and so on and so forth. So tonight’s game is 1.29807E+33 times as important as the first important game.
That’s pretty freaking important. If I had to guess, it’s probably the most important game in the history of the Yankees.
It’s also important to win tonight’s game because the Yankees are throwing their best pitcher and have home field advantage. While losing it wouldn’t be crippling, it would shift favorite status to Philadelphia.
It won’t be easy, because they’ll be facing Cliff Lee tonight. Lee was just as valuable as CC this year during the regular season, and as amazing as CC has been in the postseason, Lee’s been even better.
Sabathia: 22.7 IP, 17 H, 1 HR, 3 BB, 20 K, 1.59 RA, 1.19 ERA, 2.54 FIP, opponents batting:.205/.241/.290
Lee: 24.3 IP, 14 H, 0 HR, 3 BB, 20 K, 1.48 RA, 0.74 ERA, 1.93 FIP, opponents batting:.165/.193/.207
Granted, Lee’s numbers came against what we should probably assume is worse competition and some pitchers, but the run environment in the NL playoffs has been a good amount higher than the AL’s, which probably mitigates that somewhat.
Add in the fact that the Phillies have a bunch of lefty power hitters taking aim at a disgracefully short porch in RF, and the Yankees probably have a tough hill to climb.
Maybe they’ll get lucky and the wind will be blowing in and Girardi makes good use of bunting and pinch-running and the Yankees can squeeze out a 1-0 win.
Maybe.
Go Yankees.
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