10/04: New York City... You Are Now Rappin'... With 50 Cent... You Gotta Love It
Posted by: Patrick
So far, so good. They didn't score any runs after the 2nd inning, but the Yankees were able to hold off the Angels to win 4-2 in game 1 of the ALDS.
We started the postseason on the right foot. After Jeter and A-Rod started off the 1st with 2 outs, the Yankees were able to put together 4 straight hits - singles by Giambi, Sheffield and Matsui, capped by a 3 RBI double by Robinson Cano to hand the Yankees the 3-0 lead. It was a great example of taking what you can get. The big bats took their singles and Cano made them pay. During the game, they listed some of Cano's idols (Bernie Williams) and favorites, etc. The Fox graphic said "Favorite Musician". And it said 50 Cent. Joe Buck made a point to say musician twice, but I doubt that that was how it was even posed to Cano. What's his favorite musical artist, his favorite type of music? 50 Cent. A musician is, of course, a person who plays a musical instrumental. Fox should have made their graphic reflect that. So, that's Fox's fault, not Cano's, even though the way Buck said it made it seem like some sort of reflection on Cano. Anywho...
After Bernie and Bubba started off the 2nd with outs, we rallied again. Jeter singled to keep it alive, followed by A-Rod being hit by a pitch (Fox replayed Matsui in the dugout, classic "ouch!") and finally an RBI double off the bat of Giambi. That would make it 4-0.
Moose (the most under appreciated pitcher of recent times? Seriously, Yankee fans generally do not seem to appreciate this guy, yet he's had an incredible run) was on. He threw 98 pitches over 5 and 2/3 innings. He allowed 5 hits, struck out 4 and walked none. After Vladdy Guerrero singled with 2 outs in the 6th, Al Leiter relieved him. Al did the job - with a 1-1 count, he put it low and away, getting Darin Erstad to swing at strike 2. It may have been a hit and run as Vladdy was running on the pitch. Posada threw down - not a good throw - but Jeter made the play and got the out. Replays show that he probably didn't tag him (I thought he may have brushed him), but the Fox guys were pretty adamant, so we'll go with them. Anyway, he was called out and that was the end of the inning.
Leiter was trotted back out to start the 7th and face the lefty Erstad. He started right back where he left off - striking out Erstad. Lefty specialist Leiter had done the job. Torre went to Sturtze, who promptly gave up a solo home run to Bengie Molina - the first run of the game for the Angels. Sturtze would retire former Yankee Juan Rivera before giving way to Flash Gordon. Flash was excellent, retiring the 4 batters he faced (Steve Finley, Adam Kennedy, Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera) in order.
This set the stage for Mariano Rivera in the 9th. And he was good. As is typical, no well hit balls. He retired Garrett Anderson before walking Vlad. Vlad stole second and then Darin Erstad hit a chopper up the middle. Cano misplayed it. It wasn't an easy play - hard to tell how it will bounce, I know - but he stayed back and played it to the side when he should have charged it and got in front of it - playing the ball and not letting the ball play him - like Jeter has done time and time again. If he at least knocks it down (forget making an out) as he should have been able to, the run doesn't score then and might not have scored at all. It was a mistake and I view it as an error as he had the time to react and get in front of it, but it was ruled a single and hence, Mo's postseason ERA goes up because of it. Blast! Anyway, a run scored and Erstad was safe at first. Bengie Molina grounded to Jeter who fired to Cano to start the double play. Only... Cano didn't really look ready to throw. He seemed to lose half a second because of it and when he did throw, he didn't get much on it and bounced it to Tino who couldn't dig it out. If he had made a clean throw, it would have been the ball game. But, it wasn't. And so, the Angels sent up pinch hitter Casey Kotchman to keep hope alive. Mo cut his bat in 1/4 and 3/4 portions, ending the game with a pop to A-Rod.
I can only be so hard on Cano because he did have the big hit and we would have lost without it. Once he tightens up his defensive game, he'll be great. Today, it didn't cost us the game, so it's not a big deal. But, so far for Cano in the postseason, so pretty good. Torre put faith in him, placing him in that 6th spot and he rewarded that faith.
Jeter (2 for 4, 1 run, 1 walk), Giambi (2 for 4, 2B, 1 run, 1 RBI) and Sheffield (2 for 4, 1 run) all had multi-hit days. Matsui (1 for 4, 1 run), Cano (1 for 4, 2B, 3 RBI) and Bernie (1 for 4, 2B) also had hits. The rest of the lineup (A-Rod, Posada and Crosby) combined to go 0 for 11.
Tomorrow we'll have the pleasure (hopefully) of seeing Chien-Ming Wang make the first postseason start of his career against John Lackey (14-5, 3.44). It'll be a late one - starting at 10:00 PM Eastern on ESPN.
We started the postseason on the right foot. After Jeter and A-Rod started off the 1st with 2 outs, the Yankees were able to put together 4 straight hits - singles by Giambi, Sheffield and Matsui, capped by a 3 RBI double by Robinson Cano to hand the Yankees the 3-0 lead. It was a great example of taking what you can get. The big bats took their singles and Cano made them pay. During the game, they listed some of Cano's idols (Bernie Williams) and favorites, etc. The Fox graphic said "Favorite Musician". And it said 50 Cent. Joe Buck made a point to say musician twice, but I doubt that that was how it was even posed to Cano. What's his favorite musical artist, his favorite type of music? 50 Cent. A musician is, of course, a person who plays a musical instrumental. Fox should have made their graphic reflect that. So, that's Fox's fault, not Cano's, even though the way Buck said it made it seem like some sort of reflection on Cano. Anywho...
After Bernie and Bubba started off the 2nd with outs, we rallied again. Jeter singled to keep it alive, followed by A-Rod being hit by a pitch (Fox replayed Matsui in the dugout, classic "ouch!") and finally an RBI double off the bat of Giambi. That would make it 4-0.
Moose (the most under appreciated pitcher of recent times? Seriously, Yankee fans generally do not seem to appreciate this guy, yet he's had an incredible run) was on. He threw 98 pitches over 5 and 2/3 innings. He allowed 5 hits, struck out 4 and walked none. After Vladdy Guerrero singled with 2 outs in the 6th, Al Leiter relieved him. Al did the job - with a 1-1 count, he put it low and away, getting Darin Erstad to swing at strike 2. It may have been a hit and run as Vladdy was running on the pitch. Posada threw down - not a good throw - but Jeter made the play and got the out. Replays show that he probably didn't tag him (I thought he may have brushed him), but the Fox guys were pretty adamant, so we'll go with them. Anyway, he was called out and that was the end of the inning.
Leiter was trotted back out to start the 7th and face the lefty Erstad. He started right back where he left off - striking out Erstad. Lefty specialist Leiter had done the job. Torre went to Sturtze, who promptly gave up a solo home run to Bengie Molina - the first run of the game for the Angels. Sturtze would retire former Yankee Juan Rivera before giving way to Flash Gordon. Flash was excellent, retiring the 4 batters he faced (Steve Finley, Adam Kennedy, Chone Figgins and Orlando Cabrera) in order.
This set the stage for Mariano Rivera in the 9th. And he was good. As is typical, no well hit balls. He retired Garrett Anderson before walking Vlad. Vlad stole second and then Darin Erstad hit a chopper up the middle. Cano misplayed it. It wasn't an easy play - hard to tell how it will bounce, I know - but he stayed back and played it to the side when he should have charged it and got in front of it - playing the ball and not letting the ball play him - like Jeter has done time and time again. If he at least knocks it down (forget making an out) as he should have been able to, the run doesn't score then and might not have scored at all. It was a mistake and I view it as an error as he had the time to react and get in front of it, but it was ruled a single and hence, Mo's postseason ERA goes up because of it. Blast! Anyway, a run scored and Erstad was safe at first. Bengie Molina grounded to Jeter who fired to Cano to start the double play. Only... Cano didn't really look ready to throw. He seemed to lose half a second because of it and when he did throw, he didn't get much on it and bounced it to Tino who couldn't dig it out. If he had made a clean throw, it would have been the ball game. But, it wasn't. And so, the Angels sent up pinch hitter Casey Kotchman to keep hope alive. Mo cut his bat in 1/4 and 3/4 portions, ending the game with a pop to A-Rod.
I can only be so hard on Cano because he did have the big hit and we would have lost without it. Once he tightens up his defensive game, he'll be great. Today, it didn't cost us the game, so it's not a big deal. But, so far for Cano in the postseason, so pretty good. Torre put faith in him, placing him in that 6th spot and he rewarded that faith.
Jeter (2 for 4, 1 run, 1 walk), Giambi (2 for 4, 2B, 1 run, 1 RBI) and Sheffield (2 for 4, 1 run) all had multi-hit days. Matsui (1 for 4, 1 run), Cano (1 for 4, 2B, 3 RBI) and Bernie (1 for 4, 2B) also had hits. The rest of the lineup (A-Rod, Posada and Crosby) combined to go 0 for 11.
Tomorrow we'll have the pleasure (hopefully) of seeing Chien-Ming Wang make the first postseason start of his career against John Lackey (14-5, 3.44). It'll be a late one - starting at 10:00 PM Eastern on ESPN.
Michael wrote:
I also think it is necessary to point out that Torre moved Cano into the sixth hole (as we discussed before) was key, maybe even more so than starting Mussina. Cano came up with that HUGE double in the 1st to score three runs. Next hitter, Posada, weakly grounded out to end the inning.