10/08: Yankees Face Elimination After Losing Slugfest to Angels
Posted by: Seamus
After the first two games of this series featured some pretty good pitching, I figured that last night's game might be the best pitching contest of the series, with Randy Johnson going up against Paul Byrd. It turns out I'm no psychic as the Yankees got rocked for 11 runs and lost the game by a score of 11-7. There were 30 hits in the game between the two teams (19 by the Angels) and 3 errors (2 by the Yankees). Neither starter was able to get through the 4th inning as Johnson allowed 5 runs on 9 hits and Byrd allowed 4 runs on 7 hits. Fourteen players had two or more hits, including Garret Anderson, who had four. Aaron Small got the Yankees out of a first-and-third, nobody out jam in the 4th inning, but recorded the loss as he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits in 2 and 2/3.
The Yankees got off to a rough start as the Unit served up a three-run homer to Garret Anderson in the 1st inning. The Angels made it 5-0 in the 3rd courtesy of Ben Molina's two-run shot. The Yankees began their comeback in the 4th when Hideki Matsui led the inning off with a home run as the Bombers tallied 4 runs in the inning. They took the lead in the 5th on a sacrifice fly by Bernie Williams which scored Cano after he doubled to left center. However, the Yankees would not hold on to that lead for long as the Angels came back with two runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. Derek Jeter cut the lead to 11-7 with a solo shot in the 8th, but that would be all she wrote as that score remained final.
Well, the Yankees are now facing elimination because the guy we brought in during the offseason for games like these couldn't hit his spots. Of course I can't go on talking about this game without mentioning some more sloppy defense on the Yankees' part. I mean how hard is it to keep your foot on the bag until you catch the ball?
The biggest enigma of this series so far has to be Robinson Cano. He's been a hitting machine and the Yankees wouldn't have won Game 1 if it weren't for him, but this is the second straight game in which he's made an error on a routine play, and in the first game he was lucky not to be charged with an error on that ball that got past him in the 9th inning. I understand that none of the errors ended up hurting us in the end, as we would've lost both games regardless. However, I am really impressed on how he's hit for the Yankees so far in the postseason as a rookie and I believe overall he's done more to help the team in the series than he has to hurt them.
The Yankees will send Shawn Chacon to the mound this afternoon in their first (hopefully not last) elimination game of 2005. His opponent will be Jarrod Washburn. Chacon has been a rock for us since coming over from Colorado, and he has shown that he isn't phased by the pressure of pitching in the Bronx. Hopefully today if he can be stopped, it's only because of the weather.
EDIT: Today's game has just been rained out. Game 4 will now be played tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
The Yankees got off to a rough start as the Unit served up a three-run homer to Garret Anderson in the 1st inning. The Angels made it 5-0 in the 3rd courtesy of Ben Molina's two-run shot. The Yankees began their comeback in the 4th when Hideki Matsui led the inning off with a home run as the Bombers tallied 4 runs in the inning. They took the lead in the 5th on a sacrifice fly by Bernie Williams which scored Cano after he doubled to left center. However, the Yankees would not hold on to that lead for long as the Angels came back with two runs in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings. Derek Jeter cut the lead to 11-7 with a solo shot in the 8th, but that would be all she wrote as that score remained final.
Well, the Yankees are now facing elimination because the guy we brought in during the offseason for games like these couldn't hit his spots. Of course I can't go on talking about this game without mentioning some more sloppy defense on the Yankees' part. I mean how hard is it to keep your foot on the bag until you catch the ball?
The biggest enigma of this series so far has to be Robinson Cano. He's been a hitting machine and the Yankees wouldn't have won Game 1 if it weren't for him, but this is the second straight game in which he's made an error on a routine play, and in the first game he was lucky not to be charged with an error on that ball that got past him in the 9th inning. I understand that none of the errors ended up hurting us in the end, as we would've lost both games regardless. However, I am really impressed on how he's hit for the Yankees so far in the postseason as a rookie and I believe overall he's done more to help the team in the series than he has to hurt them.
The Yankees will send Shawn Chacon to the mound this afternoon in their first (hopefully not last) elimination game of 2005. His opponent will be Jarrod Washburn. Chacon has been a rock for us since coming over from Colorado, and he has shown that he isn't phased by the pressure of pitching in the Bronx. Hopefully today if he can be stopped, it's only because of the weather.
EDIT: Today's game has just been rained out. Game 4 will now be played tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m.
