October 2006
It’s ok
It’s OK, really! I am not happy, don’t get me wrong. I wanted to be done with the ALDS on Friday! And we SHOULD have swept them. But, like I said, it’s OK. Verlander was the one pitcher I thought could slow down the bats, and he did. Aside from Johnny Damon, he ruled the Yanks. Well, Matsui got 3 hits, which gave us one of the runs. A-Rod missed a big opportunity to redeem himself with the bases loaded and 2 outs. But Verlander should get more credit for the K, then A-Rod should be condemned for it. The Yanks threw away opportunities throughout the game. Including the last up, Johnny Damon, with Melky pinch running off Matsui’s last hit on 1st.
Has anyone ever heard the best defense against great hitting is great pitching? Well that’s what happened today. Verlander is the man today, and deserves all the credit. The Yanks had a great inning (the 4th) and 8 poor innings of offense.
Mike Mussina pitched OK, I can’t say he was bad at all. Normally, 4 runs would be just fine when you consider the Yanks average nearly 7 runs a game. Which brings me to Brian Bruney. His inning may well have been the brightest spot of the afternoon for Yankee fans, at least after the 4th inning. Struck out the 1st two batters, and fielded the 3rd batters shot to throw him out at 1st. 1-2-3, nice and fast and efficient. He looked great!
OK, so on to Motor City for the Big Unit Friday Night. I still don’t know how I feel about him pitching Friday. OK, that’s not true. I’d rather he did NOT pitch Friday. I think we can do better without him! If he pitches, we will probably need 8 or 9 runs to win… I hope I am completely wrong. I hope his back is better, and he is the Randy of…. well the Randy that is GOOD would be fine. He doesn’t have to throw a shutout, but he can’t be giving up homers like hot dog vendors.
So the series is tied at 1. Nothing is surprising in this ALDS so far, for any of the teams. The Yanks were the only home team that didn’t lose Tuesday! We must move on, we are champions. We will move on, and we will conquer, of this I have no doubt. But I still did not want to lose today!!! This is too good of a team to have the offense shutdown. Did I mention Verlander deserves some credit here? I think we lucked out not having him in game 1, since he probably won’t be available for game 5 if needed.
We face Kenny Rogers on Friday. Too bad he wasn’t pitching in the boogie down, we know how that works for him! But lets face it, he has 17 wins this season, and a nice ERA @ 3.84. On paper he looks better than most of our staff. He’s got more wins than Moose, and certainly a better ERA than the big unit. If stats do make predictions, this should end with the Yanks winning 7-4. Again, lets pray for The good unit to show up.
Till next time,
Spags
View from M15 ALDS Game 1
Wow. This is embarrassing! Almost TWO MONTHS since I have posted anything at all! This was not my intention when I signed up for this blog at all. I have been so busy I have not had time for anything. I watch what games I can, when I can, usually after they are over via mlb.tv. But with the new baby, the other baby, and working tons of overtime, I just haven’t been able to get on here and type. So I apologize to all the people who follow my blog; both of you!
I have been following all along the last two months of course. What a September to remember! I won’t bore you with a retake. But let me summarize with this: JETER=MVP.
I decided I needed to commit more time to Baseball, and my sanity, so I splurged and bought a ticket to the ALDS Game 1 Yesterday. Got the ticket from stubhub for about $145 for a really decent seat! I went alone, something I have never done before, so I could really concentrate on the game. I really had a good time overall, the fans around me were really nice. My seat was on the main level by 1st at the back wall, so I had nobody behind me except the elevated section, which allowed me to stand as much as I wanted. Plus I had an end seat. I really would not mind these seats all the time! Section M15 Row E Seat 23. The guy next to me was an ex Yankee employee who shared some stories, but I am not a small guy, and he was even bigger. I was really glad I had the ability to stand because it was QUITE cramped trying to sit.
Here is what my view was like:
The game did not disappoint, nor surprise. My call before the start was 9-3 Yanks, not far off the 8-4 final. Abreu, Giambi and Jeter shined the brightest, but everyone did well. Wang did not have his “best stuff” it seemed, but he sure got the job done. It seemed like he left a few pitches a little too high. The home plate ump must have been on valium. It seemed to take him forever to make a strike call, especially when it was a 3rd strike. And this seemed to get worse through the game. When A-Rod struck out, I’m not sure anyone realized what had even happened! Then he couldn’t see anything but balls when Farnsworth came out. Like 7 balls called in a row! When he finally called strike three again, it was another long delay, but he finally gave Kyle the K.
The stand out was of course, El Capitan, Derek Jeter. FIVE FOR FIVE!!! The fifth coming in the form of a solo Homer into the black bleachers. Unreal, seriously. Abreu? How’s about 4 RBIs. 2 more came from Giambi, 1 each from Jeets and Shef. The lefties did great against the mediocre Nate Robertson, who wasn’t so mediocre against lefties most of the year. In fact he was lights-out against them in 2006, until he faced the YANKEES in OCTOBER. He only gave up two homers to lefties in 2006, one of them was to Giambi last night! In fact he has only given up 35 TOTAL HITS against lefties, including what he gave up last night. I understand why they gave him the first start, but it just didn’t work out. I really like the guy though, so I almost feel bad for him.
Shef at 1st? Awesome! He had a nice stretch, and really surprised me with how well he played. With Shef back in the lineup….. well look at it this way, our weakest hitter in the lineup now is possibly Jorge Posada, which is really saying something. I’d want Jorge up in the clutch over most players in the league! I have said it before, but it bears repeating. The opposing pitcher has nobody to pitch around, nobody to walk, NO BREAKS in the lineup from 1 through 9!
Look at the lineup from Tuesday night:
- Johnny Damon
- Derek Jeter
- Bobby Abreu
- Gary Sheffield
- Jason Giambi
- Alex Rodriguez
- Hideki Matsui
- Jorge Posada
- Robinson Cano
Our number NINE was 3rd in the AL in BA! How many #9s hit .340??? Is there ANY batter there that a pitcher would feel good about facing? That lineup may ALL end up in Cooperstown. This IS the MURDERS ROW of the new Millennium.
Well this may be a fairly lame post, but it is the best I can do with the time I have to do this today. Hopefully I can get a little better for the next 10 October wins the Yanks will have, before achieving #27.
Until next time!
Spags
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