Yankee Stadium's Misfits of Row X

Game 3 tonight: Joba key, Arod due to make it count

The public headlines revolve around  "Hot Pettitte vs Struggling Hamels", and "Arod slumping".

Pettitte has just been so good lately, is it realistic to expect yet another gem from him?  It is if you are a Yankee fan. For the Phillies, Hamels can lock in and give you an A-game at any time, there is no physical issue there, guy has just been out of synch. I am not buying the bad rap on Hamels, he's a lefty, you never know what the hell they are going to do.

So the starters will match each other through the middle innings. They key for the Yankees is going to be the bullpen, if Andy can get us to the 7th with a lead Joba Chamberlain's time will have arrived. 

Arod has not swung the bat well in the first 2 games of the World Series, anyone can see that, whispers of his demise are deafening. Furthermore, back in May tonight's starter Hamels struck out Alex Rodriguez a couple of times.  It pays to mention that at that time Arod was only about 50 at bats into his return from hip surgery and hitting a paltry .189.  Things have changed quite a bit since then. 

In 2009 Alex had a solid year, but he did not compiled the colossal numbers that we have become used to. However, what was colossal was his ability to deliver timely hits, with over 50% of his RBI's either tying the game, or putting the Yanks ahead. 

That theme continued for Arod into the postseason. The game that best symbolized that theme was Game 2 of the ALCS. Arod finished the game 1 for 6 - but that 1 hit was a gigantic one. In the bottom of the 11th inning with the Yankees down 3-2 Arod knocked a 2 strike Brian Fuentes fastball over former Phillie/Yankee Bobby Abreu and the RF wall to tie the game at 3.

People are already counting him out for the World Series. He doesn't need to get a lot of hits - he just needs a few big ones.

3 wins to go: AJ Burnett dominant over 7 innings, Yanks win G2

AJ Burnett gave us the game that we'd all been waiting for when he signed on with the Yankees, 'joining 'em, after he's beaten 'em" more than enough times.  Burnett was outstanding spotting an exploding fasball that ran in several directions, and throwing curveballs that we've seen thrown to our helpless Yankee hitters in years past.

After the game Burnett made it clear that his performance had nothing to do with "staying calm" - it had to do with him ingesting a dose of reality and recognizing how good he really is. He approached his outing with a load of confidence and stayed in attack mode throughout. Interestingly, he said that he took a cue from Cliff Lee's postgame interview the night before, wherein Lee mentioned that all he did was "pitch with confidence and trust his stuff".

Burnett has now done what Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano, and Randy Johnson could not do - deliver greatness FOR the Yankees after having delivered beatings AGAINST them. Also, he made the always chirpy Pedro Martinez, who threw an excellent game himself, a non-factor.

Burnett threw 7 innings of 9 strikeout ball, yielding 4 hits and 2 walks. He gave up a run in the 2nd on an Ibanez double followed by what should have been a groundball out by Matt Stairs. Instead Arod missed the ball badly and Ibanez came home with the game's first run. That was the end of the offense for the Phillies. Burnett locked in after that and shut them down the rest of the way.

Pedro was cruising along as well, racking up the strikeouts himself. This was a testament to Pedro the competitor, and Pedro the pitcher, he was pulling strings and hitting spots, using guile and deception to the utmost. He even struck out Jeter by quick pitching him, and Jeter knew it.

In the top of the 4th inning Jose Molina threw behind the head of left handed hitting Raul Ibanez and picked off a greedy-leading Jayson Werth at first base, Teixera providing an aggressive tag to nail him. At the time Werth had just singled to lead off the inning and Philadelphia lead 1-0. Moli's pick was a momentum changer, an example of great defense giving the team some juice. AJ proceeded to strike out Ibanez on a 94mph heater, and retired Stairs on 1 pitch with a flyball to left for the 3rd out.

In the bottom half of 4th inning shades of one of Jason Giambi's two home runs off Pedey Martinez in ALCS G7 2003 made their ghostly entrance. Mark Teixera took an changeup off the plate away up up and away over the right field wall to tie the game at 1 and wake up an otherwise subdued crowd. He juiced up the stadium.

2 innings later in the 6th Matsui would take a Pedro curveball seemingly in the dirt over the short porch in right to give the Yankees the lead for good. They would tack on a 3rd run later, courtesy of a blooper by Hairston, a Hit and run single to right by Melky sending pinch runner Brett Gardner to third, and then a pinch hit rope RBI single to CF by Jorge Posada.

Mariano Rivera entered to start the 8th inning and walked Rollins after a long 12 pitch battle, but ended the inning on a double play ball by Chase Utley.  Mariano would deliver a clean 9th inning to get the Yankees the G2 Win. Rivera threw 39 pitches to get the 2 inning save, so for the 3 games in Philly the Yankees will need Joba Chamberlain to pitch in and be All The Beast he can be.

Phillies beat Yanks in G1, Lee late, but dominant, Jeter 3 for 4 for naught

Theres your notice.

For people who thought that this Phillies team was of the typical N.L Junior Varsity variety you know have your wake up call. Cliff Lee threw a complete game and handcuffed the Yanks, giving up one unearned run late in the game.

Lee was late in arriving to the Stadium, not leaving much time as he departed his hotel close to 4:30pm and running into traffic in a taxi, then needing to jump out  and grab a subway train up around 153d street.  Obviously there was limited effect and the Yankees could muster nothing on offense against him.

Jeter did have a 3 for 4 night, and other non-strangers to World Series play Posada, Damon, and Matsui each contributed one hit apiece.

CC Sabathia pitched well, however, he was not sharp and he gave up two solo home runs to Chase Utley, both times throwing fastballs down the middle of the plate with 2 strikes.  Granted, Sabathia was ultra-cognizant of Ryan Howard batting behind Utley, but heck  2 Home runs?  CC battled through lack of command and kept the Yankees in the game.

When the game was turned over to the bullpen Phil Hughes and Brian Bruney allowed the Phillies to extend their lead to 6-0.  Considering that Lee was on cruise control and seemingly untouchable, and CC was good but not great, there is one positive that can be gleaned from Phil Hughes' struggles in his zero out, two walk, two run appearance - Girardi knows he is too fragile to be used in a big spot later on in the series.

Whatever is going on with him, delivery issues, tired arm, whatever it is, Phil is not getting the job done. It should be noted that the root cause of a delivery issue can occur for a pitcher the same way it can for a hitter - in their head.

Dave Eiland has said that  Hughes was jumping to the plate, or rushing to the plate. Could it be that Phil feels the need to manufacture more power, or throw harder so he's getting jumpy and out of a trusted rythm?  Maybe thats simplifying it, but however you slice it up he has got to be better. He cannot keep throwing balls down the middle of the plate.

On the plus side of the ledger, Damaso Marte threw 2/3 of an inning registering a strikeout over Chase Utley and getting Ryan Howard to pop out to Nick Swisher in RF.  In his brief outing Marte continued to impress. He displayed the kind of handle against the Phillies 2 big lefty bats that provides Girardi with a viable weapon for key late inning spots later in the series.

In Game 2 the Yankees look for AJ Burnett to deliver for them, what he delivered against them more than enough times in the past - unfair stuff and dominant long innings.

Yankees look to get 27th World Series for George Steinbrenner

4 Wins to Go: Pettitte suffocates Angels as Yanks win 40th A.L. Title

Still 5 wins to go : Yanks dig out of Burnett's hole, he digs another, Swisher anemic

Maybe Phil Hughes needs more postseason experience..?

Joba?

Teixera at bat not very "O'Neill" like, but defensive brilliance at 1B contributing to wins

Mark Teixera had a very loud regular season and will most assuredly receive a strong share of votes for the league's most valuable player.  He had excellent offensive numbers sharing the top of the charts in HRs and RBI's, while playing a spectacular First Base.

I likened Tex' intensity to that of Yankee champion Paul O'Neill's. Tex has hustled his tail off and played with tremendous energy, he's a a great clubhouse guy too. After another recent Arod bomb this postseason Teiera was running through the dugout like an ecstatic child, "He did it again! He did it again!!".

I can also recall Tex being "on the Mark" quite often, and getting many key hits of his own in big situations this season. But there is one O'Neill attribute where, so far, Tex has fallen a little short, I will get to that a little later.

Over the course of the season I noticed that he could be pitched to, there were sequences to which he was consistently vulnerable. It wasn't anything complex, it was basically a vulnerability to trying to pull everything, even soft stuff. Obviously Tex had a great regular season at the plate, but the postseason pitching he's faced the last few weeks has exposed those weaknesses a bit more.  Postseason pitchers do a better job of executing the scouting reports, nibbling close enough so that the batter will give in and chase.

This is where I'd like to see more from him to solidify that loose comparison to Paul O'Neill.

Paul O'Neill didn't produce the kind of offensive numbers that Teixera did, but you knew that with the game on the line Paul O'Neil would grind out the at bat and make the pitcher work very hard to earn the out.   Case in point is O'Neill's relentless at bat against Armando Benitez in G1 of the 2000 World Series.

Through the ALDS, and ALCS I've seen Tex have a lot of bad swings. The most common sequence is the low and away breaking ball and a weak Teixera grounder to the same side middle infielder. The pitchers are making good pitches, make no mistake about it, but Tex has got to really bear down and do a better job of grinding through at bats.

Tonight Teixera will be facing John Lackey while still having bully Arod behind him in the lineup.  Teixera had hit .388 over 49 career at bats vs Lackey going into ALCS G1. But Lackey toyed with Teixera in G1 and rendered him a non-factor.

I believe that Tex will get his licks in tonight, especially now that the Angels are that much more conscious of not wanting to walk anyone in front of Arod.  He just needs to have better at bats, and grind - like Paul O'Neill would.

5 Wins to go: MONSTER SABATHIA dominates desperate Angels in Anaheim

Still 6 wins to go:Cano, Swisher, and Cabrera clutchless, Girardi micro-destroyed

Kenny Singleton? What happened the party invites?

Jeter lead off the game with a HR, like the champion he is. He took the Angel crowd out of the game from pitch one, very likely helping Andy Pettitte out on the mound.

Arod knocked one so far even the Left Fielder had whiplash. Damon jumped on a hanger to give the Yanks a 3-zip lead. Posada tied the game at 4 with a HR to CF.

But nobody else helped out - Teixera, great glove and all,  continues to suck on offense, providing careless at bats and giving us nothing.

Pettite pitched extremely well, but you can't go anywhere near that area with a pitch to Vlad - that was unacceptable, one pitch ruined a day. In the Box its not a terrible outing for Pettitte, but a real backbreaker because of one pitch. I favored JOBA because of the slider that Vlad has had trouble with in this series..I just liked that matchup full aware of Andy's location vulnerability later in games. JOBA came in after and shit the bed - but I liked the Vlad matchup and think that he would've been pumped to attack it, instead of nervous about failing to a lesser statured hitter.

Cano, Swisher and Cabrera are pathetic - but I am not surprised, nor should anyone who's paid attention this year be surprised.  Cabrera and Cano are not disciplined hitters, and they are not players you'd associate with the expression of "grinding out at bats". Swisher is a lot of fun when it all goes his way, its not going his way right now.

Girardi, although he tries desperately to be one, was no delicate genius yesterday. His micromanaged move replacing the Houdini monickered David Robertson with clearly out of rhythm Alfredo Aceves was that of someone not going by ANY feel. Based on the way that he scurried to that scouting report book on the dugout bench I'd say that he was non too interested in the opinions of his coaching staff. 

Back to Cano and Cabrera, these guys can be pitched to. As you've likely noticed, you can just throw curveballs and other pitches that reach the plate out of the strike zone. They are pathetically undisciplined, and if you have a pitcher who can throw curveballs near the strike zone you pretty much take them out of the game.  

Pitchers in the postseason are generally better at executing pitches and the proposed scouting reports than the overall lot of arms you get in the regular season.  You also have more close games in the postseason which places more of a spotlight on situational hitting - which, we would call a "challenge area" for someone like Cano. P

The most disappointing member of Bogus 3 is clearly Cano. Robbie is possibly the biggest paper tiger in Yankee history. He hits the softest and least productive .320 you will ever see. If you read box scores and see some ESPN highlights you'd mistake him for a Hall of Famer. He's awfully 'pretty', until you really need him to be there for you, kind of like that hot supermodel with the cocaine addiction.

ESPN won't show you the plays he "doesn't make", or when he is sloppy or careless covering a base or receiving a ball. They won't show you him swining at an 0-0 pitch well low and out of the strike zone either. You have to watch all the games to see that, which also allows you to see flashed of brilliance and hold a higher bar for him. 

If Girardi really was a true genius, as I am feigning to be with regard to Cano, haha - Joe would give him more days off.  Cano would be helped by giving his head a rest, a day off more frequently would allow feeble minded Robbie to play with a higher level of mental intensity and acuity during the season.

Swisher, as is his joy, is a giant child. If a strike call goes against him early in the at bat he is done. Mr. Happy Go Lucky can't manage himself when he gets his way.  Hey Smiley Asshole - if you spill your milk here we don't encourage you to splash around in it like an infant - or to sulk in it.! Clean it up and do better next time!

Girardi has been around the game, he's been a part of winning teams. He should know that you ride the hot hand.  For anyone who thinks that Girardi was "saving" Roberton for CC's short rest outing tomorrow, please, spare me. That was not the motive behind his bringing in Aceves.

You could see Girardi scrambling over to his little book to look at the matchups in that 11th inning last night, that was just not a good sign, not a good sign at all.  These numbers nerds are so robotic sometimes it leaves nothing to the game on the field. In a postseason game, under a different set of game and player rythms he was simply looking for the best numbers match up based on what happened in the regular season.

Aceves pitched well in the regular season in 2009, when he was used regularly he was borderline outstanding. THIS, however, is is the postseason, Joe.

How Girardi relies automatically on numbers, and does not have the presence of mind to appreciate that Aceves performed a certain way when used a certain way is short. Robertson, on the other hand, has shown that he can execute pitches when used in the manner that he's been used in these playoffs.

Its easy to blame Girardi for the 11th inning gaffe, or Pettitte for the Vlad bomb. I won't blame Aceves for being used in a manner different than he is used to, he's just not that good to begin with. Ultimately the game was lost in the 2nd and 4th innings when the Yankees could've broken the game open, but instead left runners in scoring position with few outs.

Jeter, Arod, and Posada have been solid. Damon has gotten a reasonable share of hits now and played very well in LF.  But the rest of this team leaves a lot to be desired right now.

6 Wins to go: Arod,again...great Yankee bullpen..., no ANGELS IN THE INFIELD