Over at the Voice, Allen Barra asks: Who is the Real Mr. October?
Once again, love the drawing by Larry Roibal.
Rodriguez still has miles to go, so to speak. If he tanks against the Angels, it’ll be back to square one for him. But for the moment, let’s not sperl the mood with that kind of talk.
Our very own Emma Span will be on Jeopardy tonight. Yup, that’s right. She’s on Jeopardy. Don’t miss it.
Jeter, from day one, became the Yankees’ “Everyman”–everybody’s son, everybody’s brother, everybody’s dream boyfriend. Without even trying, he tapped into every chord of the Yankee mythos like no player since Mantle. He would add a few unmistakable new notes of his own, heralding in a new age for the franchise. Jeter had it all, and from his first day he became the best shortstop in club history. The Yankees couldn’t have invented him had they tried.
Glenn Stout, Yankee Century
When we talk about Derek Jeter we talk about class and dignity and tradition. Those buzz words that sound cliche. We talk about how he is overrated, but maybe underrated too. About how cool and calm he is, how calculatedly dull but dutiful he is with the press. But what I’ll always remember about Jeter is how much fun he has playing baseball. It is his defining quality for me and one that is virtually ignored in the sea of commentary about Jeter.
Have you ever seen him in a big game not smiling and generally enjoying the s*** out of himself? It is as if he’s impervious to the nerves of the moment.
Baseball has a name for the player who, in the eyes of his peers, is well attuned to the demands of his discipline; he is called “a gamer.” The gamer does not drool, or pant, before the cry of “Play ball.” Quite the opposite. He is the player, like George Brett or Pete Rose, who is neither too intense, nor too lax, neither lulled into carelessness in a dull August doubleheader nor wired too tight in an October playoff game. The gamer may scream and curse when his mates show the first hints of laziness, but he makes jokes and laughs naturally in the seventh game of the Series.
Tom Boswell, How Life Imitates the World Series
Jeter is a man defined and consumed by his work, an ideal we’d all love to have ourselves but only few share. It’s part of what draws us to him. But Jeter reminds us that work can be play too. Who wouldn’t like to think of themselves handling themselves like Jeter in tough situations?
Pete Rose may have enjoyed himself as much as Jeter but not more. And it wasn’t easy to share those feelings with Rose. Perhaps the best thing you can say about Jeter is that he’s competitive and has class and dates gorgeous women and he’s not Pete Rose. Jeter does not let us get too close–we don’t know him away from the field–but the beauty part is that he lets us see all we need to know of him on the field.
The play is the thing, after all.
In an e-mail, Stout added:
I’ve always thought that with Jeter it’s actually really, really simple. You know when he was a little, little boy, he decided he wanted to play shortstop for the Yankees – that’s all he ever wanted, and for as long as he can remember that’s all he has ever imagined doing. He’s about the only person on the planet who has never had to scale down his dream, and since he has imagined himself doing what he is doing his entire life, it feels completely normal, the most natural thing in the world – on the field he is completely at home with himself, completely relaxed and happy. Why not smile?
And that’s why he was there to make the tag on Gomez, and the flip to Posada to get Giambi out way back when, and the home runs he hits right after the other team scores and all those other plays he makes – he’s been living these moments in his head his whole life, from the days he laid on his bed and tossed the ball up toward the ceiling. It’s not natural, but it is natural to him – he’s been playing shortstop for more than thirty years.
And what about the Nick Punto play last night? Stout continues:
I loved the Jeter just calmly explained that he saw Punto out of the corner of his eye then waited for him to commit and made sure he threw a ball to Jorge that he could handle, ho hum, on the fly, instant decision that all took place in about 1/2 a second. He’s like the guy that has learned to solve the Rubik’s cube.
It’s the smirk, the enjoying the moment, that I’ll always remember about Jeter. Not every great player allows you to see them having fun–heck even Mariano doesn’t exude that same vibe. But with Jeter you know he’s loving it. And he loves it when his teammates do well. Did you catch the little kid enthusiasm from Jeter after Alex Rodriguez hit that dinger off of Joe Nathan on Friday night?
After the game last night, Mariano Rivera talked about Rodriguez to reporters. “He’s feeling great and he trusts himself,” said Rivera. “He’s having fun, having fun, having fun and that’s the most important thing. Before, he was trying so hard and you can’t have fun like that. Now, he’s just enjoying it.”
Just like Jeter.
I knew it. I knew Carl Pavano was going to pitch like that!
In the end it didn’t matter, though – “it’s okay,” a friend told me afterwards, “that man can’t hurt you any more” – because although Pavano was great tonight, Andy Pettitte was just a bit better; and while the usually great Joe Nathan faltered, the Yankees’ bullpen held the line. So it was a 4-1 win for New York tonight, and the Yanks are headed to the ALCS for the first time since 2004. Of course that’s nothing in the scheme of things, not compared to how long other teams have been waiting, but I’m still thrilled to have really engaging baseball going for at least a little while longer, as it gets colder and darker outside.
Pavano had absolutely everything working tonight, throwing strikes with movement, and provoking some terrible-looking at-bats from the Yankees – there were awkward swings and misses left and right. In the third inning Melky Cabrera removed the specter of a no-hitter with a dinky little infield hit that, had they been playing on real grass, probably would’ve been an out; it was not deeply encouraging. Hideki Matsui’s fifth-inning single and Derek Jeter’s sixth-inning double were more like it, but went nowhere.
Meanwhile, Andy Pettitte was putting on a retro-chic performance. Pettitte has pitched the equivalent of a full healthy season in postseason games, a phantom 16th season; he’s had some bad starts along the way, mixed in with the good, but it’s still deeply reassuring to see him out there – brim pulled low, shadowed eyes staring in over the glove, almost indistinguishable in that pose from the 1996 version. He was perfect through four innings, and very good thereafter.
Still, the Twins scored first, as they did in the first two games of the series, and of course it was Joe Mauer who drove in their lone run, singling home Denard Span in the sixth inning with two outs. But Pettitte recovered to strike out Michael Cuddyer, and the Yankees wasted no time in getting him a lead.
I’m not sure whether Pavano started to tire in the seventh, or whether the Yankees just started seeing his pitches better the third time through the lineup. Either way, first Alex Rodriguez – by now the clear MVP of the series – hit a solid home run to right field to tie the score; one batter later, Jorge Posada added another solo shot. In the space of a couple minutes the Yankees had gone ahead by a run, and despite his excellent performance, that was enough stick Pavano with the L.
Joba Chamberlain took over for Pettitte with one out in the seventh, and got the job done. Phil Hughes then came on for the eighth and did the same, though he had a slightly stickier time. He was greeted by a Nick Punto double, and the Denard Span single that followed could have been the start of a bigger jam – but luckily for the Yankees Punto was not paying attention to his third base coach. He ran well past the bag thinking Span’s hit had reached the outfield, realized his mistake, screeched to a halt and lunged back towards the base; but by then Jeter had corralled the ball (a play I’m not sure he makes last year), spotted Punto, and thrown home to Jorge Posada, who threw to A-Rod, who tagged Punto out at third. An odd play, and a credit to the Yankee infielders, but one made possible by more sloppy baserunning from Minnesota.
I felt bad for Punto; he does hustle like crazy, every time I’ve seen him play, and it’s not his fault that people are always overpraising him as gritty and scrappy. This was out of character, and he spent the rest of the game looking stricken. But so it goes. Hughes got Orlando Cabrera to fly out, but with Joe Mauer coming up as the go-ahead run, Joe Girardi did the only sane thing: went out to the mound and signaled for Mariano Rivera. (Had this same situation arisen in the seventh inning, I don’t like to think about what might have happened).
Mariano Rivera vs Joe Mauer: best hitter in the league against the best pitcher, and if you can’t get excited about that then I don’t know what to tell you. Mauer’s had an excellent Division Series, providing the lion’s share of the Twins’ offense, and when he wins his MVP it will be thoroughly well deserved. But the result of his last plate appearance tonight was almost anticlimactic, the quintessential Rivera outcome: Mauer’s bat snapped in half just above the handle, and he grounded out to first.
The Yankees tacked on a pair of runs in the top of the ninth, loading the bases as Twins pitchers walked Teixeira, A-Rod, and Matsui in succession, and Joe Nathan then allowed singles to Posada and Cano. Rivera took care of the bottom of the ninth with fairly minimal drama, because that’s what he does, and my god will New York fans miss him when he’s gone, but let’s not think about that right now.
I like the Twins – I like Bert Blyleven, Gardenhire, Mauer, Morneau, Span (natch), Carlos Gomez, Joe Nathan, Pat Neshek, even Little Nicky Punto as the great Batgirl used to call him. And I like their fans, who mostly seem to manage being passionate without being dicks. This series was closer than the 3-0 sweep would suggest, and had they beaten the Yankees I would’ve pulled for them the rest of the way.
I do not feel this way about the Yankees’ next opponent.
Commence worrying about the Angels in 5… 4… 3… 2…
Carl Pavano was a bust of the first order in New York, one of the worst free agent signings in club history. This season, he pitched twice against the Yanks when he was with the Cleveland Indians, both no-decisions. But he pitched reasonably well. On April 19th, he held the Yanks to one run on four hits and walk over six innings, and on May 31, he gave up three runs on seven hits over seven innings.
Tonight, Pavano is on the hill for the Twins. Hey, Vincente Padilla was a load yesterday for the Dodgers so anything can happen. But it sure would taste good to see the Yanks bang Pavano around some. Hope the bats are feeling hungry like:
Andy Pettitte goes for the Bombers. Nothing else to say. Let’s hope we get the Good Andy.
Lots of excitement. Angels sweep the Sox, Paplebon blows the save. Time for New York to end it right here. No need to see Scott Baker tomorrow.
Let’s Go Yan-Kees!
Bacon and Red Bull, that’s what Terry Francona and company eat for breakfast. Sox are up against it this afternoon, down 2-0. But they are at home and the Angels still have something to prove.
Chit-Chit Chatter away.
Happy Bacon and Happy Baseball.
There’s only one game tonight–Dodgers v. Cardinals, back in St. Louis. The late game in Colorado was called on the count of winter and rescheduled for tomorrow night when it will presumably be less wintery. How, maybe you can figure that out and get back to me.
In the meantime, here’s an open thread for the Cards game, as the Dodgers look to sweep.
And here’s one of the most vibey, sultry-sounding records Duke Ellington ever made:
My father is close by whenever I see Reggie Jackson. Mr. October was my first sports hero and one of the few athletes that my father could stomach. In fact, the old man admired Reggie more than somewhat. Last night, I smiled when I saw Reggie throw out the first pitch. Not because he couldn’t reach plate–the ball reached the catcher on a hop–but because Reggie looked like a bad ass in his black hat. It was the kind of hat my father fancied in his later years. Reggie has to cover up the bald spot, but still, the hat looked good.
From Reggie to Alex. I have enjoyed rooting for Alex Rodriguez because he reminds me of the feeling I had watching Reggie when I was a kid, the tension, the drama, the sense that something special is going to happen, the disappointment when it doesn’t. It’s pure sensation, expectation and hope, pre-adolescent hero worship. It has almost nothing to do with Rodriguez the man–although I love what most people dislike about him, his neediness his neurosis–it is about my childhood fantasy to have the best player come through when it matters. Like Reggie did.
Rodriguez’s RBI single in the sixth inning, which tied the game at one, was satisfying, but his two-run home run in the ninth, tying the game again, was the hit we’ve been waiting from him since 2004. It is the dinger that stops the A Rod is a choker storyline dead in its tracks.
What I loved about the at bat against Minnesota’s closer Joe Nathan was how Rodriguez laid off the first three pitches, all breaking balls. The 2-0 slider was just off the outside corner and was a pitch that Rodriguez would have offered at in the 2005 or ’06 playoffs. He didn’t swing at any of that slop this time, took a fastball low and inside for a strike and then squared up the next pitch, another fastball, right over the plate. It was a classic Rodriguez homer–to right center field.
My body was still humming hours later.
The Twins needed to steal a game in New York, but thanks to Rodriguez–and a little help from his friends–the Yankees were ones who stole this game from the Twins. The Bombers also had some luck with a Jeffery Maier style blown call from the umps. Still, Minnesota put runners on base in every inning and left seventeen men on. They had a ton of chances and…take it away Mr. D:
AJ Burnett showed up, Mark Teixeira showed up. And how. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game-winning home run take such an odd bounce. When his line drive hit off the top of the left field wall and shot into the air, I had no idea if it was coming back in play or over the wall.
Now, Pavano for Sunday gravy.
Today, life is good.
I don’t even know where to start. The Yankees beat the Twins 4-3 in 11 innings in Game Two of the ALDS on Friday night in the Bronx in what might have been the most exciting Yankee postseason win since the Aaron Boone game in 2003.
Starting pitchers A.J. Burnett and Nick Blackburn matched zeros for five innings. Blackburn allowed only a walk to Hideki Matsui before Robinson Cano, who along with Mark Teixeira was one of just two Yankee starters who went hitless in Game One, singled with two outs in the fifth. Burnett put runners on in every inning, but stranded them in the first five.
The first big play of the game came in the top of the fourth. After getting two quick outs, Burnett hit Delmon Young in the back and Carlos Gomez in the hand to put runners on first and second. Matt Tolbert then lined a clean single to shallow right center for what looked like the first RBI hit of the game, but Gomez took a wide turn around second then slipped. With Derek Jeter standing on second screaming for the ball, Nick Swisher fired to second to catch Gomez off the bag just moments before Young was able to cross home, ending the inning without a run scoring.
The Twins finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the sixth after Young drew a one-out walk and stole second as Gomez struck out. Tolbert was due up, but had come down with a strained oblique, forcing Twins manager Ron Gardenhire to pinch-hit with Brendan Harris. Harris, who hit .238/.289/.340 against right-handers on the season, took to 3-1, then launched a bomb to the left-field gap. Johnny Damon did his jump-and-fall-down routine in a hopeless attempt to catch the ball, and the ball ricocheted off the wall and got past Melky Cabrera giving Harris an RBI triple. Burnett stranded Harris by getting Nick Punto to ground out on what proved to be his last pitch of the night. Then the Yankees answered back.
With Burnett out of the game, Joe Girardi sent Jorge Posada up to hit for Jose Molina. Posada flew out, but Derek Jeter crushed a ground-rule double to right center, and two batters later the new Alex Rodriguez delivered yet another two-out RBI single to tie the game.
Joba Chamberlain and Phil Coke split a scoreless seventh. John Rauch answered with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. That passed the ball to Phil Hughes in the eighth. Taking his cue from Burnett, Hughes got two quick outs and had the crowd roaring “Huuuughes” with the count 1-2 on Gomez, but then issued three straight balls to put Gomez on base. That man Harris followed with a single that sent Gomez to third (and nearly to home). That brought up Nick Punto, the Twins gritty, gutty, scrappy, crappy ninth hitter. Punto took to 2-2, fouled off a pitch, then singled through the middle scoring Gomez with the go-ahead run.
Crap.
Joe Girardi then brought in Mariano Rivera who, as the TBS announcers reported, had allowed just 3 hits in 50 at-bats with men in scoring position in his postseason career. That became 4-for-51 as Denard Span singled Harris home to give the Twinks a 3-1 lead. Watching Rivera give up an insurance run, the Yankee Stadium crowd fell dead silent.
Twins set-up ace Matt Guerrier and Rivera exchanged scoreless innings, handing that 3-1 lead to Joe Nathan in the ninth. The first time these two teams met this season, the Yankees opened the series with a trio of walk-off wins at Yankee Stadium. In the first of those, Joe Nathan was handed a two-run lead in the ninth only to cough up both the lead and the game, one of just two losses Nathan suffered on the season.
Perhaps I had that game in the back of my mind, because looking at the Yankee batters due up–Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Hideki Matsui–I was convinced the Yankees would get a bloop from Teixeira and a blast from Rodriguez to tie the game.
Guess what?
Teixeira hit a 1-1 rope into right field for a lead-off single, and Alex Rodriguez, after taking to 3-1, crushed a fastball to the back wall of the Yankee bullpen in right for a game-tying home run.
Game One of this ALDS couldn’t have gone much better for the Yankees. CC Sabathia was sharp, every starter but Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano got a hit, including Alex Rodriguez who had a pair of RBI singles, the key end-game relievers (Phil Coke, Phil Hughes, Mariano Rivera, and the re-purposed Joba Chamberlain) got their postseason spikes dirty with a big lead and a day off to follow, and, most importantly, the Bombers extended their regular season dominance of Minnesota with a 7-2 victory. Yesterday, however, gave the exhausted Twins, who in the 25 hours before the first pitch of Game One had played 12 innings to save their season then flown half way across the country, a much-needed day of rest, and Game Two brings another Yankee starting pitcher with a lot to prove.
I was an outspoken opponent of the five-year, $82.5 million contract the Yankees signed A.J. Burnett to in December. With one of those five regular seasons in the books, Burnett has exceeded my expectations in just one way: he stayed healthy and took every one of his turns throughout the season. That’s no small thing, but the net result of Burnett’s 33 starts wasn’t quite what you’d expect from a $16.5 million pitcher, and there are still four more years in which Burnett could well validate my concerns about his injury history.
The contract doesn’t matter tonight. All that matters is how well Burnett pitches in his first postseason start, which is why Joe Girardi has opted to start Jose Molina behind the plate despite the huge drop in production he represents at the plate compared to Jorge Posada. Opposing batters have hit just .221/.307/.352 against Burnett with Molina behind the plate compared to .270/.353/.421 with Posada receiving him. Supposedly the difference is due in part to Burnett’s lack of confidence in Posada’s ability to block his sharp curve in the dirt, which results in Burnett failing to break the pitch off properly when throwing to Posada. Burnett led the league in wild pitches, and one would assumes a certain percentage of those were pitches Burnett thought Posada should have blocked.
Burnett’s breaking point seemed to come in his August 12 start, when, with Posada catching, he uncorked three wild pitches then refused to talk about the issue after the game, saying bruskly, “I’d rather not talk about the wild pitches.” Up to that game, Posada caught 13 of Burnett’s starts while Molina, Francisco Cervelli, and Kevin Cash caught the other ten, five of them coming when Posada was on the disabled list. After that August 12 start, Posada caught just three more of Burnett’s starts, while Molina caught seven. Burnett didn’t thrown another wild pitch after August 12, but two of the three times he pitched to Posada he was rocked, giving up nine runs in five innings to the Red Sox on August 22, and six runs in 5 1/3 innings to the lowly Orioles on September 1. Those were the last two Burnett starts caught by Posada.
That’s why Joe Girardi is sitting a .285/.363/.522 hitter in a playoff game in favor of a man who has hit .217/.273/.298 in 406 at-bats over the last two seasons. I believe Posada himself said it best when he said, in reaction to the news that Molina would be starting, “I just hope we win that game.” Burnett’s need for Molina behind the plate only adds to the pressure he’ll be feeling tonight in his first career postseason start (he was out following Tommy John surgery when his Marlins beat the Yankees in the 2003 World Series). The contract may not matter tonight, but Burnett will by trying to live up to it.
As for how he did in the regular season, Burnett’s aggregate line was actually no better than the no-name Twins sophomore he’ll face tonight:
A.J. Burnett: 4.04 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 2.01 K/BB, 33 GS, 21 QS
Nick Blackburn: 4.03 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 2.39 K/BB, 33 GS, 19 QS
Those lines are damn similar, with Blackburn holding the edge in the three key rate stats, which just goes to show how overrated Burnett really is. As for the 27-year-old Blackburn, his final 2009 line is almost an exact match for his 2008 rookie campaign, which means the Twins can now expect this sort of production from him. Blackburn’s WHIP is high because he led the league in hits allowed. Burnett’s is high because he led the league in walks with a career-high 97. That is also why A.J.’s K/BB is so low (because of all those walks, Burnett’s WHIP and K/BB this year were his worst since 2003, when he made just four starts).
Of course, Burnett and Blackburn are far from similar pitchers, as their strikeout and walk rates reveal:
Burnett: 8.5 K/9, 4.2 BB/9
Blackburn: 4.3 K/9, 1.8 BB/9
Better all those walks and strikeouts than all those hits, but you’d rather see a pitcher keep his opponents off the bases altogether.
Both pitchers finished the regular seaosn strong. In his last four starts (all with Molina catching), Burnett posted a 1.88 ERA, struck out 28 men in 24 innings, and allowed just one home run. In his last four starts, Blackburn posted a 1.65 ERA and walked just one man in 27 1/3 innings.
Blackburn last faced the Yankees on May 16. He took a 4-3 lead into the eighth inning of that game only to let the Yankees tie it up in that inning (and ultimately win it in extras). Burnett faced the Twins twice this year, both times allowing just two runs in six-plus innings, but walking ten in those 13 frames.
The Twins have made one tweak to their lineup tonight. Jason Kubel is DHing, Denard Span is in right, and Carlos Gomez is in centerfield and batting in place of the team’s no-name DH platoon. Alex suggests this is because the Twins want to run on Burnett, but while A.J. allowed 23 steals on the year, he and his catchers caught 34 percent of attempting basestealers, that compared to a 25 percent league average and Jose Molina and Jorge Posada’s matching (yes, matching) 28 percent throw-out rates.
Some good games yesterday, huh? My favorite line came in an e-mail from Mark Lamster: “If you happen to be Matt Holliday’s psychiatrist, go out and get that new Volvo–it’s gonna be a big year.”
Supposed to rain this evening. They’ll wait this sucker out as long as they can, you know that.
Here’s one for you guys, a breakdown of Joba Chamberlain’s pitching mechanics over at Baseball-Intellect.
I asked the author if Joba’s move to the bullpen changes anything.
Alex replied:
Fundamentally, it doesn’t really change. But when a pitcher moves to the bullpen, it allows them to air it out more. As a starter, he’s pacing himself and he’s not throwing with the same intent he does out of the bullpen. He’ll dial it up when he needs to, but he has to pick his spots.
Out of the bullpen, he can let it fly on almost every pitch and the intent to throw hard is an extremely important part of generating velocity. I do have an article on intent and it’s importance for anybody interested:
Brad Penny and the Intent to Throw HARD.
I’ll add that I did see a few pitches of his bullpen apppearance in Tampa and I didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe the old Joba is back. He had the typical velocity uptick we normally see from Joba out of the bullpen, but if he was back to his old self, we would see his velocity around 96 or 97. That doesn’t mean he can’t be effective, however.
An open game thread for the Phils-Rocks, Dodgers-Cards, and Angels-Sox.
Carl Pavano has been announced as the Twins’ Game Three starter.
Jay Z was rocking the Geek Chic look last night at the Stadium. And while it’s hip to be a dork these days, remember this one, when Jay was Big Jaz’s wingman?
I think you have to give Twins’ starter Brian Duensing some credit – he didn’t do too badly for a rookie tossed into the lion’s den. I mean, yes, he did get eaten by the lions, but he put up a respectable fight, as did the presumably exhausted Twins. The postseason, as we all know, doesn’t often go exactly according to plan, but events last night unfolded more or less the way the Yankees drew them up, and they eased into a 7-2 win.
Things started off a little disconcertingly, as Denard Span opened the first inning with a double off CC Sabathia (you can’t keep a good Span down). Sabathia got out of that inning, striking out Joe Mauer in the process – despite a passed ball – but couldn’t wiggle out of a jam in the third without some damage. There was a single, a double play, a single, a double, another single, and then another miscommunication with Jorge Posada, before Sabathia struck out Jason Kubel for the third out, leaving the Twins up 2-0. (After the game Posada said the first incident was his mistake, and the second was Sabathia’s, but that doesn’t explain Jorge’s rather casual approach to tracking down the second passed ball, which resulted in Joe Mauer scoring the Twins’ second run).
So things were a mite tense when, in the bottom of the third, Derek Jeter came to the plate, and dispersed the gathering unease with a two-run homer to tie the game. It was not a very Jeterish hit – how often does he blast one to left field? – but on the other hand, given the timing and circumstances, it was a very Jeterish hit. One inning later, Nick Swisher doubled in Robinson Cano, and the Yankees took the lead for good; they added to it in the fifth with Alex Rodriguez’s two-out RBI single (yep), followed by a big two-run Hideki Matsui blast. Just for good measure, A-Rod added a second two-out RBI single in the seventh, and let’s all hope this marks the beginning of the end of that particular subplot.
Sabathia left after six and two thirds innings with eight strikeouts and nary a walk, and though he did have two runners on base when he left, Phil Hughes took care of that by striking out our old pal Orlando Cabrera after a long, tough at-bat that somehow felt very personal. Funny how that happens once in a while, in a big spot in a big game, if an at-bat goes long enough. (Paul O’Neill used to be the master of that kind of plate appearance, but then, Paul O’Neill took everything personally).
Anyway, with the luxury of a five-run lead and an off-day tomorrow, Girardi rotated through he best relievers, getting everyone a little work. Hughes, Phil Coke, and prodigal reliever Joba Chamberlain each took care of one out in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth. He allowed two baserunners, but the tension was out of the game by that point, and eventually nature took its course.
I imagine both teams will sleep very well tonight, though for different reasons.
Finally, Jay-Z was in the house tonight, sitting next to Kate Hudson. I thought it was fitting since, if the Yanks go anywhere this postseason, “Empire State of Mind” is already shaping up to be the anthem – it’s Jeter’s at-bat song, a current hit, and a popular pick for Yankee montages. It’s far from Jay-Z’s best, but I kinda like it despite myself.
I’m a sucker for songs about New York, always have been. If was picking one for this series, though, I’d probably go with this one.
Finally, I need your help with a very important issue: the Chip Caray/TBS Drinking Game. Thoughts, suggestions? Let get this thing hammered out by Friday.
The Yankees had to love watching the Tigers and Twins bloody one another over the course of 13 innings last night knowing that the exhausted victor would have to catch a red-eye to New York to face CC Sabathia in Game 1 of the ALDS this evening. That victor proved to be the Twins, who won on a walk-off single by Alexi Casilla that plated Carlos Gomez in the bottom of the 13th after burning through eight pitchers. That victory was the Twins’ fifth-straight and the 17th in their last 21 games, but it’s worth noting that only one of those wins (the first) came against a team outside their division (the A’s), and that win raised their record at the time to 71-72. The Twins’ comeback was remarkable and capped off by a true classic of a 163rd game, but the Twins are not a good ballclub, they’re just better than the other stiffs and mediocrities that make up the American League Central.
Consider, for example, that the two players who combined for the division winning run hit .229/.287/.337 (Gomez) and .202/.280/.259 (Casilla) on the season. That’s not entirely fair as both have been relegated to the bench and Joe Girardi has announced his intention to start Jose Molina (.217/.292/.268) behind the plate in Game 2 of the ALDS, but I found it striking that the Twins were relying on hitters of such pronounced ineptitude in such a significant situation.
The flip side of Gomez and Casilla is, of course, Joe Mauer, who won the slash-stat triple crown this year and should be the unanimous choice for MVP after hitting .365/.444/.587 as a fine defensive catcher. Right now, Mauer is the best player on either team, but he represents the sole advantage the Twins hold over the Yankees, as the following position-by-position comparison shows. (Note that when dealing with the starting nine, I prefer to do my position-by-position comparisons by batting order position rather than defensive position, as I think it presents a fairer apples-to-apples look at the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two offenses in question.)
Leadoff:
Derek Jeter (.334/.406/.465, 30 SB @ 86%)
Denard Span (.311/.392/.415, 23 SB @ 70%)
This is closer than you might think. Span’s sophomore season looks a lot like the final three months of his rookie campaign (.297/.393/.449) minus some power (though he did lead the league in triples), but it was no match for the Captain in one of his finest campaigns.
2nd:
Johnny Damon (.282/.365/.489, 12 SB @ 100%)
Orlando Cabrera (.284/.316/.389, 13 SB @ 76%)
Cover up the batting averages and this one isn’t close. Damon has 100 pints of slugging over Cabrera, nearly 50 points in on-base percentage and wasn’t thrown out stealing all year. It’s worth noting Damon’s splits, however, as 17 of his career-best-tying 24 homers came at the new Yankee Stadium and his resulting .533 slugging seems to have contributed to a spike in his walk rate in the Bronx (one every 7.4 plate appearances vs. one every 11 PA on the road). Still, even the road Damon is clearly superior to Cabrera at the plate, posting a .284/.349/.446 line.
3rd:
Mark Teixeira (.292/.383/.565)
Joe Mauer (.365/.444/.587)
This was a hot topic a month ago, but what was obvious to many of us then seems to have finally become obvious to all now. Teixeira’s first season in pinstripes was excellent–he led the league in homers (tied with Carlos Peña at 39), RBIs (122), and total bases (344)–but Mauer’s season was historic. The only catcher since the 1880s to have a season rivaling Mauer’s was Mike Piazza in 1997 (.362/.431/.638), and Mauer was by far the best of hitter in the American League in 2009 at any position.
The fellas:
…and the Fellas:
