The Yankees lost to the Orioles 5-2 tonight in a game so dull and unremarkable that I’m worried I might lapse and accidentally recap the drama at Manchester City on Sunday instead. The Yankees had a chance to sweep a two-game set with the division leading Orioles and with CC Sabathia on the hill and in form of late, what could go wrong?
Wei-Yin Chen. I don’t know if he’s really any good, but he’s pitching pretty well and the Orioles have now won six of his seven starts. CC wasn’t good on a night when he had to be. Adam Jones really smacked one out of the park in the second, and CC let up three doubles, but he could have survived if not for all those other base runners. Seven Orioles reached on via walk, hit by pitch, or infield single and CC was toast after six.
Chen kept the Yanks off the board for those same six innings. Curtis Granderson got him, the other way no less, in the seventh for the only two runs the Yanks would score and the game never seemed like it would bend towards the Yankees.
Maybe with a little bit tighter defense and a few decent calls from the umps at key moments and if we could swap those three rally-killing double plays for hits… oh hell, forget it. We’d have to start over and play this one again to find a way to make a Yankee victory plausible. They were the second best team at the park and that’s because the rain scared away that Little League team that was planning to attend.
Moving over to basketball and soccer, let’s just say that if your Mother’s Day celebration did not include the Manchester City game versus Queens Park Rangers, you missed out on the best sporting event of the year. No doubt, lock up the prize, no one is topping that. It was the 2004 Red Sox, but if all that craziness of the Games 4 and 5 of the ALCS happened in Game 7 of the World Series instead.
In the NBA Playoffs, I’m rooting for Lebron I guess, though I’ll be plenty psyched if Roy Hibbert and the Pacers keep winning. I just want Lebron to win one and then to see what happens after that. Will he break through and become something different and better than he is right now? Will he slide back after grabbing the ring? I also would like him not be the terrible choke artist that many paint him to be.
Then I look at the play-by-play data from tonight and I see he disappeared at the end of the game only to pop up and miss the two biggest free throws of the night, ones that would have turned a one-point deficit into a one-point lead with 54 seconds to play. He didn’t get a shot off for the final three and half minutes, clearly deferring to Wade, who managed to pump off five and was fouled shooting a sixth in the same time span.
I wish I watched that game instead of the Yankees because I’d love to know what the hell was going on there. I don’t think we’re asking Lebron to win or lose by himself. We’re just asking him to play the final minutes the same way he plays the rest of the game. Did anybody watch?
I did not know about the Heat game until I read this recap. Lebron's late game disappearing acts are becoming all too familiar it seems. That's a shame. I'd like to see the Heat bow out this round. Also, I'll take a boring Yankees loss over any soccer game thank you very much. I've put forth many valiant attempts to feign interest and I can't even come close. Oh, and I can't believe how much I miss Brett Gardner.
I woke up at a reasonably early hour here on the Left Coast and tuned in to foxsoccer.tv for the last 25+ minutes of the Man U vs Sunderland match, totally long enough to register the fact that City were going to completely biff the final match and United were going to capture another crown and then watch the celebration turn to incredulous disbelief on SAF's face when City scored 2 utterly improbable and near impossible goals in extra time.
Then, because I can't currently get ESPN3.com (which showed City vs QPR), I decided to drive 80+ miles round trip to watch a replay of the City v QPR match with a EPL-following friend of mine, already knowing the ultimate outcome, simply because I needed to pictures to witness what I knew had already transpired ...
Bunch of missed free throws by both teams in the Heat game down the stretch. But down by two--or was it three--with less than 20 seconds left, James had the ball in his hands twice and gave it up, once to Battier beyond the arc, the next time to Wade, who drove to the basket and had his shot blocked.
I'm thinking someone really needs to get in LeBron's face or have a man-to-man talk with him about that. Never mind the conflicting reports from media types or the fickle fans, be real and tell him it's time to man up; forget about hurting Wade's feelings if that's what it's about. I'd rather see LeBron go down swinging than to stand by or pass away the winning shot that never happens.
[4] I think he hides behind "making the right basketball play" as a way to avoid taking the crucial shots. The "right basketball play" is the one that wins the game, and that means he's got to be shooting at least some of the time. At this point, other teams have to know he's not taking the last shot.
"They were the second best team at the park and that’s because the rain scared away that Little League team that was planning to attend."
Brutal, but very funny.
And no, I didn't watch the Heat -- because I can't stand basketball, it's the reverse of soccer, too much scoring. You run up the court and score two, then the other team does the same and with 100 points per team each scoring play is that much reduced.