Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Sep 17, 2007 
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-3 in a thriller.
Jorge Posada was feeling OK after being run over on Saturday. This notebook also has word on some new players headed up.
The Yankees are the Tigers could fight it out for one playoff spot.
———
Just got home from Boston. Fueled by the adrenalin of watching that game and one big can of Red Bull, we made the trip quick. It’s nice to get home after a nine-game road trip spread out over 11 days on the road.
It wasn’t so bad. I stayed with my family this weekend and got to see my niece and nephew. Leah is a Pop Warner cheerleader this fall and Jason is well on his way to setting the record for most things climbed by a 2-year-old. Plus he’s very adept at spotting planes and pointing them out to you.
Meanwhile, my sister Karen and her husband Dave were at Fenway sitting in right field and my Dad and brother-in-law Brian were in Foxboro for the Pats game. We had it all covered. No wonder I became a sportswriter.
I’m not covering the game today but we’ll get a lineup posted at some point.
Welcome back Pete. Growing up, you were a fan of what team?
Ed:
Pats.
Awww your nephew sounds so cute! Sounds a lot like my nephew, except he has a thing for red cars lol
This might be a reason for Mo’s shaky inning yesterday:
“But because Yankees-Red Sox can always use more plot twists, Rivera came in at less than 100 percent. While warming up in the eighth inning, he was accidentally struck on his right elbow by a ball thrown in the Red Sox bullpen. According to Ron Villone, Rivera ‘couldn’t feel his arm.’”
LC–Yikes!! I hope that Rivera is ok. But it’s still cool that he got the great Ortiz out when he was less than 100%.
Pete is the money good as a sports writer? Late nights, long trips away from home — I hope they take care of you, I always heard there isn’t much money in the media business.
Anway, get some sleep— depending on where you live, I know Boston is about a three and a half hour drive from NYC. Sleep well our friend !
Pete – for me it was a Jeter weekend – simply the best.
Pete,
Something tells me you’re going to be in Fenway a few more times this year. Can’t wait! Congrats to the Yankees for taking the season series, though I thought Ortiz was going to pull us through yesterday and tie the record up at 9 games to 9; but it wasn’t to be. Such is baseball. Such was the rivalry so far this year.
Have a great day off.
Pete -
A question: The Indians lead the Tigers by 4 and a half; the Red Sox lead the Yankees by 4 and a half. How is one a commanding lead and the other not? I do realize that the Tigers get to play the Indians head-to-head, but while to some extent they can determine their own fate, even if they sweep the Indians, they’d be 1 and a half out.
Also, how do the Tigers appear to have the more difficult schedule? They play the Royals, who are mediocre, the Twins, who they’ve just swept; and the White Sox, who don’t seem to care anymore. The Yankees are playing a tough team in the Blue Jays, and two teams who have had their number all season.
For all 4 teams, it’s one game at a time, full steam ahead. I hope the Yankees do better against the Orioles this time around.
THE GREAT ONE (MO) BENT A LITTLE BUT DIDN’T BREAK, THANK GOD. WHAT’S WITH ESPN, BAD ENOUGH I HAVE TO LOOK AT THAT UGLY BOBBLEHEAD YOUKILIS WHEN HE’S PLAYING BUT EVEN ON THE SIDELINE HE GETS ALL THAT FACE TIME,SICKENING. BESIDES THAT, JETER SHOWED WHY HE IS THE CAPTAIN. HE DOESN’T NEED A C ON HIS CHEST HE SHOWS IT WITH HIS PLAY & CLASS. MUST BE GETTING CLOSE TO PLAYOFF TIME A ROD SEEMS TO BE DISAPPEARING AGAIN. I MAY BE WRONG SO I’LL WAIT & SEE BUT I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT HIM GOING INTO CHOKE MODE.
How accidental was that? Geez poor Mo. I hope he’ll be okay. How the hell does a ball accidently go into the other pen?
Wonder if a Sox Sportswriter would have returned a Yankees’ cell phone if he or she found it in a cab?
No reason to look ahead, lets just take it one game at a time. In the end, its guys like the Rocket, Jeter and Mo who get the Yankees into October.
Nice victory last night!
I hadn’t heard that news about Mo being hit, but you can bet its not serious or he would not have been out there throwing. His outing really wasn’t THAT bad, The stuff was there but the control was not. Mo tyhpically has a more difficult time throwing his cutter in 40-degree temperatures (like last night) and he got squeezed on a few pitches, especially to Pedroia. Lugo hit a pitch that most would normally miss (95 mph, way up and on the outside part of the plate). Morgan said it was a bad pitch to Lugo – huh?
Anyway, it was very satisfying to see 38donuts.com, looking like David Wells from the right side, bending over in frustration at Jeter’s big blast, looking like he had a bad case of agida. Sweet!
I love how the “announcers” said that the Yankees pick on Kevin. Too funny. Never mind the fact that he was hanging over the plate Saturday, thats why he got hit. They also kept showing him. He looked like a cow chewing hte gum. Made me ill.
Also when Joe (I think it was Joe) Kept insisting that the Yankees brought up not one but TWO catchers. I said thats news to me. We don’t have anyone to bring up.
I also found it funny when Dusty (It think it was Dusty) was hit by a pitch on his knee. First it didn’t look like he made any attempt to get out of the way. Than the fans all started chanting Yankees suck. Um Yeah Mo wants to hit someone with a one run lead. Yeah that makes alot of sense.
on the postgame Suzy said that a reporter opened with a question about Jeters slump, not his game winning hit. Anyone know who that was?
jennifer-
Sports announcers love anything that might be controverisal. It gives them something to talk about. It’s alright though, they’ll get tired of that topic and move on to something else eventually.
Was anybody else to nervous to even sit down in the last like 3 innings of that game last night?
Another compelling game & great outcome. Very surprised how good both Roger & Schilling pitched. Great clutch at bats by both Jeter & Giambi. Great ABs by the hated Sox as well against Mariano, who was struggling but would not quit & somehow was able to get our worst nightmare, Big Papi, to weakly pop out to end the game. Never any shortage of drama when these teams play.
Nice to see Joba consistently going up & in on the Sox, keeping them honest, after all the times we have let the Sox getting away with it against Jeter especially with no consequences.
Need to get A-Rod back on track. Had the big hit against Papelbon, but has looked a little confused at the plate of late, not seeing the ball & taking good pitches & swinging at bad ones.
Need Doug’s glove for the post season, especially after Jason’s woeful performance the other day. First base impacts so many plays we can sacrifice some offense with our potent lineup if need be.
Need to get Hideki untracked. He has been one of our best clutch hitters
& is now lost at the plate.
Don’t want anything to do with the Angels, who have owned us for awhile. Go Indians, who we are 6 & 0 against this year.
Posted by: Tucson Ken | September 17, 2007 9:15 AM
Post a comment
Name:
Email Address:
URL:
Remember personal info?
Comments:
DMan -
The last 3 innings??? I couldn’t bring myself to watch the game at all because it was on ESPN. I was nervous about the outcome, plus I didn’t want to subject myself to the aggravation of “those two” in the booth! I know, what kind of fan am I? But even though I couldn’t watch, I kept sending the positive vibes out. (In fact, I think they lost Saturday because I forgot it was a day game and I didn’t remember to send out the vibes early enough!)
dman it really bothers me, because the Yankees get hit all the time and finally we are hitting them. And all they do is point out that the Kevin got hit 4 times by the Yankees. How many times has Jeter been hit by the redsoxs over the last 2 years?
“MUST BE GETTING CLOSE TO PLAYOFF TIME A ROD SEEMS TO BE DISAPPEARING AGAIN. I MAY BE WRONG SO I’LL WAIT & SEE BUT I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT HIM GOING INTO CHOKE MODE.”
and if Jeter played half as well in the other 130 games as he has against the Red Sox, the Yankees would be in 1st place.
it’s amazing how 1-2 games can erase an entire season of brilliance for Yankee fans.
amazing HR from Jeter, but the Yankees aren’t sniffing the playoffs without A-Rod. Jeter has been pretty mediocre all season by his own standards, but 1 HR *2 days* after A-Rod gets the game winner against Papelbon and A-Rod is “disappearing”.
Yankee fans are unbelievable sometimes.
jennifer: someone pointed out that Dice-K has hit A-Rod every time he has pitched so far this year. That’s at least 4 times, right? or is it 3?
doreen- the lead thing is so subjective. the yankees 2 1/2 lead over the tigers seems small, but the yankees are only behind cleveland by 2 which seems like a lot right now. if the yankees win their next game and the tigers and red sox lose, then the yankees would be 3 1/2 ahead of the tigers and 3 1/2 behind the red sox.
if that happens , it’ll still going to seem like it’s going to be hard to catch the red sox and still going feel like the tigers are right there.
we’re getting our money’s worth as fans this year. i’ve got to remember to close my windows during games here on cape cod. i ‘ve been making so much noise( like”throw strikes mo!!!!)my red sox neighbors are going to egg my house or call 911 or the police because its sounds like i’m dying or ready to kill someone. i did run up and down the main street of our town which is right outside my door after friday night’s amazing comeback out of sheer exuberance and energy. there wasn’t a red sox fan in sight until ironically i saw a friend yelling at a cop car who must have had a few too many beers watching the red sox lose ). he was ironically wearing a papelbon shirt. the cop just smiled and waved( small town) as my friend’s girlfriend and i got him into the passenger’s seat of his car. he forgot i was a yankee fan as he said thanks. it didn’t seem the time to bring it up. this morning, after last night’s cardiac stress test ,seems like a perfect time.
seriously, winning last night and taking the series makes the weekend a success so we can go back and be amazed by that friday night comeback. if the yankees would have lost last night, that vicory would have been pretty much negated. now it’s back in play.
and now it’s a very good time to check up on my red sox friend just to see if he got home ok friday night . gloating would be such bad sportsmanship. the really fun part is you don’t have to say anything.
hmm: I agree. It’s because he’s got 30 or whatever plate appearances without a home run. NY fans get greedy.
I didn’t realize that until you pointed it out. I believe we’ve faced him 3 times.
I don’t know why joe torre took out edwar in the other game before yesterday. He struck out lowell and varitek (lefty). Then everybody complains that nobody could get lefties out. edwar ramirez can strike out lefties and righties the same.
randy1 –
You are so right about the Games Ahead/Back being subjective! There’s never enough distance between your team and the one behind it and always too much between yours and the one ahead.
If the Yankees do make the playoffs, I would love for them to miss the Angels, but I’d also like for someone else to dispose of the Red Sox. I don’t want a repeat of 2003, where all the drama and energy expended on the league championship series took away from the World Series itself. I remember that it felt like because every game between the Red Sox and Yankees was so hard-fought that the World Series was somewhat anticlimactic. I kind of felt like by beating the Red Sox for the league championship, they had accomplished everything. It should never be that way.
“i did run up and down the main street of our town which is right outside my door after friday night’s amazing comeback”
It was 1 to 1. It wasn’t a comeback.
“he was ironically wearing a papelbon shirt.”
That’s not irony.
Are you on drugs?
Andrea- Honestly I agree about A-Rod slumping, I don’t mean this as an insult, I’ve loved the guy even through last season and still wear my 13 jersey proudly. But ever since leaving Kansas City he’s looked terrible at the plate. He was swinging away too much in the early Toronto games, assuming he was going to hit a HR, and now he’s overcompensating by taking good pitches and panicking and swinging at bad ones. Hopefully he gets back on track before October.
I had been so tense for that game last night, that once it was over and I relaxed, I suddenly got incredably tired. Well that and it was like 11:45..
jake: Friday night was 7-2. That was a pretty amazing comeback.
“It was 1 to 1. It wasn’t a comeback.
“he was ironically wearing a papelbon shirt.�
That’s not irony.
Are you on drugs?”
it was 7-2, are YOU on drugs?
Can anyone get more news on Mo’s right elbow? It figures that gag-me would hit him. Envy will that do that to you. Mo’s amazing to say the least.
We need the Indians to spank like TIgers
dmm-
What happened to Mo? I didn’t hear about that..
If everyone believes the so called experts in the media and some of the critics on here, why are people whining about what A-Rod has not done the past few days? You are all the same people who say that the only thing that matters is what he does in October. So why then are you whining about a few September at bats?
We’ve witnessed EXTENDED slumps from a multitude of players this year and you choose to focus on a few bad games from one of the players who has been the most consistent.
Eric Gagne threw a wild pitch in the Sox bullpen and it flew into the Yankee pen and hit Mo on the elbow on the fly when he was warming up to come in. Villone said it made Mo’s hand numb.
ARod in September: .417/.509/.938 (1.447 OPS)
What a gutless choker!
pat-
Wow.. I don’t know how I didn’t hear about that.. Crazy stuff happens when these teams meet.
I still think Alex is a Post Season jinx – look at his record.
jake-
have another coffee. you’ll be fine. sounds like it was a rough weekend for you.
what i want to know is where can i get some more of what i was on friday night. that was definitley addictive.
lost in the commotion of his great game last night was what happened to mientkiewicz when he was on third base and didn’t break for home on the broken bat squibber to the first base hole. i was ready to strangle him until jeter hit the bomb.
there was no downside to going on contact. even if he would have been out, it would have been first and third with a fast runner on first in damon.
runners have to have it thought out in their head before the ball is in play. or at least be told by the third base coach what to do. but hey, no problem because the way things turned out. mientkiewicz played a great game.
“You are all the same people who say that the only thing that matters is what he does in October. So why then are you whining about a few September at bats? ”
b/c when we are talking about A-Rod, we get to constantly shift the goalposts to fit the storyline of ripping the guy.
remember when he was “Mr. April”? oh, but then he was Mr. June, July, and August too….the guy hit 2 crucial HRs in tight spots to bury the Mariners 2 weeks ago, then it’s “it only matter against Boston”….if he homered 3 times this weekend it would be “only October matters”…
Jeter has stepped it up against Boston this year. 6 HRs. that is all well and good, but he is slugging *.400* against every other team. so apparently if you are Jeter you can slug a craptastic .400 for 130 games as long as you play great for 18 games against Boston, while A-Rod (who has hit .271/.419/.576 against Boston by the way) can’t have an 0-fer without getting criticized despite hitting .315/.422/.657 on the season. makes sense.
it’s annoying that this even has to be talked about after such a great game last night.
Joan
What about Giambi and Mussina? They’ve been with the Yankees longer than A-Rod and how many rings have they helped bring to the Bronx? Your letting personal bias show your lack of baseball knowledge.
randy l,
Thank you. I thought I was insane for thinking that Mientkiewicz screwed up by failing to score on that grounder to first, and then not seeing a word about it here.
I should have remembered that Mientkiewicz is practically the mascot of this site.
“I still think Alex is a Post Season jinx – look at his record.”
i believe in unicorns!
So why don’t we have a third-string catcher? What’s the downside to bringing in Nieves for emergencies?
I don’t know if this has been posted on this blog yet, but this is priceless. It’s hard not to appreciate Shelley just a little more for this…
http://www.bostonherald.com/ne.....id=1031894
Somebody contact Brian Cashman and tell him Joan thinks A-Rod is a post season jinx so let’s just keep him to play 162 and substitute Betemit to play 3rd and bat 4th on the post season roster.
“So why don’t we have a third-string catcher? What’s the downside to bringing in Nieves for emergencies?”
you’d have to open up a spot on the 40 man roster to add Nieves.
Joba4MVP-
You know what is incredably funny about that
The mother says ““This is someone who wears the Yankee uniform and is on the payroll and should be setting an example for 10-year-olds,â€? she said.”
But wheres the outrage when Schilling wears one of those Yankee-Hater hats..
Unreal.
Will you guys chill? Either Joan & Annie are one and the same or they’re cut from the same cloth. They’re jokes. Just last week Joan made an inflammatory comment about how she can’t wait until Alex opts out. Look, Annie posted for half a year about Bernie.
The lead is the same in the 2 divisions. Of course, Detroit has a much better chance of catching Cleveland than we do of catching Boston. Head to head and all that. Yankees can’t sleep, b/c there’s a possibility that Detroit could catch Cleveland and the Indians beating us out for the wild card.
There’s room enough for both Jeter and Alex on this team. Besides there’s too much new blood on this team. If nothing, Jeter has always led by example. For whatever reason the two seem to be getting along just fine.
Andrea, why do you say that’s not Duncan’s autograph? The boy (with his most forlorn face) had a picture of it. Just wondering if you heard something definitive about Shelley denying the whole thing.
In all fairness to Minky, watch the replay of Damon’s broken bat ground out: It was not a ground ball chopper; rather, it sorta “blooped” in the air. If you are on 3rd with less than 2 outs, and the infield is in, you cannot go on contact unless the ball is clearly hit into the ground. From Minky’s perspective it would have been far too dangerous to just take off from 3rd when off the crack of the bat the ball blooped into the air. By the time the ball landed in front of Pedroia it was far too late to take off from 3rd.
It was extremely disappointing that the run did not score on that play, but I don’t think that was an error in judgment. If that bloop has been only a tiny bit higher, Pedroia would have caught it on the fly.
Listening to the announcers last night was worse than having your fingernails pulled out. Leaving aside the patent anti-NY bias, I don’t see how they can be so dumb, as Miller has been doing it forever and Morgan is a HOF. My favorite moment of idiocy was when Damon grounded out with Minky on 3rd and Jason on 2nd. Miller commented, “Interesting they didn’t try for the double play there”. How do these guys have a job doing this?
DMan-
Haha, I know. It’s ridiculous what they will do up there and get away with. The kid really looks upset doesn’t he? I think, removed from context of course, that picture is much more damning to Sox fans than the article is to the Yanks. ‘Hey, look at me. I’m a Sox fan and I still know they suck!’
Pete, thanks for the great road trip. I’m glad that you got to spend time with your family. Tell Jeter to hook you up so you can start your own. Enjoy your day off, even though you’ll do work anyway. Two great wins last night, huh? Total domination by the Patriots. They made Rivers & Co. look like kids.
if Alex is a post-season jinx, than so is Melky and Cano, Giambi, Mattingly. No rings have been won with them on the roster.
Enough with the jinxes–though I might start to believe in the curse of Mattingly.
Joba4MVP-
Yah. Its just an easy story for the paper. I mean who here in Boston doesn’t want a reason to be more angry at the Yankees.
Pretty pointless overall.
Oh well.
mel: I take it back. Originally I didn’t think it looked like an autograph of Shelley Duncan’s that I have, but I think maybe when I got mine, he was rushing. They are quite a bit more similar than I thought. At first, they looked so different I didn’t think it was even possible it was his. Sorry!
i wonder if mo is gonna get xrays etc. i can only imagine yes… poor guy. he is true champion…
Like the rest of the Yankees, Mo IS tough all day!
I’m not too worried!
(Get well soon Mo, Yankeedom needs you!)
I had it slightly wrong Chalk it up to tension and beer). It was actually worse. MORGAN said before the 1st pitch to Damon as the bosox brought the infield in with runners on second annd third, “Interesting they are bringing the infield in and not trying for the double play”. Unbelievable.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/.....id=3023807
Great article about the magic of last night’s game.
“I still think Alex is a Post Season jinx – look at his record.”
if the yankees make it to the post season, arod gets a pass from me because no matter what he does then, they wouldn’t even be there if wasn’t for his incredible year in the regular season.
but if they get there, i think he’ll have a good october because he’s made the mental adjustments he needed to make to play in new york. i think adjusting to new york is also the reason why he’s going to sign on again with the yankees if the money is equal to other offers, and i think it will be. cashman would be crazy to let this guy slip away.
I can’t believe we’re 4-8 agaisnt the O’s… Lets improve that tonight.
Mel -
Thanks for the link. What a great, well-written story. It was a riveting as all the games between these two incredible teams. They are about as evenly matched as two teams can get, and have been for years. It is always drama, whether it’s April or September.
Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a September without the Red Sox being such a huge factor down the stretch. But I’m glad THIS season wasn’t the season to find out. It’s certainly interesting being on the other side of the coin — trying to catch them instead of the other way around. But can any other two teams match this? I doubt it.
“From Minky’s perspective it would have been far too dangerous to just take off from 3rd when off the crack of the bat the ball blooped into the air.”
being down the third base line should have given mienkiewicz a really close look at the ball. i still think he should have had one of the best views of it and taken off, but in the heat of battle perceptions are off. as it was, with captain clutch coming up and how things turned out, i guess he made the right decision.
Hindsight is 20/20. In retrospect, he should have gone home. But there’s no way to know if Pedroia is going to have a shot at that ball the split second it leaves Damon’s bat and bloops into the air. If he had gone off the crack of the bat, and Pedroia does catch it, it would have been the bonehead move of the year.
My boss keeps saying ‘The Yankees won’t get passed 4.5 out.’
Boy thats annoying. I hope saying that backfires on him!
I have a question for you guys. Is it considered a strike if a pitch is bounced off the ground into the strike zone?
“if the yankees make it to the post season, arod gets a pass from me ”
Which means he’ll get a pass from you, guaranteed. Because we are not going to miss the playoffs and in the unlikely event of we missing the playoffs, there is no way anybody can blame ARod for missing the playoffs (if we do).
We should enjoy a truly remarkable season( and weekend) instead of complaining and bla bla bla on A rod ,etc…lets pull for the YANKEES,lets send the good vibes for them,there still a lot of key games to win and make the playoffs.Then we can all comment on whatever we want.
Quite frankly, who cares about Mientkiewicz not running on the Damon ground out? it ended up being inconsequential. If it ended up being a factor, then we discuss it. But it ended up not mattering. So who cares.
Andrea, actually if Jeter never hit the home run it would have been a HUGE factor in the game. When I played ball, my coached drilled baserunning into us. Drilled it long and hard.
You can’t worry about what’s done.
You’ve got to focus on today.
Play today, win today.
Mel I read he shrugged his shoulders when shown the article and said big deal. So he did not deny signing it.
Miller: I know that. But Jeter DID hit the home run, but it’s a nonfactor. If the coaches want to worry about it, let them worry about it and talk to Mientkiewicz about it, let them w orry about it, but as fans, let us just be happy that the game was won. That’s what those of us on the Optimism bus are babbling about all the time–let’s just be happy about the good things that have happened. What’s done is done, and no bad came of it.
You can’t say “if Jeter never hit the home run,” because he did. There is no “if Jeter never hit the home run,” because that situation is not possible.
What-up, team!
Boston threw their top pitchers at home and they still got pantz!
Who’s your daddy, Nation!
I wonder how many shrinks they employ.
now they gotta go on the road. Wakefield is pitching tonite and he got knock out in the 3rd inning in his last two starts.
And topping off this sundae, the sox have lost 8 of Schilling’s last 10 starts (Bwhwhahhahahahhahaha)
Jennifer,
Then it’s true. How disappointing. I’m sure someone talked to him about it. I can see him maybe getting away with doing that to an older person as a joke. But a kid. I bet even his dad, a baseball lifer, said something to him about not disenchanting kids. Yeah, I’m a prude. What about it? lol.
Dr. Acula: Have they really lost 8 of his last 10 starts? that’s ridiculous.
Andrea, althought i agree with you whats done is done, I really do hope Bowa and Mattingly give the team a talking to about baserunning because between last nite Minky, and earlier on Cano and Melky, it has been subpar.
We play today. We win today. Tampa beats Boston. We’re down 3.5.
I have to go to class today so the chance a squirrel will cross my path is pretty high up there.
Remember, last few times that have happened, the Yanks have won…
Well there was some good base running last night guys. Like when Giambi went to second on the throw after his hit..
That was good base running on his part.
Andrea-
no joke. since june 13, the sox are 2-8 in games tubby has started. One of the victories came against the white sox, so mean, that doesn’t even count.
And he’s their number two starter!!
Dice-Cold is their number three. HA!
Happy Constitution Day everyone!!!!!
Miller: I’m with you. But let Bowa and Mattingly worry about it. Let us just enjoy the win
It was mega nerve-wracking last night, but today, we can just be happy.
Eric Gagne hit Mariano Rivera IN THE ELBOW with a ball thrown FROM THE RED SOX bullpen just prior to the 9th inning. This should be the screaming headlines and result in a suspension for the rest of the year for Gagne. Accident? According to whom? When is someone going to stand up in this organization?
Story by George King in the NY Post.
What a relief it is to see the Yankees get out of silly/delusional, Boston/Mass.
At least they provided what amounts to Boston’s World Series for the year. It’s tough to be imitated amd envied all the time but somebody’s gotta do it.
Oh boy… Steve Phillips chat happening over on ESPN.com right now.. This should be entertaining.
Dr. Acula, why are you laughing?
Both Schilling and Dice-K shut us down this weekend , even though we won. Yea its good it they suck against other teams, but what about if we meet them in ALCS
Miller,
Dice-K didnt shut anyone down with his walking the ball park.
*Steve Phillips: (12:23 PM ET ) I think they’ll use four starters in the postseason, which would include both Matsuzaka and Wakefield. The team with the best overall record in the AL get to choose whether they want the shorter or longers series in the division series. If they choose the shorter series, only the Game 1 pitcher would get a second start. The game 1 and 2 starters would get two starts in the longer series. The Red Sox’ strength is their pitching depth, not its impact in the front. You would take Dice-K and Wakefield over Westbrook and Byrd, or over Clemens and Hughes, or Weaver and Saunders. I think they will use all four guys and I expect both Matuszaka and Wakefield to be good in the postseason.
LOL
I liked watching Giambi come in as a pinch hitter last night. He seems to have more focus in that role than at first base. Keep doing whats working. Doug or Wilson at first and Jason(Sierra)Giambi as a pinch hitter.
Does anyone else think that Elsbury looks like a young Beltron?
I hate games after Red Sox series. We always seem to play flat. Being that its the stretch run, hopefully we can keep it going. Detroit isnt going down without a fight. Heres to sheff watching the playoffs from home.
Colin Cowheard said that the Yankees have a confidence vs. boston from past results that will them to win. If they lose vs. Boston in the regular season they just say we’ll get them in the playoffs. If they win in the regular season they look at it as they should beat Boston. He said that he has never seen a Yankee team that looked better on paper lose to Boston but MORE SUPERIOR Boston teams get beat by Yankees in the past. Surly by knowing history is on their side. I tend to agree with his statements.
” Eric Gagne hit Mariano Rivera IN THE ELBOW with a ball thrown FROM THE RED SOX bullpen just prior to the 9th inning. This should be the screaming headlines and result in a suspension for the rest of the year for Gagne. Accident? According to whom? When is someone going to stand up in this organization? Story by George King in the NY Post.”
Susan- i couldn’t aggree with you more. SJ44, Pete, does anyone know if he went to get his elbow checked by a doctor? It is such BS… red sux and gag-me. a perfect combination.
Bruce ( Seattle, WA): What’s wrong with Hideki Matsui? Is he hurt or just getting old?
Steve Phillips: (12:45 PM ET ) Matsui’s numbers are down some, but I don’t think there’s any dramatic reason to be concerned. A big part of it was his slow month of April, and the lack of spring training playing time. I think he still has productive years in the tank and will be part of the solution for the Yankees. His defense isn’t very good and he should get more time at DH, which could be difficult because Giambi and Damon are really DHs now as well. Of all the Yankees’ problems, I don’t think he ranks near the top.
“Of all the Yankees problems” Hahah.. Ohhh boy
Miller -
what city do you live in?
are you a new yorker? where ya out sick the day God passed out Yankee arrogance??
S##T, dude, we just went into their crib and KICKED THEIR FRIGGN TEETH OUT. That’s why Schilling was bent over after Jetes’ blast, he was picking up his molars.
Baseball is a game of inches, and that’s why Red Sox Nation suffers from envy!
Phillips is just unbelievable. I don’t think he even believes the BS he spews nowadays. He’s just another ESPN clown and nothing more.
The Yankees have the best record in baseball the last THREE months. This is not a two week thing. Sure, they have problems but, SO DOES EVERYBODY ELSE!
Every team is flawed this year. That’s why its so unpredictable and exciting.
All I know is, the Yankees have won 4 straight series and 9 of the last 12 against the Red Sox. Four of the Red Sox wins were against pitchers who no longer pitch for the Yankees.
The Yankees “problems” aren’t with the Red Sox. They are with the Orioles. They are 4-8 against Baltimore this yr. Flip that record, and they are in first place.
Starting tonight, they have 6 more games with the Orioles. Now is the time to bury that dead team, get the bats going again this week, and pound to some wins.
Have a big week at home these next 7 days and we can start worrying about October.
What goes unspoken is, as long as the Yankees keep winning, they force the Red Sox to keep playing regulars. That’s important.
With Ortiz and Manny hurting, and Dice-K and Okijima on fumes, I’m sure the Red Sox would love to rest those guys. They can’t now and that’s a problem for the Sox.
Dice-K is being passed over for his next start. They want to get their post-season rotation in order and have some rest days. However, if you look at his ERA on 4, 5, & 6 days rest. It’s gross for 4, better on 5 days, and a tad over 2 on 6 days.
mel-
how many times has Dice-L pitched on 6-days rest? and when? I imagine that would be a mighty low sample.
YES was just rebroadcasting the AL Pennant game from October 15 1976 vs. KC that Chris Chamblis won with a walk off HR in the 9th. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to flood onto the field at Yankee Stadium, looked like absolute mayhem; a great party – i understand why they wouldn’t allow that again, but man, too bad.
In the clubhouse afterwards they’re interviewing Billy Martin about winning against a dominant KC team and the outcome of the game: Billy, obviously reeling from the win, in response to how the team would recover from George Bretts 3 run blast earlier in the game, just says:
“We came back, as usual.”
Not much has changed in ~30 years. Even though the Yanks get pegged as the Evil Empire and usually suffer the Goliath role vs any team they play, the payroll gives them a bad rap; but they have overcome alot of adversity, injuries, circumstance, and the emergence of many other strong ballclubs in the last several years – can’t remember the last time there were this many contenders so late in the season. I love baseball. I love this team.
GO YANKS!
looking back at choices players ( or coaches and managers) make in the spur of the moment isn’t necessarily a negative activity especially in light of an uplifting victory. that’s actually the best time to look back at decisions players make. the game isn’t just what happens, but how it happens. for instance though it’s a slightly different thing because it was torre’s choice to put him in there and not posada’s, but once posada’s bell was rung, he’s not been handling pitches very well which is understandable. he was” clanking ” balls thrown from joba and rivera and not catching pitches cleanly. in hindsight it didn’t matter, but if there would have been a past ball on a swinging strike, then it could have. torre sees , weighs the risk and pinch hits for molina. it’s not just second guessing to look at it. it also takes you into a better understanding of the game. it’s interesting.i guess it’s all in the way it’s done. you can be positive and still look back. the two are not mutually exclusive. i for one have become a convert and believer in the optimism bus. rebecca had done a great job here on the blog improving the tone and making it more fun.
1 pint of blood for Dr. Acula for a well put statement!!! lol
This team has put on quite the show for us this year. From the poor start to the absolute sick play the last few months. I had faith that they would start winning. I never gave up on them, even though at times it would have been very easy to. Just goes to show you never count this team out! You’d think the media would learn by now, they were counting out the Yankees as early as May, saying we’d never win the division and there were too many teams to jump over for the wild card. Now here we are 2 weeks left in the season and the Yankees firmly in the drivers seat for the Wild card. Imagine where we’d be if they just played okay the begining of the year?
Question:
Who do we play if cleveland or the Angels have the better record of the two?
Dr.,
2 starts. And I mistakenly exagerrated with the “gross” as I didn’t quite remember what the ERA was. Gross would describe Mussina’s swoon.
http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/n.....8;c_id=bos
marc,
I think the wild card plays the non-division team with the best record.
marc-
As the wildcard, we would play whichever team has the best record.. But that can’t be the Red Sox, so whomever has the best record between LAA and CLE, is who we would play.
We play the team with the best record, unless they are from our division. In which case we’d play the team with the second best record.
1 pint for the miller quip i mean:
”
” Miller –
what city do you live in? are you a new yorker? where ya out sick the day God passed out Yankee arrogance?? S##T, dude, we just went into their crib and KICKED THEIR FRIGGN TEETH OUT. That’s why Schilling was bent over after Jetes’ blast, he was picking up his molars.Baseball is a game of inches, and that’s why Red Sox Nation suffers from envy!
hahahhaha. made me crack up
Here’s to hoping Wright doesn’t pitch for the Yankees this season unless we’re winning by 20 or more runs. I personally witnessed him get thrashed by Boston’s AA, the Portland Sea Dogs, a few weeks ago.
We won’t see him unless it is a blow out. They are just rewarding him for winning games for us earlier this year.
I think too much is being made of this 7 days vs 8 days series. Sure, you can send out your top 2 guys twice in the 8 days series. But you face your opposition’s top 2 twice as well. Assuming Boston plays Cleveland, I am not so sure they want to play the 8 day series. They would have to face CC and Carmona 4 out of 5 games. Even ith Beckett and Boston’s #2 going in those four games, I have to give the edge to the Indians.
PS: No body has answered my question yet. Is it because you guys don’t know the answer either or because you guys think the question is not worth answering? I am going to ask the question again regardless ..
Is it a strike if a pitch is bounced into the strike zone off the ground?
“What goes unspoken is, as long as the Yankees keep winning, they force the Red Sox to keep playing regulars. That’s important.”
ain’t that the truth. the red sox are a very flawed team when they get past their key players. if the yankees can keep the pressure by staying close than ortiz,matsuzaka,okajima, crisp, manny, youkillis,etc don’t get the rest they’d like to get to be ready for the playoffs. of course the yankees have to get control of the wild card themselves to rest their players that need a rest like jeter, matsui, posada,etc.
sj44 also has it right when he says a good homestand could nail it down for the yankees. it’s not going to be a cakewalk though. nothing comes easy this year.
Yah Chase Wright and some others aren’t up there so much to pitch as they are to get use to the atmosphere and maybe learn a little from the vets and the rookie pitchers.. Help them get prepared.
Its a good move.
passerby,
I’m no expert, but I don’t think it would be one. There’s probably a stipulation about the ball having to go over the plate in one continuous arc to be a strike.
Mel, Thanks for atleast trying to answer the question. I hope you are wrong. Because if a strike can be bounced off the ground, I am going to contact Cashman with the video of a certain guy who plays cricket for Australia.
See, they’re not all idiots at ESPN:
Kevin, Naples ME: let’s stop talking about the Yankees Tigers and Red Sox and talk about the two real contenders the Angels and the Indians, what are their chances of the World Series Championship?
Buster Olney: (1:32 PM ET ) Kevin: I picked the Indians before the year and will stick with it until they lose, and with Sabathia and Carmona pitching at the front end of the rotation, they could be tough. The Angels seem to be in the Yankees’ heads, but with two weeks left in the regular season, their middle relief is a serious mess. If I had to bet the family farm on one team right now, though, it would be hard to pick any team other than the Yankees — they’ve been winning two-thirds of their games for the last three months.
Rusty – I watched that this morning, also. Poor Chambliss must have feared for his life! What total bedlam. Weird hearing Reggie Jackson do the color commentary. And hearing Cosell made me snicker that he should have the nerve to tell Phil Rizzuto he didn’t have a voice for broadcasting — Cosell’s voice, while certainly distinctive and emminently immitable, is like nails on a chalkboard to me!
Here’s to another exciting finale to a Yankees’ season.
What we witnessed over the weekend was a very flawed Boston team. Even with a healthy Manny Ramirez, the lower end of their batting lineup is weak and after Beckett there’s a dropoff in the starting rotation and the bullpen is showing wear.
“1907
A fairly delivered ball is a ball pitched or thrown to the bat by the pitcher while standing in his position and facing the batsman that passes over any portion of the home base, before touching the ground, not lower than the batsman’s knee, nor higher than his shoulder. For every such fairly delivered ball, the umpire shall call one strike.”
i found this on:http://www.baseball-almanac.co.....tory.shtml
it’s a ball, but because it’s still in play ,the hitter could hit it. i’m thinking it would also be a hit batter on a ball in the dirt that hit a player. it would have to be or a pitcher could throw nasty sliders in the dirt that nailed hitters in the ankles. it’d be a free shot. i can’t remember seeing it happen though.
good question.
What a huge dissappointment, we had a chance to make a statement and win all three, and once again we came up just short, getting blasted 10-1.
Why cant we break thru and do it, why do we keep just coming up short?
What a bunch of teases
PS Did arod go to Boston this weekend?
Randy,
Thanks for the info. I was hoping it was a strike because we could have used this guy.
http://video.google.com/videop.....6703543175
“What a huge dissappointment, we had a chance to make a statement and win all three, and once again we came up just short, getting blasted 10-1.
Why cant we break thru and do it, why do we keep just coming up short?
What a bunch of teases”
congrats, i was waiting for the dumbest post of the day.
Next Monday afternoon should be a fun day as it is traditionally the day that rookie hazing takes place as it is when the team leaves for the last road trip of the season. it will be fun to see what is chosen for the rooks to wear this year. last year it was dressing up as The Boss (Steinbrenner that is), thed year before Wang and cano in cheerleader outfits. being as there are so many on this years team it should be fun. Pete please if you can do photos.
How’s the quote from O.J. Simpson, “I thought what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”
I Love the Yanks ,
man thats a little rough , no ? yanks take 2 of 3 in fenway , one of the toughest place to play on the road and youre complaining ? wow . as i see it the yanks were lucky not to get 1 let alone 2 . yanks went 7-2 on this road trip ( which is outstanding ) and youre complaining . i just dont get it .
So basically we are rooting for Clevend for 2 reasons this week against Detroit.
1. Because they are playing Detroit
2. We would rather play Cleveland than Anaheim.
They went 7-2 on a road trip and you’re complaining? You can’t win every game!!
marc,
I am not so sure we want to face CC and Carmona in a 5 game series. I will take my chances against the Angels minus their usually good bullpen (Shields and Spier are struggling). What I am rooting for is, for a better record than Angels and Indians so that we can have home field for ALDS and may be for the rest of the playoffs.
Off Topic
I always thought Britney couldn’t sing and lip-synced through her performances. But no, apparently she’s a _Soprano !_
Damn! She put out a hit on her ex-husband. Now, that’s old-school.
http://perezhilton.com/?p=5652
I still want the division championship. Let’s hope the Sox begin crumbling.
And here is a link for the Red Sox hazing from yesterday Dice K in Telletubbie pretty darn funny
http://wbztv.com/video/?cid=37
marc,
I agree. People here say to be careful what you wish for with Cleveland because of Sabathia/Carmona. True, but I’d rather face them because we played them well, the Angels kill us, the travel is a killer, and the Angels are proven winners in the postseason.
We have a lot of young guys, but some of them have played in the postseason. I like the fact that the Indians are very young and not playoff tested.
This is all assuming we win the wild card. If we win the division, then we’ll likely have the best record, then I would want Cleveland to have the 3 seed.
Did Arod go to Boston?
Only had the GW RBI off Papelbon to win their biggest game of the year Friday night.
Geography is not my strongest suit but, I believe that game was played in Boston.
Passer by,
I believe as the WC, we would never have home field advantage.
“I still want the division championship”
Dont we all?
Marc-
Well I guess.. But Im more rooting just for reason 1.. I don’t like thinking about who we play or who we play better agaisnt.. I just want to focus on one thing at a time, and the first thing is securing a playoff spot.
for what it’s worth ( hope this doesn’t get me into contention for hmmm’s dumbest post of the day) , it’d be interesting to see joba snap off one of his unhittable 89 mph sliders in the dirt in just in front of youkillis’ ankles next time they meet. breaking balls from right handed pitchers bounce back to the pitcher’s right right so that ought to put joba’s slider right on youkillis left ankle. at the least it’d dump youkillis on his head as he tried to get out of the way. it’d be great camoflage for a message pitch. how could they throw joba out for a breaking ball in the dirt.
the only downside is that i’m assuming it counts as a hit batter even though it would hit the dirt first.
Marc,
I vaguely remember redsox playing at home in 2005. I could be wrong though.
nope, I was wrong. It was @ CWS, @ CWS, @ BOS.
Gayle-
that’s a good one, gayle. A green teletubbie.
I bet “tough all day” is laughing at that one.
of course, Schilling is the red tubbie.
Gayle — Funny stuff. The teletubby was genius. Hate to say it, but it was.
Any AL team will have home field advantage in the WS. Because of the all-star game.
I believe Last Year we wanted the Tigers in the first round as oppose to the Twins. Well, we all saw what happened.
Correct DMAn,
The only question is the 2nd round.
You know, it’s great to argue the merits of who would be better to play in the post-season. Hoewever, there is the little matter of Mr. Daniel Cabrera and the FRIGGIN’ Baltimore Orioles to worry about first!
They play dead cockroach (think about it) with every other team in the leaugue and turn into world beaters when they play the Yankees. That little pissant Roberts seems to get a hit every time he gets up. Then when he gets on second, Jeter always pushes him off the base and laughs at him.
I feel great about the Boston series but I hope the team doesn’t let up against B-more.
No to Cleveland. We owned Detroit last year in the regular season and we all know how that ended.
This year will be know as the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.(of all the recent past playoff exits)
1. eliminate detroit(for last years)
2. take out california angels(for 2002,05 and all the regular season since Torre took over)
3. Sweep boston(finish what we didnt in 04)
4. WIN THE WORLD SERIES BY BEATING ARIZONA IN 7,with offcoarse Mo closing it out.
THE 27TH WILL BE THE SWEETEST OF ALL!!!
Dr. Acula,
I like in North Jersey 20 Min from the stadium and grew up around the area my whole life. However, I am a realist when it comes to the game of baseball. My Yankee “arrogance” as you put it was at an all time high game 3 of the 2004 ALCS but then guess what happened?? Kind of leveled my head a bit.
So dont come at me like you are better than me because I look at both sides of the issue. And DONT come at me claiming to be a bigger fan. We are all big fans, thats why we are here.
*live
I LOVE the Shelley autograph thing if he really did that. It’s about time we get some guys on this team who love the pinstripes more than the dollars.
It reminds me of a few years ago – I had the front row seats at the Stadium on the 3rd base line for the Red Sox series and some of the Sox were coming over to sign autographs before the game.
I took off my Yankee hat and asked Varitek for his autograph. He was walking back from the bullpen. He signed my ticket stub, handed it back to me and I proceeded to tear it up right in front of his face. The look on his face was priceless, “You just tore up my autograph?”. He walked away all pissed off and went back to the dugout.
It would be nice to right all the wrongs of the last few years.
OK, enough about Boston already. It’s time to take care of business at hand and that means no letdown against the pesky Orioles.
Until something has been mathmatically clinched, the Yankees need to play with a sense of urgency that equals that of a playoff scenario. Wins are the name of the games to be played the rest of the way. The sooner the fate of the team is decided the sooner the playoff rotation can be set and give some key players some time off toward the last week of the month.
LET’S GO YANKEES !!! …
Jennifer,
Yeah, but it would be nice to get out of the first round. lol. But we got to beat them all anyway. Go Yankees.
Last night was one of the biggest Yankee wins of the year and the final comment in the game thread was a Patriots reference — ?!?!? Then this morning you give us a link to an article about how the Yanks will now be challenged by the Tigers for the WC and talk about your time growing up in New England but yet you refuse to admit your a Sox fan?
Is this even a Yankee blog anymore?
This guy’s a Red Sox fan and he says the Yanks have, and and always will have more talent than the Red Sox in their farm system. On the downside, he says they do it by spending so much.
http://octobersox.blogspot.com/
“Last night was one of the biggest Yankee wins of the year and the final comment in the game thread was a Patriots reference—?!?!? Then this morning you give us a link to an article about how the Yanks will now be challenged by the Tigers for the WC and talk about your time growing up in New England but yet you refuse to admit your a Sox fan?
Is this even a Yankee blog anymore?”
What a non-relevant post.
Who cares where Pete grew up, or who he rooted for when he was younger. Pete’s a great beat writer and he does a fantastic job on this blog.
“Is this even a Yankee blog anymore?”
i have zero interest in patriots football. but hey it’s peter’s blog. blogs have a personal touch. it wouldn’t be what it is if peter a didn’t let out what he cares about. he has to root for the story in baseball because that’s his job. he doesn’t get the luxury of being a fan of a baseball team so what the heck, let him root for whoever he wants in football.
What’s the difference between letting your kid join in the other 20,000 “Yankees Suck!” chants and Duncan giving him that autograph? Is letting your kids listen to those chants and not parenting by example just as bad as letting them chant?
Seriously, I bet this kid heard way worse at the game. How many drunk Sox fans were dropping MFYs everywhere, or “GAY-ROD AND JETER DO IT ALL NIGHT LONG” type stuff? I know when I was young, when I was in opposing ball parks even at 10 years old, I still got heckled. It’s part of the game.
I agree that wasn’t a classy move by Duncan, but it’s hypocritical to sit there and say that.
I read that there was some banter going back and forth, so maybe his father yelled “yankees s*ck” so thats why he did it.
here here, Clay Buchholz stole my Laptop!
Miller-
Here’s an anecdote from the 50s: “you know why the Yankees win so many pennants, asks the Brooklynite; “Cuz of Mantle,� replies the Statenite; “No, cuz the other team loses their lunch looking at their pinstripes.�
Don’t look back, as Satchel said. There’s no “couches� in baseball.
Roger doesn’t bend over in agony like Schilling. Jorge is home brushing up on dialectics. You have to be supremely confident, period.
Vote on what to do with Barry Bonds 756 Ball!!
http://www.vote756.com
Marc Ecko is a genius…….
Just finished reading Sweeny’s blog entry about the weekend series pretty funny you can see why Pete and Sweeny are pals. Pete you are a Mass native tell him that cabs are not the way to go while in Boston it is all about the T much easier way to travel and quicker
Andrea,
HaHa. I watched the video of the Boston rookies dressing up in drag. Clay was an eyeful. Put some of Britney’s “extensions” on him and he could pass. I was on the lookout for any laptops in the video. But, alas, there were none.
Tell me why Dice-K & Oka were dressed up in non-drag outfits. I wonder if there was a clause in their fancy contracts.
_On the downside, he says they do it by spending so much._
Waaah – Waaah – Waaah
This is why the Sawx are so hard to take. They have the 2nd highest payroll in baseball, they’ve sold out the sardine can five years in a row, and yet they still act like victims.
They cry about Roger’s paper, while nobody said squat about the L00t they dumped on dice,drew,and loogo.
Nobody in NYC held it against them when they signed Manny to the first $100 million-plus contract.
The “Little Engine That Could” act from the Red Sox (“We can’t be a uber-team like the Yankees and spend wildly”- Theo Espstein last year), their cheerleaders in the media, and their fans was tired a long time ago.
When they spent over 100 million bucks for a barely over .500, #3 starter, it can be permanently retired.
They, like the Yankees, are a major market team. They can’t cry poormouth any longer.
Well, they could but, they would sound like idiots. Apparently, some don’t have a problem with that.
Good lineup tonight.
Damon in center. Melky getting a much needed day off. When you are 1-26, you have to sit.
Jeter
Abreu
Arod
Posada
Matsui (LF)
Giambi (DH)
Cano
Minky….deserves to see some time at first. He saved the game last night with his D and got two hits. Ride the hot hand for a few days and see how it shakes out.
Line up per WFAN
Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
A-Rod 3B
Matsui LF
Posada C
Giambi DH
Cano 2B
Mientkiewicz 1B
I just voted to send that ball to the moon.
I also just read in an article that Marc Ecko is a Yankees fan.