Poll: How do you feel about Game 1?
-
-
- October
- 4
-
So as Game 1 approaches, how is your confidence in the Yankees?
Take the poll over to the right. Two choices: they win or they lose.
As for what I think, the team seems much better prepared for the playoffs this season than last season. No unexpected changes, no misfit first baseman, no A-Rod hitting sixth. They’ve won 73 of their last 112 and they’re not going to try to be anything but that team.
Sabathia is literally a tall order in Game 1. If he gets knocked around, the Yankees could sweep. My call in the paper sticks, Yankees in four games.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 11:58 am by Peter Abraham.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Sabathia will be a tough one to get by. My guess is that they won’t win tonight, but will win Games 2, 3 and 4. Yanks in four.
we will win
3-1
We win 7-2
Yanks in 4, then on to the ALCS to finish off the Sox.
Yanks sweep
Yankees win tonight 8-5. Sweep Series. Joba=MVP!
I’ve got a good feeling about a string of Mientkiewicz, Damon and Jeter hits for tonight. No logic to it, just a feeling I had this morning.
Yankees 5-4
Yankees in 4 (just because I have tickets to game 4–but hey, if they want to sweep, OK by me).
I’ve got to be honest. I’m not feeling too confident in Wang on the Road especially against Sabathia who I fully expect to keep our lineup in order.
Folks, I know we have the best lineup in baseball–we’ve had that for YEARS.
Until our offense proves they can HIT in the playoffs you have to lean towards the pitching. That being said, even if they drop Game 1 they are very capable of winning in 4.
Let’s hope the inexperience of Carmona and Joe Borowski leads to a Yankee win in the series.
do they name a MVP in a division series? i forget…
“I don’t own the team. In fact, I don’t know anything about them. All I know is they will win in four.” – Guiseppe Franco
I think as much as CC has been a force this season, this Yankee team has shown the patience and the ability to make these kind of pitchers (i.e. Beckett) throw more pitches per inning and per at bat than they are used to throwing and it affects them.
I also think there is a ton of pressure on CC tonight and he’s never had the chance to show he’s a post season ace, so he’s a wild card. He can go out and pit up zeroes or he can go out in the 1st all amped up and walk the ballpark if he doesn’t rein it in.
What do I expect tonight? I expect CC to be over 100 pitches in the 4th-5th and Wedge having to make the difficult choice of having his Ace throw 120 pitches or go to the pen in a close game. Once we get him out early in the game, it will get blown open.
The Indians have a couple of power arms in the pen, but they are not the types that are going to give 4 innings. They also have to deal with the patient Yankee hitters and Wedge runs the risk of burning out his pen in game 1 if he pushes these guys longer than they are used to.
It’s not going to be a cakewalk, but if they play their game and are patient at the plate, the Yanks hold an edge in this series. For as dominant as Carmona has been, the Yankees have the discipline to lay off his split and that makes him less effective.
If the Yankees for some reason press and play out of character, they will have problems. But if they play their game, I expect them to win.
I dont think they award an MVP for the DS
“He ran his hand through my hair and said it works, it really works.” I love those Guiseppe Franco commercials during the games. I guess the marketers feel that there are a lot of bald Yankees fans b/c those commericals are on about once every inning.
“I think as much as CC has been a force this season, this Yankee team has shown the patience and the ability to make these kind of pitchers (i.e. Beckett) throw more pitches per inning and per at bat than they are used to throwing and it affects them.”
If Sabathia is on, all the Yankees will be doing is taking 0-1, 0-2 every AB.
I know it’s fun to say “Let’s work out the count and be patient”, doesn’t always work out that way.
Case in point- Beckett last night. Angels were walking into 0-1,0-2 almost every ab.
“I also think there is a ton of pressure on CC tonight and he’s never had the chance to show he’s a post season ace, so he’s a wild card. He can go out and pit up zeroes or he can go out in the 1st all amped up and walk the ballpark if he doesn’t rein it in.”
Yeah, I’m hoping for that outcome.
“What do I expect tonight? I expect CC to be over 100 pitches in the 4th-5th and Wedge having to make the difficult choice of having his Ace throw 120 pitches or go to the pen in a close game. Once we get him out early in the game, it will get blown open.”
That’s wishful thinking IMO. You brought up Beckett before but we have seen him a ton of times. Sabathia is an unknown except for his stat sheet. Speaking of that stat sheet he has a walk/SO ratio of 37/200+ which is absolutely filthy.
This will probably be the type of game where you hit him early in the count or you don’t hit him at all.
Now is this a poll of Yankee Fans ? What if a Bstn fan disagrees with us ? Should we all go over the Bstn blog ( sarcasm here ) and tell them that we think that they stink and we disagree with their opinions ? Is it common for a Yankee fan and a Bstn fan to disagree and/or hate each other ? I am just learning here…Please enlighten me !
Gabriel, this poll is just to take the blog’s temperature. aka see how many trolls are lurking about!
In years past, I’ve been superstitious or nervous about making to many forward comments about the Yankees and their games.. Somehow I convinced myself I have some power over how they play.. And I’m always worried that my friends and such around here in Boston will come back and make me eat my words..
But I really feel good about this team… I feel very confident that they’ll win this.
CC hasn’t had 3 starts this year where he was at 100 pitches by the 4th-5th inning.
As Global said, if he is in the strike zone, the Yankees will be unable to “work counts”.
The best way to attack him is to swing at the first fastball you see in the AB. This enables you to stay away from the slider and changeup, which are his strikeout pitches.
Some guys, you work counts. Others, you have to be ready from the first AB. CC is the latter type of pitcher.
I can’t access the poll from my blackberry, but I vote “they lose” for today’s game. But I like Pete’s take and say we take the series in 4. Yanks are bad against pitchers they haven’t seen and CC is not the same pitcher from the last time we saw him. But we roll from here on out and clinch Monday at home!
(Hey Clay/Joe – any word??)
Not going to bother picking a score, but I think we lose this one.
The more I think about Cleveland’s team the less I can see us winning this series. Can someone remind me why some fans wanted to play this team again?
i hope the yankees win the world series. that’s how i feel.
I think Wang could prove once and for all that he is an ace if he comes up very big in this game. He doesn’t have to be Beckett good, but he has to have a big game here.
i have no idea who will win or lose . what i do know is c.c. sabathia is a completely different pitcher than the last time the yankees saw him and he is nasty . couple that with pitching at home and the wanger pitching on the road . things could be rough for the yanks . i hope the yanks can get to c.c. early before he settles down .
If yankees can score 4 runs,we are win this game .
I think some folks get too caught up in the analysis of these series. Just watch the games.
It doesn’t matter who you play in the playoffs. Every team is tough. Its all one big crapshoot.
Last year, everyone wanted Detroit and everyone predicted Kenny Rogers would crumble. How did that turn out?
The regular season stats mean nothing. Any team can get hot for a week or cold for a week. You just hope your team is the “hot” team.
All you have leading up to Game 1 is media folks trying to stir up storylines or coming up with “analysis” that makes them look smart.
The bottom line is, NOBODY knows what’s going to happen. That’s why they play the games.
Cleveland is a good team. So are the Yankees. If the Yankees get one of these first two, then we find out how good Cleveland is because the Yankees have an advantage in Games 3-4.
If you are the Yankees, you just don’t want to fall behind 2-0 in the series. That’s when young teams gain confidence.
It would be great if they could find a way to grind out a win tonight. Winning a Sabathia start would be a great way to start the playoffs.
I am worried.
I wasn’t worried about the tigers at all last year, so i am making up for it.
ZOMG!
OHNOES!
CC! WE R GUNNA DIE!
OHNOSE!
Right, we can look at numbers all we want. But the fact is this isn’t a simulation. We don’t just plug numbers into a computer and automatically know whats going to happen.
Thats why they play the games.
I think they win. (I always do
)
This is the year we break the curse of winning the first game, but losing the division series.
I have an optimistic prediction/scenario for how I envision the game going tonight, but often these things are better left unsaid, so I’ll keep it to myself.
That said, as much as it would be a major boost to get a win with Sabathia pitching, I believe the Yanks have a really good track record of winning playoffs series after losing Game 1, no?
Yankees!!!
I’m wary of game 1. CC is one of my favorite pitchers and he’s much better than the last time the Yanks saw him and Joe is starting Matsui at DH which normally is fine but CC kills lefties so I might have gone with Duncan.
For me I’m saying Yankees in three finishing up in NYC.
Matsui hits a 5 run homerun and Yankees win the series. lol
I think we win tonight and I actually have a feeling we get to CC pretty good. Every pitcher, no matter how good, has bad games. Sounds like he’s due for one but moreso than that I just think we come out guns blazin’ and get to him.
I don’t know if it’s excitement or a real gut feeling, but I think we win tonight and the headlines tomorrow read “Cy Who??” For once, we’ll be on the other side of the jinx after all this talk about Sabathia and how we haven’t faced him since ‘04 or whenever it was…
As the Queen of Optimism, my answer is already a given.
YANKEES WIN!!!!!
BTW ALL, LET’S NOT FORGET EVEN STAFF ACERS HAVE BAD OUTINGS. FACT IS WE JUST DON’T KNOW WHO WILL ONE
By the by everyone, 5 and a half hour till game time!
Hey, didn’t I remove your crown a few days ago? I don’t recall giving it back….
new girl, best example I can think of is being down 0-2 to Oakland the year of the “Jeter flip” and coming back to win that series. I believe that was 2001. And for that matter, I think we came back in the ALCS that year too, but don’t remember game-by-game…
Yankees will probably lose, but take the seires in 4. For some reason I’m more comfortable in the Torre era when they lose game 1.
Just as an aside: CC Sabathia, just another pitcher who broke out at the age of 27. Just like Josh Beckett, just like Jake Peavy.
While it would be nice to have guys like Joba and Phil pitch to their potential at the ages of 22, 23 and 24, it just won’t happen. The most talented pitchers, historically, don’t reach their potential until their late 20s. Basically, I expect Joba’s first season to go like Cole Hamels’ first season – 4.00 ERA, and solid strikeout numbers in about 160 innings. I would actually be very pleased with that result. Hamels is nasty. Anyway.
I think tonight is going to be a grind. If Wang can give us a quality start (6 innings 3 runs) we’ll pull it out. I’m more concerned about Wang giving us that than I am about being able to get 3 or 4 against CC.
In the end of the day, in the playoffs, especially in a 5 game series, luck and pitching will win the series.
then again if the yanks beat CC, they’ll sweep.
As Mike and the Mad Dog just said: it feels like 3 weeks, not 3 days since the Yankees have played a baseball game.
I see this being a bad Wang game, hope he’s not gonna be too strong.
Albany NY,
Well, then it has to be Sabathia who has the bad game. As we all know, “Wang is not an ace” lol.
O.K. Wang’s ERA @ Cleveland was bothering me so much I had to find out why it was so high.
7/3/06 Wang gave up 5 earned runs in 5.1 innings. I calculate that as 8.82, but we’ll just go with the 8.44 ESPN’s been saying.
IIRC, that wasn’t that the weekend that the Yankees got smoked on George’s birthday in his hometown?
I hope it was just that the Indians were hot that week and not that Wang has any issues with this park.
Who says I need a crown to be Queen? =P
Andrew, that brings up a question I’ve always had… People always say guys like Beckette reach their true potential when they learn how to “pitch” instead of “throw.” And I get what they mean by that, not always trying to overpower everyone, mixing speeds, etc…
So, I have two questions:
1) Why does it always seem to take that long for professional pitchers surrounded by coaches and instructors to learn how to do that?
2) Do Hughes, Kennedy, and Joba alredy know this, as I think has been said by some of the coaches, Torre, Posada, etc… Meaning, are they really mature as pitchers beyond their years and more likely to “break out” sooner than age 27…?
“Just as an aside: CC Sabathia, just another pitcher who broke out at the age of 27. Just like Josh Beckett, just like Jake Peavy.”
Um, Peavy broke out 3 years ago when he was 23, Sabathia broke out last year at 25, and Beckett also had his first big year at 23 before a few years of injury problems and one bad season witht he Sox.
Don’t tell Chase Wright that!
While I understand that CC hasn’t walked anyone this year and has had an amazing season, I’ve seen a lot of pitchers get rattled by the enormity of the post season. CC has the hopes of the team on his back. If he can’t keep that in check, I guarantee you he will be a little wild tonight.
I do not think the Yankees should be swinging at the first pitch. It’s not their game. They need to see as many pitches as they can and make the big guy work. They need Damon to have those classic 10 pitch/foul em off Damon at bats.
Forgive me, but this guy isn’t immortal. He’s not some God out there throwing an invisible ball. If KC can go out and put up 3 or 4 runs against him like they have in the past month 2 times, I don’t see any reason why the Yankees are going to be holding limp noodles in their hands all of a sudden.
Yeah, they haven’t faced him in a few years. But the fact is they have faced him. I’m sure after the 2nd time through the order, the Yankees are going to have a clear idea of what he’s throwing. It still doesn’t mean they are going to stand there slack jawed in awe when the ball leaves his hand. He still has to execute and make his pitches and even if he does, we still have a chance to win this game.
G Love,
Everyone has said that they’re favored solely because of their 2 front-line pitchers. That’s a lot of pressure for two young pitchers, isn’t it?
I voted for a loss tonight, but a win in the series. I think it takes all 5 games. If the Yankees do lose tonight, let’s all just remember not to panic, ignore the trolls, ignore the backpages, ignore Russo, Phillips and especially Lupica. Just keep the faith.
Hi Lori,
Sorry, not yet. I won’t know until Saturday morning.
Whatever we do, I just hope we don’t score 15+ runs this first game. The trend has been 15+ then they are dry the next few games. Lets win a close one.
I don’t know about luck, but definitely pitching and the hot hand win these series.
Offense wins games, defense wins championships… that never changes.
Isn’t the saying “Offense sells tickets, defense wins championships?” That’s how I’ve always known it.
Maybe we should concentrate less on CC and more on Wang? I think Wang will come up big. He enjoys the spotlight and his family is coming to watch him. I don’t think he will fold in front of his family, I think he will come out strong.
I think the saying goes: “The Red Sox win the division, but the Yankees win the World Series.”
I’m anticipating one of Wanger’s classic, 8-inning, 1-run, 4-hit games. With like 18 groundball outs.
very true MJL.
But playing free safety and dropping some wide receiver coming over the middle is a lot more fun than scoring, unless it’s an INT return….
Sorry, wrong sport, same idea.
Did you guys know that the Angels led the Red Sox in the 1986 ALCS 3-1, but ended up losing 4-3?
Makes me feel a little better about 2004. Just a little.
No I hear you, it definitely is a football phrase that can be adapted for baseball. I certainly agree with Phil’s take on it though.
Whatever happens, I’d just like to see A-rod get at least one RBI tonight – don’t care if it’s a sac fly, infield groundout, BB with based loaded, homerun, whatever. I think it will go a long way to keeping him free and easy throughout the series and postseason if he just gets that out of the way asap. AND, almost as importantly, it will keep the media from starting a “here we go again” storyline after one game…
and I agree on Wang, I’m expecting 342 double plays and one seeing eye RBI single.
Game time can’t come soon enough!
I was very confident but over the last two days I have gotten more nervous. It may just be my mind playing tricks on me because it still seems as though game time is so far away. I keep thinking about how we have won all 6 games this year against them, which is great. But if you remember, we won 5 of 6 from Detroit last year and the only loss came on a Farnsworth blown save. So basically, what happened in the regular season really doesn’t mean much. If we play our game, I think we will be alright.
I stick with my prediction of the Yankees winning it in 4 games.
The only way to beat CC is to be very aggressive at the plate, starting in the 1st inning, and once they get on base keeping CC off balance by making him worry about the runner on base. The more added pressure the better.
Wang won 19 but he got a lot of support. He was better last year.
Damon will be the key if he gets on a roll and gets on base.
They have to get off to a quick start and never let up the pressure. I think that’s the only way this team can beat him. If they go into their usual funk at the plate, meaning going 0 for 4 or 1 for 5, they will lose tonight.
Hopefully they don’t try to go for the fences on every swing or they’ll be in for a rude awakening.
I’m feeling a big game from A-Rod too, monkey off back right away. That one’s a gut feeling.
You know, I had a dream last night that A-Rod hit a long sac fly, and my thought was: It’s an RBI! I’ll take it!
A-Rod is due for something special.
I PREDICT that A-rod will have a Jacksonian 3-Home Run game at some point during these playoffs
These the same people voting who decalred the Yanks dead in a poll in May????
Some people have real faith.
Don’t know if anyone’s read Jerry Crasnick’s piece on the front page of ESPN, but he basically argues that Wild Card teams have had a lot of success since it’s been implemented. In the stat box accompanying the article, it points out that last year the AL Wild Card, the Tigers, lost in the World Series, and the NL Wild Card, the Dodgers, lost in the NLCS.
But wait a minute…didn’t the NL East champion Mets lose in the NLCS? Oh that’s alright, who cares if ESPN makes up its own facts to support its arguments, it’s the Worldwide Leader!
God I hate them more every day.
Let’s not annoint Sabathia SandyKoufax respect just yet. The playoffs are a different animal and he hasn’t seen a lineup like this.
Hopefully, the Yanks can attack his fastball and make him pay early for some mistakes.
Give Wang some room to go.
MJL,
Take a deep breath. A small factual error from ESPN isn’t something to get worked up over.
Have some faith in your players, guys. Wang is no slouch, and CC Sabathia is just another man at the end of the day. Yes, he’s a great pitcher – but so is the Wangster.
Like SJ said, let’s not overanalyze. Could we lose the game? Sure, it’s possible. But we could also come out guns blazing and annihilate them. Either way, It’s not like we have Ed Whitson going up against Bob Gibson.
There’s a poll on ESPN asking what kind of a postseason -Rod will have- Great, Good, Average or Bad. Not an easy question to answer because an average day for A-Rod is a great day for most others.
I like to see that some on here are keeping expectations reasonable. From the whole team, all I hope for is good pitching, solid defense and a few timely hits. Look at the boxscores from the teams who played last night. Not a lot of hits were happening.
Yankees in 3. Tonight CC goes 7 strong but gains a ND as the Tribe bullpen implodes. Carmona gets rocked early, and again, the Tribe bullpen comes out and pours gasoline on the fire. Game 3 Roger calls up the ghosts of 2000 and throws 6 masterful innings. Joba and Mo come out and dance on the graves of the the Tribe hitters.
Rebecca,
I had a dream last night, too. But it was a nightmare…Hot Pants Johnny doin the river dance!
Eric –
What are you, some sort of ESPN apologist? That’s a pretty LARGE factual error if you ask me, they don’t have fact-checkers at the Worldwide Leader?
People are underestimating our past dominance over Sabathia in particular and the Tribe in general. You don’t beat a guy 7 out of 8 without being in his head a little bit. It’s like the way the Halos have had our number for 10 years running, despite the fact that there’s only 3 guys left from the ‘02 team and 1 from before that.
Baseball’s about confidence, and Sabathia wouldn’t be human if he didn’t have some serious doubts. I say we slap him around tonight and sweep the series.
As one of Rebecca’s Yesmen, it’s no secret how I feel about the series either! I also think it’s a good idea to attack Sabathia early in the count, like the Cubbies tried to do to Brandon Webb a bit in last night’s game.
randyhater,
We’re not underestimating our dominance over CC & the Indians. We just don’t want to jinx it! Prepare for the worst and pray for the best! Go Wang!
Johnny doing Riverdance?
Wow.
I can’t get into predictions. I want the Yankees to win. But anything can happen.
However, I consider it a major plus (and possibly a good sign) that as I type I am listening to my new “Magic” CD which arrived TODAY, earlier than anticipated, and it is very, very enjoyable. Let’s root for a little Yankees magic!
I’m also not going to read the scouting reports and matchups because they usually just serve to make me very anxious, and hey, they gotta play the games anyway, right?
I will share one statistic I did read in the morning paper, though, for what it’s worth. This year the Yankees were 20-19 against lefties
BUT, they were 9-15 through May AND…11-4 from June to the end of the season. Pretty good.
Hmmm, Doreen – If arrival of Springsteen’s new album is a good omen, then we should really be in good shape. I finally got my download from iTunes this morning. That makes two of us – coincidence? I think not!
I’m sick of the talking heads at ESP YnN with zero respect for what the Yankees did to come back this year. I know for a FACT that the Yankees will not lose to the Indians. There’s just no way that a team can lose 6 straight games against the Yankees then hope to come back and be a completely different team. It just isn’t going to happen.
Tonight: Yankees win 4-3
Series: Yankees take the series in 4
Your a Yankee fan and your playing the no respect card.
LOL
bring back the sports channel
Yanks win tonight and they sweep. If they lose tonight it’ll end up going 5 before they move on to the ALCS.
I feel that this game is a MUST. We will not be able to beat Sabathia twice in a week. Need this one.
Every game now is a must win
i posted this on another thread but not sure how many people saw it. pretty interesting.
http://sports.espn.go.com/broa.....p;n8pe6c=2
Every game since May 29th has been a must win, and the Yankees have responsed to that mission admirably.
11 more wins folks, 11 more wins!
I don’t know if anyone remembers the Yankees running wild on V. Martinez. I spoke with my Indians friend the other day and asked if all teams run pretty well on his arms. He rolled his eyes and nodded his head. That can also be a factor here too. We need to be aggressive on the bases. Damon, Abreu and Arod should all be able to steal easily on Martinez.
I have no statistical evidence of this, but like I said, I seem to remember getting a lot more SB’s then normal on the Indians.
There’s talk on Cleveland blogs about Rafael Perez having a tired arm. I don’t see it in his recent stats, but if so, that’s a huge advantage.
I feel much better about our pitching this year than last. No Jaret Wright, No Moose (for the first three games at least).
Our Ace rested and pitching well for the first game, A proven post season stud going in the second, and the greatest right handed pitcher of the last 50 years going in the third. Yeah, I like our chances.
CC is the type of pitcher the Yankees feast on. He relies on his fastball and this team eats them for breakfast (too many eating cliches?). I think the Indians might win one game so let’s go with Yanks in 4!
Rocco-
If thats true, you’ve got to think Damon, Abreu, Arod, Jeter and Melky will have the green light tonight..
I wonder how good of a move C.C has.. He is a lefty, that makes things a little harder, base stealing wise.
I hope it is Yanks in four! I have tickets for Monday! My head said the yanks won’t win tonight, my heart says they will! Sometimes Wang can be eratic when he is on too much rest. Too strong he says!
I posted this yesterday and no one responded:
in the past 7 post season ALDS series, when the yanks lose the first game they go on to win the series, when the win the first game they go on to lose the series. That being said, if they lose tonight I won’t go crazy just yet!
Rocco – last year the Yanks stole like six bases on Martinez in a single game. But I remember during one of this year’s games vs Cleveland that they reported that he had worked on that in the offseason and was throwing runners out at a pretty good rate this year.
One thing I noticed about CC’s record this year is that he really hasn’t pitched that much against the top offensive teams. He hasn’t faced the Yankees at all. He faced LAA twice and Boston once. He faced Detroit several times, but had a 5+ ERA against them. Not saying he doesn’t deserve to be considered one of the top pitchers in the game right now, but I have trouble getting that worked up about him when he has so meager a record to point to against the top offenses.
That said, I also agree that the regular season is of limited importance in predicting how this one pitcher will do on this one night. He could do great or he could fall on his face. Same for Wang.
From the foaming font of useless information:
The NYY are 7-5 in ALDS game 1’s.
Of the 7 times they won game 1, their series record is 2-5.
Of the 5 times they lost game 1, their series record is 5-0.
Can I get a “Lets go Indians”?
“Just as an aside: CC Sabathia, just another pitcher who broke out at the age of 27. Just like Josh Beckett, just like Jake Peavy.”
This might be the dumbest thing posted on this site. Beckett broke out at 23 (2003), Jake Peavy broke out at 23 (2004), Sabathia at the age of 25 (2006).
By the way, this is from Beckett’s baseballreference.com page:NoMaas.org sponsor(s) this page.
“IT’S NOT A BLISTER!!”
Also, all this nonsense about Sabathia being intimidated is just that: nonsense. For years he was a league average pitcher, now he’s the best pitcher in the league. That’ll do a lot more for a guy’s confidence. He isn’t think to himself, “remember when I faced these guys in 2004 and got knocked around? Well, even though I’m a completely different and they are a different team, I’m scared!”
He’s probably way more worried about pitching Game 1 of the playoffs against a very good team than the fact that he has a bad record against us…
saucy, there is no mvp award in the division series.
I have a very good feeling about the Yanks this postseason. There’s just a different feel compared to previous years. I’ll go with the yanks in 4 – wrapping it up at the stadium Monday with a big game from Arod.
Buck Foston,
I agree!!!
Just did a bit of research. This season the Yankees stole only 5 bases against Cleveland, being caught twice.
Just as a comparison they were 11/4 vs. Boston; 20/6 vs. Tampa; 20/5 vs. Toronto; and very oddly enough 10/1 vs. Anaheim.
But the Yankees had big offensive games against the Indians this year, and perhaps didn’t NEED or have the opportunity to do much stealing. And it doesn’t take into account hit-and-run plays.
Play today, win today, worry about tomorrow tomorrow.
This year, as lots of you have said, just FEELS different.
It’s not like 2004, when it seemed like business as usual and the team seemed to lack desire, it’s not like 2005 or 2006 when you felt the team just going through the motions.
This is real. There’s the desire, there’s the drive, there’s the fact that deep down inside you just know the Red Sox and the Yankees will meet in the ALCS because the Yanks don’t get 27 without beating Boston…
…then again, stranger things have happened.
how do i feel about game 1 ? i tell ya how i feel . i dont like these games on tbs and i dont like 6:37 game times . i’m not a big fan of espn either but if games overlap at least on espn you can go to espn to watch the start of another game if need be .
IS IT 6:37 YET OR WHAT ??!!??
I must have been thinking about Last year then. Thank you Doreen for looking that up.
Yeah MJL,
I’m an ESPN apologist because I think you should relax and get over the fact that they said the Dodgers lost in the NLCS. Lay off the caffeine, friend.
Chris, i feel the same way, it has been too long without Yankee baseball!
Anybody else catch our current hero (sarcasm, of course) Skip Bayless getting b-slapped on 1st and Ten for suggesting that ARod would feel the most pressure he ever has in his career tonight? I’m not sure who the guy was that was rebutting him, but it was a priceless moment.
You’re welcome, Rocco.
I have a sinking feeling about tonight’s game. One where Wang gets knocked around and CC hangs up 8 innings of 1-run ball. Every starter in the playoffs so far has put up at least a decent start (yes even Lackey). And 8 for 8 is pushing it.
Keeping it simple, a nice quality start from Chien-Ming Wang, a typical Mariano close, good fielding plays, and contributions from several bats regardless of who they are.
A good first win on the road usually provides inner confidence.
GO YANKEES !!!
Rebecca
I missed it, what did you end up doing?
Reading Dickens, studying for GRE or read history? I only hope for your sake you didnt read Dickens.
Wolf
The guy rebutting Skip is Rob Parker from a Detroit area newspaper. I saw him on that stupid show on ESPN2 this morning.
I don’t have enough knowledge to predict the outcome of the Game 1 but I am rooting for Yankees!! I think they will win in the end. If Wang can hold Indian within 3 runs and our offense can come through, I say we have great chance to knock out Indian and C.C. early.
Let’s go Yankees!!
I think the lineup has to make CC throw lots of pitches, esp if he isn’t missing any of his pitches, work the count, make contact, foul some off….get him deep in his pitch count and then hopefully they’ll have to go to Borowski by at the latest, the 8th inning, and then we can shell him….That’s all assuming Wang can keep their lineup at bay….GAMEPLAN!!!
Tampa – thanks for the info. I like Parker’s demeanor from what I saw.
I had it on in the background and heard Bayless ranting as he usually does (kind of hard to miss/ignore). naturally, I would never be intentionally tuned in to watch him. LOL