The story with the bugs
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- October
- 5
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Umpire crew chief Bruce Froemming spoke to a pool reporter and said no consideration was given to stopping the game because of the bugs.
“No, because it was just a little irritation,� he said. “Within about 45 minutes, basically, they were gone.�
Tell that to Joba Chamberlain, who was surrounded by the bugs when he gave up the tying run in the 8th inning.
“They bugged me but you’ve got to deal with it,� said Chamberlain, who allowed two walks, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch during the infestation. “They were bad.�
They were “midges” by the way. They are a sort of mosquito that breeds on Lake Erie in warm fall weather and drift inland on air masses. It was 81 at game time, which apprently created perfect weather for midges.
So the Yankees season could be lost and Joe Torre fired because of bugs. Perfect.
Back later with some audio and more. It was despondent clubhouse. The Yankees have somehow managed to score one run on four hits in the last 15 innings. It has been a terrible performance by the entire lineup.
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on Friday, October 5th, 2007 at 10:47 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
Remember Oakland in 2001, they can still pull it off
Torre has lost 5 playoff games in a row and 12 of his last 15 (.200 ball). He is done.
jk – Torre hasnt lost them. the Yankees have lost them.
Went through all that crap this season to be done in by a bunch of bugs. I can’t take it anymore.
All these guys do anymore is set you up for another heartbreak.
What a disgusting end to yet another season. And yes it’s over, even if there is still another game for Cleveland to win. The season ended tonight.
Frankly, I can’t blame Torre for this game, since I don’t think he made any managing mistakes (you know, Torres has no midge-killing super powers).
The Yankees simply didn’t hit and caught a very bad break with Joba pitching during the bug attack.
If the Yankees lose this series, I will be glad that we had a very good game 2 (and more generally, an amazing regular season).
Let’s win Game 3 and 4 and come back to deal with the midges!!!!
Bob – Yanks could unload on Cleveland in games 3 and 4. anything can happen in game 5. odds arent in their favor, but all they need to do is beat Westbrook, Byrd, and hope Wang doesn’t have a repeat performance. we’ll see…. but don’t give up hope just yet.
We can pull this off.
This game’s on G-d more than anyone else. Without the damned midges, Joba’s control is on and the Yankees hold on and win…
But what’s done is done.
We must move on. Coming home will be good for them.
LET’S GO YANKEES!
The bugs are a convenient excuse, but the bottom line is that this team that is built on offense hasn’t hit anything. They wasted a great performance by Pettitte today, and couldn’t KO Sabathia yesterday when they had him on the ropes. One run over 11 innings? You wanna say it was the bugs, fine, they certainly did come at the most inconvenient time, but in the end, the offense lost the game.
what brand of bug spray did they use? it just seemed to attract them even more. i think they were drinking it off of Joba’s neck. maybe do a little research and get something better for game 5.
Also, aside from Torre playing Matsui over Giambi, I think he did a good job managing this game. I was shocked — SHOCKED — when he used Mo in a tie game on the road. Shocked!
Torre’s getting fired might also have something to do with the fact that he is the only one in all of Yankeeland who keeps trotting Matsui in the middle of the order despite it being clear he has no chance.
Froemming is an idiot. Those playing conditions clearly affected the outcome of the game, which just isn’t fair. The fact that it dissipated in 45 minutes after the damage was done kind of proves the point.
Equally unfair was how Diaz’s strike zone suddenly raised up by four inches against Viz. That 1-1 pitch to Hafner was a strike all night long to Carmona. He was getting that plus a half foot. If not, it would have been a diffeent game for him.
All that said, if a 1000 run team bats .125 over 20 post-season innings it is no going to win many games. Especially with exaclty 3 reliable pitchers on the entire roster.
If we get to games 4 and 5 are the Indians planning on throwing Sabathia and Carmona out there on short rest? That seems to be the plan for the Yankees with Wang and Pettitte so was wondering if Cleveland was thinking the same way?
Summer – the offense was ok yesterday (10 reached safely) and Carmona was filthy today. You have to give Carmona credit – it’s not like his outing tonight was a fluke. They can win 3 and 4 and see what happens for 5.
Ryan – I doubt it. The fact that they are up 2-0… I think they might not feel that sense of urgency. I hope not, but I don’t see it happening.
Michael – there was a pitch to Lofton also. Viz got squeezed… BAD. and you cant underestimate the effect of a bad call or two like that.
PeteAbe,
I don’t have a huge issue with how Torre managed the game. But he could have had Rivera up and in the 8th with two outs. The bugs were clearly bothering Joba and having a rookie out there in those conditions instead of the greatest closer of all time is definitely a questionable move.
“what brand of bug spray did they use? it just seemed to attract them even more.”
before the game the indians probably said to the yankees trainers “use this stuff. it works great”.
all kidding aside, i was flipping out when they were spraying joba. any bug spray i’ve ever used is slippery. i know i was expecting wild pitches and it happened.
maybe we’ll hear something tomorrow about whether it affected joba’s grip or not.
agree they need to get a better solution if there is a game 5 and it happens again.
Hats off to Andy and Mo they showed that old Yankee spirit. Duncan looked like the only batter that was truly battling. Sizemore is what Damon used to be. Lofton is the only veteran who seems determined to win.
For the record (not that anyone cares) I think that the Yankees have at least a punchers chance of slugging out two wins in NYC and getting another crack at CC. Clemens had the same look tonight that Andy did last night. And even sleepy Joe is going to have Mussina on a very short leash.
Funny, the bugs didn’t bother Carmona.
Too many excuses. They have stunk in the playoffs for years now, even when there were no bugs.
Joe Torre isn’t going to get fired because of bugs. He’s going to get fired because he can’t win post-season games anymore and insists on playing guys who can’t hit.
Its the way it goes in baseball. At some point, you have to win post-season series. If you can’t, you lose your job.
For the record (not that anyone cares) I think that the Yankees have at least a punchers chance of slugging out two wins in NYC and getting another crack at CC. This offense is too good to get shut down again by mediocrities like Westbrook and Byrd.
Clemens had the same look tonight that Andy did last night. And even sleepy Joe is going to have Mussina on a very short leash.
Michael – I agree. I think the Yanks offense will come around for 3 and 4. Game 5 would be tough but…. It’s way too early to give up. That’s for sure.
Joba said the bugs were bugging him but no excuses he just didn’t get it done.
The bugs didn’t bother Carmona much because he wasn’t sweating the way Chamberlain was. The bugs where clearly attracted to sweat.
SJ,
That’s true. But Joba’s a 22 year old kid who made a rapid climb to the Bigs and has never dealt with anything like this. IMO, Torre should have at least considered pulling Joba for Mo in the 8th. It did cross my mind at the time.
The bugs only liked Indians. Real ones.
I won’t kill Joba. He didn’t get the job done tonight but, its awfully hard to be perfect when you have an offense that can’t do anything.
200 million dollars worth of talent and you need Joba Chamberlain to win the game? Tells me there is a lot of waste on this team.
The walks and wild pitches have hurt the Yankees all through September. Its not surprising it hurt them tonight since they never seem to correct mistakes in a timely fashion with this group.
Unfortunately, we may have the worst post-season offense in recent baseball history. For whatever reason, none of these guys can hit in the post-season.
Cleveland’s pitching isn’t that good. If it was, they would have won 140 games this year.
They are facing a team that hasn’t hit in the post-season in years. They don’t even put together good AB’s anymore.
I suspect Sunday will be the same thing unless there are lineup changes. I can’t see these guys all of sudden hitting since they haven’t done it in the last 3 post-seasons.
Ordinarily, I’d say they are due. With this group? I just think they can’t hit in the post-season. If they could, they would have done it already.
Well I hate to nitpick, and fine the bugs weren’t bothering Carmona, but as I can recall, the tbs guys said that the bugs are atracted to moisture and perspiration.
I think it was obvious to see that Joba, being a bigger buy than Carmona, had a lot more bugs on him.
I mean, did you guys see his neck when he was pitching? I thought those bugs were on me.
SJ-
What is this mythical thing you call a “post-season offense”? Do the rules change or something? The Yankees have the best offense in baseball, by far and as validated by the fact that they scored the most runs over the longest number of innings.
Maybe we need to go back to the speed and contact guys like Dave Collins and Omer Moreno. Or maybe they only need to get guys that bat well in the POST SEASON like Mark Lemke, Jim Leyritz, Eckstein, Yadier Molina and Darrell Porter. Of course, they would still have to get there first.
The 2001 ALDS is interesting. Oakland had tough pitchers (Hudson, Mulder, zito).
Lost game one 5-3
Lost game two 2-0 (Pettitte)
Won game three 1-0 at home (Jeter’s flip play)
but the pattern then, and now, little run production in first three games.
game 4 was the break-out 9-2
game 5 was 5-3
here’s hoping NYC can pull a distant-replay
LOL the Indians have a 62 million dollar payroll. You don’t need a 200 million dollar payroll to win. Develop your own players.
Mr. Met.-
The Dereke Jeter “flip play” game was in Oakland. Pretty positive because I was there.
One of the few great post-season road moments I’ve been at.
the strike zone for joba was about the size of a postage stamp. Even the commentators were shocked at some of the balls that should’ve been strikes
Don’t blame the bugs, Peter. Blame the bats.
How in the world can anyone pin this loss on Joe Torre? Joba experienced his first playoff pressure and choked..bugs or no bugs. Cleveland pitched great, as did Andy and Mo. But there’s still no excuse for producing only 8 hits and 4 runs in 20 ininngs. And no fair minded individual can put it all on ARod. The entire team has stunk at the plate.
Michael-
I thought it was game five, but we all remember Giambi also chewed out Miguel Tejada. When I looked up the scores, Wiki had the flip play in game 3, so I though I was getting the flip game confused with the Tejada game, when they did happen in the same game.
Hard to explain. I wish I had the answer as to why this team can’t hit in the post-season. Its not just facing “good pitching”.
They haven’t had 5 good AB’s in this entire series. That’s pathetic.
For whatever reason, this team, in its current construction, can’t hit in the post-season. Perhaps its one of those unanswerable things in sports.
Perhaps its a team full of guys who simply choke in the playoffs.
I have no idea what it is but, when you watch these guys in the post-season you don’t believe they will ever hit. At this point, its hard for me to believe THEY think they are going to hit.
Its pretty hard for them to be confident when they are this bad offensively.
I wish there was a reason for it. Maybe, its as simple as they just aren’t good post-season performers.
Drive-
A key reason the offense was so bad is the auto-out batting 5th. Matsui kiled us last night and clearly had no shot against CC. And the sick part is that he is dh-ing, so it is inexcusable (unlike sticking with melky and minky) since there are 3 solid options- Betemit and Giambi against RH and Duncan against LH.
And only Torre can’t see it.
Jax, most of the players on the Indians were developed by other clubs then traded to the Indians on a minor league level…
The Yanks can do this. They were battling the whole game, you could tell from the at-bats they were taking. The only second guess I have was putting Matsui in there instead of Giambi. He got a base hit last night after taking a few pitches. I think he has his eye back and I would take the chance that he is “warmer” than Matsui. Carmona pitched a heck of a game but since he was a righty, I would have gone with Jason.
It’s so easy to second guess once the game is over. It’s also easy to kick a team or player when they are down. A-Rod is a special player. There have been MANY great players who never won a ring (Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Don Mattingly). Stop bashing him–it takes a TEAM to win games, not one player!
Gotta back my TEAM and everyone on it, no matter what! GO YANKS!
I always giggle when Boston fans whine, one way or another, about the Yankee payroll, when they have the second highest payroll in the entire league.
http://blog.sportscolumn.com/s.....1367/60158
SJ-
There is a simple exaplanation. Small sample size. This weak-ass 5-game format exacerbates it. Arod was a good “post seasopn hitter” until the middle of the 2004 series. So what happened?
Also the guys like Jeter, ARod, Posada, O’Neill and Bernie have all had good post-season runs and awful ones. Absent any Post Season silver bullet, the best you can do is assemble talented hitters which we have is spades. And this team is balanced too, with high OBO, BA, Slugging, stoeln bases, taking extra bases, good base running you name it. They are even soemthing like third in the AL in sacrifice bunts.
There is truly only one GREAT POST SEASON PLAYER. And his name is Mo. THat guy has pitched like 2 full seasons of baseball in the post season and posted an ERA under 1.00. That is juct sick.
I wish any of our pitchers on the roster would have joba’s
record.He is going to have a bad game eventually,like all
of our other pitchers.He, like all pitchers need run
support.A, 1 run game is hard to win,especially on the road
when the home team has the last at bat,and your not hitting,too.
And another explanation for bad Post Season Hitting is bad starting pitching and middlew relief. Think about it. If we won game last night 3-2, and tonight’s game 1-0 then there wouldn’t be so much heartburn over the bats. Just like in 1996 when Pettitte beat Smoltz 1-0 and then Key took it home after they scracthed ot 3 runs against an in-the-prime Greg Maddux. Or how about the 3-0 clincher twirled by Andy in 1998 against a then over-powering Kevin Brown. Or two 4-1 wins against the Braves in 1998? And in the 2000 WS against the Mets, they won 3 games in which they scored 3, 4 and 4 runs against powerhouse pitchers like Glendon Rusch and Bobby Jones. (And lost one 4-2 against Rick Reed).
Since we have been on the other side of those lately, it magnifies the weak offensive output.
Claire-
you bring up a very good point.
Ted Williams is considered to be one the best hitters ever. Yet in his lone postseason apperance he batted .200 (5 for 25) after batting .342 during the season (1946).
Another great hitter, Tony Gwynn also had mixed postseason results.
Geesh, it looks like some of the inanity has hopped threads. It’s two games. The team is in a hole. We have a matchup advantage — for the first time — with the game three pitchers. If Wedge wants to bet the farm on C.C. on three days rest in game four? Fine. Bring him on.
The odds are against success. That’s an understatement. But Michael’s right about the team’s talent and balance. Facing two of the hottest pitchers in the game — you can look it up — can make any lineup look putrid. And that’s how they’ve looked. Let’s take a breath and see how they perform once they return to the Bronx.
Harley-
They are going to make a series of this. Tonight, Carmona simply dominated and it took a greiity (somewhat lucky) performance from Pettitte to keep them in there. Last night, was a big lost opportunity because CC really wasn’t all that. The offense shold have scored a couple more runs and that game was winnable with some differnt managerial decisions (earlier hook for Wang, benching Matsui for Shelly etc). The short series begs for a sense of urgency and out-of-box thinking that Torre lost in the New Millenium.
you do have to tip your hat to the other team’s pitchers (but not Sabathia who they had on the ropes). Carmona was brilliant and the bullpen has done its job.
The first round is such a crapshoot. I think the Yanks are a bit more aware of that than most teams and maybe that knowledge has them tighten up sooner. Who knows?
I like their chances on sunday. Let’s win that one and take it from there.
“The short series begs for a sense of urgency and out-of-box thinking that Torre lost in the New Millenium.”
you nailed it, michael. The short series (which was the playoff format years ago) is a very different animal to the 7 game ones.
pat said “I like their chances on sunday. Let’s win that one and take it from there.”
That is a good wrap for me. See you back here then.
//The Yankees season could be lost and Joe Torre fired because of bugs.//
Come now. Are you suggesting the bugs were only shadowing the Yankees?
Both teams had to deal with them. Carmona ignored the bugs, Joba bugged out.
Whining, excuses, losers, Yankees.
Yankee excuse for losing is #687 in an ever growing list. Bugs, Bugs, Bugs. They only affected Joba. The reason is quite simple: the Bugs were a plant by Cleveland groundskeepers who trained them all year to go only after Yankee pitching…I am notifying the proper authorities.
Pete- I have to say, the reason I look at this blog is because I usually like what you have to say, tonight, was trash. I know your probably shocked as we all are, but could you have gotten more negative and away from the point with the whole mariano and posada segment…Come on Pete!
Lets bring it home and get some work done…
And all of you people poking fun at the Yankees and Joba because of the bugs are really not smart. WHERE HAVE YOU SEEN THAT BEFORE…thats right…no where…That was one of the wierdest and ridiculous acts of nature I have seen in baseball in a long time, and you trash heads are gonna make fun of them because bugs were sticking to thier heads.
AND They arent complaining. GET THE HELL OFF THEIR BACKS.
“I guess that’s a home-field advantage for them,” Jeter said. “Just let the bugs out.”
The Yankees are DONE! BUH-BYE TORRE, BUH-BYE, A-ROD!
Yankees will win Game 3.
About the bugs, there is one final word…Job-bug.