It’s A-New October: A-Rod the hero awes Yanks
-
-
- October
- 18
-
If you don’t include Maicer Izturis, the man who tried to get one out when two would have sufficed, there were three people or groups to focus on after the Yankees’ 4-3 win ended early Sunday morning, a mere five hours and 10 minutes after it started. 1. Alex Rodriguez, 2. Jerry Hairston, and 3. The bullpen and the man who managed it. Here’s a thoughts from or about all three, but in reverse order:
The bullpen —
• The entire staff pitched outside of CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Chad Gaudin, who warmed up before the game finally ended at 1:08. “I think I told Derek I was starting to run out of bullets,” Joe Girardi said.”
• Phil Coke, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes, Mariano Rivera, Alfredo Aceves, Damaso Marte and David Robertson combined to produced this line: 6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 K. They allowed a few too many baserunners but stranded 12 of them on base.
• Girardi never hesitated. He managed the pen aggressively, and it worked. “I knew I had Gaudin for 75 pitches. You’re thinking that’s four or five innings. In your mind you can’t necessarily say I think this game is going to go 19 innings.”
• Rivera pitched 2.1 innings of one-hit ball before leaving after 10. It was his first two-plus inning outing since Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. Could he have pitched more? “No, it’s not that time yet.”
Jerry Hairston —
• The Boss would’ve glowed to hear Jerry Hairston praise the new ballpark. He credited the facilities for allowing him to stay warm and loose, and giving him a chance to come as a pinch hitter five hours after the game started.
• Of course, Hairston, in his first postseason at-bat, singled to center and later scored the winning run.
• Afterward, an elated but emotional Hairston said the moment was for his grandfather, Sammy Hairston, a former Negro Leaguer who played just one year in the majors. The younger Hairston became the first third-generation African-American to play in the majors. His brother Scott and uncle Johnny also play, or played, in the bigs. But of the five Hairstons, on his father had ever had an at-bat in the playoffs, and none had a hit until Hairston singled. Here’s Hairston audio:
• I asked Burnett how he chose Hairston for the pie: “To just sit that long and to come in and get that hit,” Burnett said. “You know, I had to debate it. I asked everyone on the way down and they all said J. Hair, so that’s who I went with.”
Alex Rodriguez —
• To be honest, for all his remarkable numbers, A-Rod has never inspired legend quite like a Williams or Ruth, a Bonds or a Mantle. Yet through five postseason games, he now has three home runs that have either tied or put the Yankees ahead. One off Joe Nathan and another off Brian Fuentes, two pretty darn good closers, too.
• His story of exorcising October demons has almost become old hat. Four times he has been asked the same questions and four times he has continued to repeat what he said in St. Pete. “I know you guys are probably looking for something profound. I’m just in a good place. I’m seeing the ball and I’m hitting it. That’s about it.” Rodriguez now has an RBI in each of the first five postseason games, setting a new Yankee record. Here’s audio from Rodriguez:
• Burnett said he, Phil Hughes, Phil Coke and Joba Chamberlain were in the clubhouse watching the 11th inning unfold. People would never believe the scene they made after Rodriguez hit the tying homer. “We were like little kids,” Burnett said, “jumping around and hugging.”
• In the dugout, Mark Teixeira couldn’t fathom that Rodriguez had done it. Again. “I just kept yelling, ‘He did it again! He did it again!” Teixeira said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
A few other notes —
• This was the Yankees’ 17th walkoff win this year and second in the playoffs.
• They committed three errors after four flawless games to start the postseason. The Angels two errors gave them five for the series.
• Here’s Mike Scioscia on Izturis’ error: “I think he was trying to make a little too much of that play. You’re not going to turn two. If we get an out on any base we’re in good shape.” With a short postgame session, Scioscia was not asked for his opinion on second-base ump Jerry Layne not giving the Angels a “neighborhood” call in the 10th.
• Chone Figgins snapped an 0-for-19 playoff skid with the go-ahead single in the 11th.
• Bobby Abreu, Vlad Guerrero and Kendry Morales are 3 for 28 in the series.
• The Yankees canceled their workout at Angel Stadium. The Angels will workout in the afternoon.
• Thanks to Rick Carpiniello for helping gather some postgame thoughts.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 2:37 am by Josh Thomson.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print This Post
| 
Email This Post
Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
thanks josh!! never enough!!
Thanks!
For us Yankee fans in Korea – it is mid-Sunday afternoon. We had breakfast & lunch watching this great game. Thank you to all you guys for the great posts. Go Yankees!
Chadon on the # 2 game thread at 12.07 and 12.10, a blogger named TYLER,USE THE “N” WORD DESCRIBING PEOPLE ON THE BASEBALL FIELD.
Please remove this offensive wording from the Newspaper.Pete would’ve deleted the post and the person too.
Die-hards? I’m sure there are plenty of us, Josh.
The party is just beginning on the west coast.
F the angels
Sweep Sweep SWEEP
Chill for a few days in LA and take care of business. This team cannot be stopped.
Just got home from the game. Exhausting, incredible.
Extraordinary seats: Section 117B, first base line, 40 rows from the field. Saw and said “Howdy” to Jeff Nelson. Man, is he tall and looks like he could still wing it. Seemed surprised to be recognized, sat in the section for a bit.
Hairston rounding third and heading for home ran like his life depended on it. Watched the play develop and I still can’t believe it.
This team has something special going. No question about it. But potentially most special is Scary-Rod, now seemingly able to hit big post season HRs at will.
Thanks Josh!! The lohud guys are doing a great job.
do you get overtime for this? haha
A parting comment.
Jered Weaver has faced the Yankees 3 times this year. He has yet to give up fewer than 4 runs each outing. He is 1-2 against them. In his three starts, the Yankees were up 4-0 in each game by the 4th inning.
Andy Pettitte has faced the Angels three times this year. He has yet to give up fewer than 3 runs against them. He is also 0-2 against them. On May 1st in NY, Pettitte came out with a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth and the bases loaded, and Mark Melancon proceeded to give up a 2 out triple. On July 11th, Pettitte left the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the 4th, and David Robertson proceeded to give up 4 runs. On September 25th, in a tune up meaningless game, Pettitte gave up 3 runs in 6 IP.
Bottom line: Yankees can hit Jered Weaver hard. Pettitte is not giving up a 4 runs lead, and the Yankees ceratinly are not giving up a 6 spot or a 7 spot to the Angels with this BP.
Prediction: 6-2 Yankees. Who is going to pitch game 4?
haiku-man tyler has been banned already.
I guess I’m a die-hard if I’m checking this before I drive over the mountains and back home after a rolicking Yo La Tengo show.
I can’t tell if I’m more amped about that or about the game. What joy!
What a beautiful bunt by Gardner in the 13th. That will kind of go unnoticed tommorow. And how about Melky even when he grounds out it turns into a walkoff he is having some kind of year.
Burnett threw another good game. The yankees are really riding there pitching. The pitching staff I think has a 1.59 era now in the postseason. The bats need to step it up.
I thought Sabathia would pitch game 4 vs. Kazmir.
BellSakura
are you sure Tyler was banned?
If the Angels let the Yankees win game 3 it’s over!!
CC is for game 4 and if needed game 7.
CC, Game 4 AT HOME, his hometown family gets to watch him possibly clench.
Thats what Sam said when he replied to the email I sent telling him about it.
love the late night updates
BellaSakura THANK YOU, I can’t stand racism,it’s degrading to the blog too!!
I am so proud of the Yankees.
The weather was terrible and they dug deep for the win.
I’ll bet the Angels thought when AJ was out early they would get the win,for sure.
Derek looking up in the rain to catch that pop up ball…priceless!!
I still can’t get over that marathon win.
Just wanted to give a shout out to the “little” guys.
Jose Molina (.500)
Hairston (1.000)
Gardner (.500)
And of course, Underdog Rodriguez.
AJ for pitching 5.1 good innings. The other 1.0 inning just goes to show that he loves serving up pies.
Good job by the bullpen, especially Mo & Robertson.
(btw, I love Cano, but you guys can’t make excuses for him. It’s not the weather, it was fatigue. Fatigue leads to mental lapses)
Can’t overemphasize how important this game was. There’s a world of difference between headed for a 3 game set in Anaheim up 2-0 and being tied 1-1.
Congratulations to the Yankees for out-Angel-ing the Angels (and for securing HFA).
I say a sweep is in the making. Big Game Pettitte is going to do what he does and have a big game.
Then the Angels get CC again in front of his home town family and friends.
I see some champagne for the Yankees in Anaheim. Yeah
good win eveyone!
A-ROD HAS SET A NEW YANKEES RECORD AS HE KNOCKED IN AT LEAST ONE RUN IN EACH OF THE YANKEES FIRST 5 POSTSEASON GAMES!
“A-ROD HAS SET A NEW YANKEES RECORD AS HE KNOCKED IN AT LEAST ONE RUN IN EACH OF THE YANKEES FIRST 5 POSTSEASON GAMES!”
6 consecutive RBI games going back to 2007.
He’s also the first player to hit 3 HRs to tie a game in the postseason in 7th inning or later according to ESPN.
I really hope Joe doesn’t ever blow through his pen like he di yesterday.Joba and Phil were mismanaged,on seen 5 batter combined.
Look at all the Postseason experience the newbies on the team are getting this year.
Especially the new young pitchers.Robertson had the weight of the entire Yankees Universe on his shoulders.He got the win.
According to Pete’s game thread Izturis doesn’t apologize for his play that allowed the run.
Alex has 3 homers and 8 RBI’S IN four postseason games!
I thought Joe bullpen moves were fine. Joba came in the 7th to get a huge out. With Cano’s error and Coke walking Figgins. Joba faced there 3 and 4 hitters. He got the ground ball on Hunter and then struck out Vlad. Bringing Hughes in the 8th was fine and then going to the greatest postseason closer ever will never get a complaint for me. Girardi cant manage them like he is going 13 innings.
Aceves for the second time this postseason was shakey. He probably would of stuck with him longer if he wasn’t a little shakey. Morales is a dangerous hitter from the left side and not a very good hitter from the right side. So bringing in Marte to face him worked. And Marte is a ticking time bomb you can only bring him in for 1 or 2 batters. If he is left in any longer he will blow the game for you. Robertson was great again and deserved the win.
Joba and Phill face 5 batters combined ACE was rusty.Gaudin hasn’t played this postseason.
This game was draining and great at the same time.
Robterson had nerves of steel.
Josh, keep up keepin’ up; you’re work in the last 3 weeks (from end reg.season Tampa road trip) has been exceptional. The Universe’s best NYY Blog salutes you, from the Pacific Time Zone, late night. Treat yourself to Mr. Stok’s up Katella from stadium for Tues.nite celebration.
A great read at http://www.sports.yahoo.com on the game!
http://www.nesn.com
has a pithy article about the game an ALEX!
http://www.newyorkblips.dailyradar.com/sports/
HAS another great listing of of Yankee articles too.
Uh..Josh it’s 2 1/2 hours later and we’re still waiting.
I thought he fell asleep too!
NEW THREAD AS PROMISED—>
Just got home. Still excited!
Man I’m SLEEPY I thought it was a new thread!!
I’m off to bed,eyes are tired.
Last night was amazing. I”m still buzzing….
I just hope the Yankees can start hitting and not leave all up to Ales’s late game heroics.
Did Josh seriously just call Bonds a legend? Doesn’t deserve to be put into that list of Yankee greats.
The bats of Teixiera, Cano, Swisher, and Posada will be heard from sooner than later.
It seems that this is a NYY year no matter who they play. Go New York win # 27.
I dont know why everyone keeps saying they wish the Yanks would start hitting besides A-Rod…….they have 23 hits in the 2 games……