The Yanks didn't perform in the clutch last night, and the Indians did. Bottom line. The key to winning in the playoffs is getting hits with two outs. Last night 40-year-old Kenny Lofton, who I figured was way over-the-hill, pulled out some magic and drove in five runs. The first two came on a bases loaded single with two outs that put the Indians up 4-1. After pulling within 4-3 and loading the bases with one out a couple innings later, Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia delivered, Yankees hitters Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui did not. Indians held the lead, then exploded for five runs in the next inning. Game over.
Playoff baseball is wierd. Sabathia, who was a phenominal control pitcher all years, like a 10-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, walked six in five innings. But, he rose to the occasion and managed to pitch his way out of jams. The Indians won. Yankees starter Chien Ming Wang failed to deliver in a big start for the second time in a row. A couple weeks ago, coming off a big comeback win that pulled the Yankees a game or two away from Boston for first place, Wang was scheduled to go against Josh Beckett, the Red Sox ace, in a match-up that was billed as the "Battle for the Cy Young," of course, leaving Sabathia out of the picture. Wang got shelled. The guy just might not have the make-up to be an ace, a number one starter. He might be better cast as a number two guy that can hide behind the ace who deflects all the attention. Unfortunately, all the other potential Yankees aces are too old or too young right now. We're going to need a strong game from Pettite tonight to keep from going down 0-2. Going into the series, I liked our chances better last night that this one, but we'll see. Fausto Carmona, Indians 19-game winning sinkerballer goes tonght.
Cheers.
Ralph
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Figures, the one time I sit down and root for the Yankees to kick some ass and they get spanked by fucking Cleveland.
Weak.
However, I'm hoping Cleveland shot their proverbial load last night.
I'm ready for the Yanks to take it to them.
One of the announcers said that the Yankees have won all of their five-game series when they lost the first game on the road or something like that.
So, as an old East Sider, I say: Let's see some lumber, Yanks!
DDDDDDDDD
Yeah, we can always harken back to that game agains the A's when Jeter made that play... we were getting killed that series, down like 2-0 when that happened. There's always hope, but our starting pitching needs to step up.
Post a Comment