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Joy? Relief? Whatever – It’s October Baseball!

Captain Quint 
Like Captain Quint desperately reverse-crab-walking on the slippery deck only to finally – inevitably – be devoured, the 2010 Yankees have gone kicking and screaming into the post-season.  Only 2 wins have been recorded by Yankee starters in the past 23 games, but tonight, CC Sabathia turned in a gem.  He gave up only two hits and one run until the 9th inning, at which point he gave in to the metaphor of the Yankees' season – stumbling as he neared the finish line by putting the first two batters on base.  Mariano came in to wrap things up and on they go.  Congratulations Yanks fans – bring on the playoffs and the speculation about the Yanks' post-season rotation.

And as this also marks the official end to the playoff hopes of the Boston Red Sox, a sincere hats off to Sox fans – absolutely decimated by injuries, your Sox put up a tremendous fight and made things more than a little uncomfortable for the Yanks and their fans.

51 replies on “Joy? Relief? Whatever – It’s October Baseball!”

Pettitte reveals in the beer-soaked post-game that he has been pulled from tomorrow’s start but will start over the weekend. I guess they are lining him up to pitch game 2 of the ALDS on normal rest and slotting in the extra rest days now rather than immediately before that game.

Told ya so!
And yeah, it was a decent fight by the Sox considering what they were up against, injury-wise. But mostly, I’d say they were up against spectacularly sucky performances by Lackey and Beckett (and to a lesser extent, Papelbon).

Yeah, the under-performing of Lackey/Beckett/Papelbon hurt us just as much as–if not worse than–the injuries. It’s amazing that we were able to stay in contention this long without 4 of our starting 9 position players, and with Delcarmen/Oki/RamRam all below league-average (all three were well above league average last season).
Looking forward, it’s tough not to feel optimistic. Lester and Buchholz are two of the best young pitchers in baseball, and if Beckett/Lackey can bounce back we’ll be extremely solid.

not to pile on the aj burnout pile, but why not?…he will be the only pitcher in yankee history to lose 15 or more games and have an era over 5.00…all that for a mere $16.5m, or $1.1m per loss…wtf

Will you feel the same way if he throws 7 innings of shutout ball in Fenway this weekend Krueg? I ask because I frankly don’t know what I’ll feel if that happens. I do know that if he doesn’t do that or something very close to that, I will feel the same way as you – and perhaps not only for the ALDS but also for any potential LC or WS action.
As the article you linked to above so aptly describes, it’s not merely the possibility that he’ll be ineffective that is damning – it’s the utter-implosion-factor that he carries with him – throwing wild pitches left and right, hitting more batters than any other pitcher, putting guys on base at such an astonishing rate that it’s literally hard to warm a guy up in the bullpen in time to replace AJ before he has already dug the team a 5-, 6-, 7-run deficit or worse.

Will you feel the same way if he throws 7 innings of shutout ball in Fenway this weekend Krueg?
Yep. Absolutely.
I think the thing that pisses me off the most about him is his fucking smugness. As if he has done ANYTHING other than pitch 1 good game last year in the playoffs. He sucks, I don’t trust him and honestly I don’t care if he ever pitches for us again.
Imagine if the loser has Javy’s record…JAVY’s…we would have won the AL East by 10 games. He is the sole reason we have sucked the last 2 months. Fuck him.

Baltimore has just taken the lead over Tampa Bay in the 7th inning in Tampa. If the Yankees could take this game vs. Toronto then (re)gaining the driver’s seat for home field advantage would only be one more Yankee win + Tampa loss away. Of course, Home Run Javy has the Yanks down 3-0 in the 4th with more about to be scored.
An above-.500 record in the last two months of this season would have been enough for home field advantage in the playoffs. Guess that was too much to hope for.

In face of your exasperation Krueg I feel like Luke Skywalker lamely responding to Princess Leia’s rant against Han Solo…”I care…” See you next week man. I just landed tickets for 1 ALDS and 2 ALCS games and am sure hoping the latter two sets will actually be usable.
As for tonight, Tampa Bay just lost and the Yankees are rallying, though due to the 3-run bomb they gave up in the last inning they are still 4 runs back. They do have 2 on and one out…Jeter up with a 2-0 count…COME ON fellas!!!!

Jeter with another hit. He looks like the Captain again. Good timing.
The Yanks started this inning down 7-0 and now have the tying run at the plate with bases loaded, 1 out, and Swisher and Teixeira due up. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!

Main result of tonight: A-Rod gets yet another 30 HR / 100 RBI season. Not as dramatic as last year’s 7 RBIs and 2 HRs in his last innning of the regular season, but something about which he clearly cares a lot. Go team.

is there any doubt that vazquez will be long gone the day after the season ends?…the disaster formerly known as aj burnout would be history too if it wasn’t for that little detail of 3 more years at $16.5m per…he may wind up as the most expensive, seldom used, long relief “specialist” in the history of baseball…

“he may wind up as the most expensive, seldom used, long relief ‘specialist’ in the history of baseball”
Itis really sad but AJ has real competition from within his own organization over the past 6 years alone for this distinction.
Exhibit A: Kei Igawa is acquired for a $26,000,194, posting fee and signs a five-year, 20 million dollar contract on December 27, 2006. In 16 games over the following two seasons he compiles a 6.66 ERA and a .333 winning percentage, yo-yos between majors and minors, and – most recently – is cut (for the seocnd time) in March 2010.
Exhibit B: Carl Pavano. Turning down a bigger offer from the Boston Red Sox (if only!!), Pavano signs a four-year contract worth $39.95 million with the New York Yankees on December 20, 2004. He appears in only 35 games from 2005-2008 and compiles a 5.00 ERA, a .529 win percentage, and a new catch-phrase among his teammates in the clubhouse: “going on the Pavano”, also known as the DL. He ultimately leaves the Yankees with a full wallet only to shine in Minnesota.
Where will AJ rank when his current contract ends? He came in known not only for his inconsistency and wildness,both of which have been on full display, and for being injury-prone, a problem which – till now – has not reared its head. I don’t know, but it’s pretty rough to have 3 such pricey examples in the span of just 6 years.

fire cashman! ;)
you had to go and remind me of those other disasters…and now we’re 0-2 with vazquez…i only went with the one that was fresh in my mind…no wonder the organization has been so patient and careful with home grown guys like hughes and joba…looks like they did guess right with cc though…

I wish Atheose. Seriously – if he had just been mediocre I wouldn’t be terrified of him being even the #4 starter in October. This year he has been truly terrible. As referenced and documented by dc, Kreug, and myself on this site, he has put together a season that honestly, by the numbers and with no fanboy-driven hyperbole required, places him firmly in the argument as the worst starter in the majors this year — at least of those who reached 25 starts. Sox fans have gotten really upset with Lackey and Wakefield this year. Just compare their performance to AJ. He makes them look pretty good.

Will be an interesting weekend with the home field issue to be resolved.
As a Sox fan I would rather the Sox tank a few to give the home field to the Yanks. I would rather they have the division and home field than the Rays. Damn Rays have not learned thier role in the division.

The Greinke-led Royals take the first of the 4-game series against the Rays and just like that the Yanks and Rays are tied for the AL East lead, though the Rays of course own the tie-break. Does anyone want to actually win this division??
Morneau announces he’s out for the ALDS but might be able to return from the ALCS and Josh Hamilton to return to the line-up Friday. Two more reasons why the answer to the above question may actually be “no”.

I have never been less excited for a Yankees/Sox series in my life…I just want to playoffs to start already. We’ll see in Game 1 of the ALDS, regardless of opponent, if we are still the Champs or if a repeat is just a pipedream.
I haven’t given up hope surprisingly. I am just very, very, very, very, very, very angry with Girardi and the boys at this point.

Yeah Krueg, I’ve been trying to stay upbeat, but the past 2 months of barely .500 ball have been brutal. Like you, I’m banking on the beginning of the playoffs being the opportunity for this team to come out rejuvenated, but they really have no personality or momentum at all right now and haven’t for a long time.
How much pressure is on CC? Everyone knows that he loses a single game and the Yankees are done.
Rob, interesting to have a Sox fan hate a team more than the Yanks…my guess is you won’t have to worry about the Rays reverting to mediocrity once the ownership slashes 20million+ from the payroll next year and the increasingly-scary Jays and Showalter-led O’s threaten to pass them by.
Speaking of the Jays, did anyone see the HR Bautista hit tonight??? His second of the night, 54th on the year, his FIRST opposite-field HR of the year, but more impressive than all that was the pitch he hit out. 90 mph below the knees and clearly outside the strikezone away from him. How he hit that out is beyond me. The pitcher’s expression was hilarious. Who would have thought the best slugger in the AL East would be Jose Bautista.

I didn’t see it IH, I was watching the Sabres vs Habs preseason game!!!!
I just keep telling myself…2000, 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000, 2000. It seems so similar and hopefully the outcome is the same!
When it comes to CC, I really don’t have any trepidation. The guy has proven to me that he is an ACE and can seemingly handle anything. Pettitte is Pettitte and this is PH-ranchise’s opportunity to prove that he is worthy of the nickname. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the bats are going to wake up in a big way, I mean, they have been terrible for almost 2 months…we’re DUE.

“…How much pressure is on CC? Everyone knows that he loses a single game and the Yankees are done….”
that’s been evident ever since pettitte went down and hughes cooled off…certainly no surprise that the yanks could still compete for a wild card, and yes, even the division, especially since the rays haven’t played a whole lot better, and the mash unit known as the red sox were bound to run out of gas…but, this yankee team as currently constructed is ripe for an early exit from the playoffs, where any cc loss will be magnified by the uncertainties that follow him in the rotation…vazquez is likely off the post-season roster, but i’m hearing that burnout is just as likely on it…of course that could mean nothing more than as a long relief “specialist” that joe and millions of yankees fans hope will never be needed…the only way i’d use him is if we’re down by 20 runs, throw in the towel, and have him chew up some innings…i wouldn’t trust that guy with a double-digit lead, or any game we have a chance to win…the positive effect of using him when we’re already down by a bunch is that it might wear out the other team’s hitters for the next game…boston exposed another flaw for the yankees that other, speedier, playoff teams are bound to exploit: running on mo/posada…having painted that picture of pessimism, i tend to agree with krueg, the bats are bound to wake up at some point and the yanks go on a tear…the way we’re pitching, we may need to outslug our opponents a few times…i can’t think of a better time for that to start…

I don’t even know why I even check the scores…just got off the course, the game is blacked out here (thankfully) yet I still just checked the score and Pettitte has already given up 2 in the first.
Fucking pathetic per usual.

Absolutely typical Yanks-Sox game. Roller coaster, bizarre plays, 4-hours+, mix of great plays and head-scratchingly bad plays. Yankee pen looking ragged/rusty but Mo looked like vintage Mo and not the Mo of the past 3 weeks. Pettitte: not horrible but not so great. Good thing is that his cutter was woring for the first time since he came back.
I’d like to say i’m curious to see how AJ does in the nightcap, but at this stage of the season I feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the field goal with Lucy holding the ball — pulls it out from under him every time. I will not let you do it to me again AJ. I have zero hope. None. I just want to make sure your awful pitching doesn’t somehow hurt anyone on the Yankees.

And the battle of shitty starters is on…both AJ and Dice K have already given up runs in the first. Way to go, AJ! NOW STAY OFF OUR POSTSEASON ROSTER!
Where’s Kei Igawa when you need him?

Feeling like Austin Kearns strikes out every time he comes to bat, I looked up his stats. In the last month he has logged 37 ABs and has struck out 19 times, including the 2 Ks he has tonight with the bases loaded. It’s hard to be that bad.

Kearns was always one of those guys who came with the word “potential” attached to his name. Never quite happened. He’s not a bad guy to have off the bench, though. What the hell happened to Lance Berkman, though? I guess he’s basically doing what we expected out of Nick Johnson in that he walks a ton. But he used to be something of a poor man’s Albert Pujols with the bat.

Berkman started to smack the ball in September – was 15 for 42 until a week ago and has gone 0 for 12 since. I feel good having him come off the bench in late-inning pinch-hit situations or as the DH periodically.

The funny thing is that AJ is having this much trouble against not the Sox regulars, not even the militia, but the Sox IRR-egulars. Who are these guys???
No fucking way AJ should even be in the DUGOUT during the playoffs.

I fear we’ve lost that battle Krueg and we’re stuck with him as the game 4 starter. But we’ll see. How in the world this team holds the best record in the AL I have no idea. If I was more adept at running stats I’d look up how may teams have compiled as poor a record as the Yanks have since August 1 and yet maintained the best record in their league.

Yep Dusty. Plus Cano.
Well AJ pitches a 1-2-3 inning. Amazing how infrequent that is this year. Dice-K is gone. Krueg is right – the Sox have put in their Pawtucket team and the Yanks are clinging to a one-run lead. The best record in the AL….yeah.

Cervelli isn’t having a good game, so I feel like I need to justify my mention of him before. Remember all the way back in the beginning of the season? Posada was out, Tex was useless, A-Rod was having a power outage, and Francisco Cervelli was batting .400 and driving in runs left and right a few weeks into the season. Sure he only has driven in 36 on the year, but 23 came in April and May when we needed him to overachieve,

I agree on Cervelli in the first half. He has had a fairly poor second half at the plate and has had some really bad throwing errors. But he still calls a good game and has been a very good back up to Posada, esp given that he has had to play more than most backups.

Ivan Nova coming in out of the pen with 2 on, no outs, and a 2-run lead in the 8th. This is interesting. Even if it is the Sox’ JV, curious to se if Nova can do the pressure relief job.

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