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Yanks Gamers/Postmortems

Try, Try Again: Halos-Yanks ALCS Gamer VI

The thought occurred to me while writing this post that I should be thankful to MLB for scheduling the contest late in the day so that left-coasters such as myself can enjoy a full day’s worth of activity before settling down to watch the game, knowing it will likely conclude at a reasonable hour. This benefit is at the expense of consideration for younger fans east of the Divide who will need permission from the folks to catch some, if not all of tonight’s festivities, and may be rather cranky tomorrow in any case. Actually, the latter result applies to the adults as well. And at least in my time zone the game will probably be over before Desperate Housewives, avoiding fearful friction at the homestead.

Andy Pettitte looks to wrap this matter up for the Yankees, while Joe Saunders gets the ball for the Halos. Game time is in an hour. Lineups follow, comment away.

LA Angels
C. Figgins 3b .105
B. Abreu rf .143
T. Hunter cf .316
V. Guerrero dh .304
K. Morales 1b .200
H. Kendrick 2b .364
J. Rivera lf .143
J. Mathis c .600
E. Aybar ss .294
J. Saunders 2.57
 
NY Yankees
D. Jeter ss .280
J. Damon lf .269
M. Teixeira 1b .174
A. Rodriguez 3b .368
J. Posada c .267
H. Matsui dh .294
R. Cano 2b .238
N. Swisher rf .118
M. Cabrera cf .381
A. Pettitte 4.26

252 replies on “Try, Try Again: Halos-Yanks ALCS Gamer VI”

Fins choked in a huge way..let’s hope the Yankees don’t follow suit.
LET’S GO YANKEES!!!! BEAT THESE BASTARDS!!!!

I, for one, am confident that Krueg’s jinxing of the Dolphins will carry over to the fairer sport.
Go Angels!

Watching both the Yanks game and the Giants game, haha..
Tex with a single.. is he breaking out?

ARod follows that up with a base hit, all with two outs, but it’s moot unless.. Posada makes it not moot.

Vlad up the middle.. Jeter gets to it, but Vlad barely beats it out for an infield single to lead off the inning.

Morales up right handed.
Pops it to Swisher, and VLAD is pick off FIRST!! Not heads up play there..

I missed the first inning so I brought up Gameday to see what happened. It already has a Stubhub ad for Yankees/Phillies World Series tickets. Funny.

Jacobs with a 17 yard run..
Cano with a single, and Swisher is now up to hopefully do something, in the 8th spot.

Manning with an interception. I guess it’s kind of like a punt, except for less clutch.
3-0 pitch to Swisher, as the recently clutch Melky is up.

And Swisher with a useless fly out, not even a productive out. Bah.
Melky up with two outs and Cano at first.

Melky with a two out hit, and two on with two outs again, and this time Jeter has a chance to give the Yanks a lead.

JD wastes yet another opportunity with a weak groundball to first. 3 outs, and 5 stranded through 2. 38 pitches for Joe Saunders.

Aybar fighting that time, with a 6 pitch strike out with 4 fouls. Still, 1 out and Mathis still at second.

Cano keeps the ball in the infield, and even got the out, as Mathis moves to third, but now with two outs, here’s Abreu.

Posada drives one opposite field to the wall. WTF, Abreu not afraid of the wall that time, and two outs. Missed a HR by maybe 3 feet.

AP looks good, but not good enough to win if the Yanks do not score any runs. Bottom of the lineup coming up.

Indeed, they had their opportunities.
The 2-2 pitch looked like a strike, at least, what the ump been calling. Still, 3-2 pitch, and Cano walks – first leadoff batter to get on base this game for Yanks.

Swisher, c’mon, at least give us a productive out!
He does one better with a base hit to move Cano to second, and now man on first and second, nobody out for Melky, Jeter, and maybe Damon.

They have an excellent opportunity to at least tie the game right now.
Melky bunts the runner over, which I don’t necessarily agree with, but now second and third, one out, Jeter up.

so, cano walks, swisher (of all people!) gets a hit with no outs. We need to score this inning. If not, I’m calling it the Angels’ game.

A wonderful opportunity now for the Yanks to score, as they can score on a groundout – let’s see the defensive alignment for Jeter.

High fastball and Mathis did not come up cleanly, but ball not far enough away for Cano to score. 3-2 pitch, 1 out, man on second and third, and here’s Jeter.

Jeter works an 8 pitch walk, and now Johnny will be up. I guess they’re playing double play? Productive outs or better Johnny!

JD came through with a base hit the other way, and Yanks up 2-1!
At the same time, Eli to Nicks with a TD! 14-7 Giants.

Tex with an opportunity to add to lead. Really Saunders hasn’t looked good today, but Yanks were not clutch up until that base hit.. 76 pitches by Saunder right now..

Let’s go Tex!
Tex with an infield single, and they can’t pitch around ARod this time – bases loaded, one out, ARod up.
Deep SS area, and JD Beats the throw to second.

Saunders is being really careful with ARod, despite bases juiced..
3-1 pitch and.. he walks. Yanks 3-1 lead on the ARod bases loaded walk, and Posada is up. Saunders is done it seems.

a walk!
A-Rod’s streak continues. And the Yanks lead 3-1 and I guess that’s it for Saunders who pitched very poorly.

Darren Oliver up with bases loaded again. Last time he was in this situation he gave up a double to Tex, though it did not change the result..

Posada with a double play. Not clutch there – less well hit and they would’ve plated another. Of course I want to be greedy and hoped for way more, but still the Yanks regain the lead 3-1.

By the way, ARod with a super hard slide into second, and Aybar was not happy with him, but screw him. And Aybar turned it anyhow..

exactly…it’s not the greed it’s the fact that we basically got no one across except for a walk.

Sweet. Andy Pettitte remembers that it’s Jeff Mathis and not Barry Bonds circa 1998 at the plate.

Double play by Aybar – and he’s obviously really tough to double up, and the Yanks get out of that one. End of 4.5, 3-1 Yanks.

65 pitches for AP through 5 – good count, or at least good enough that he can go into 7 easily, before letting Mo pitch 6 outs, haha.

Matsui with a one pitch out. Still, would’ve been nice if they were productive outs and added one, at least.
Here’s Cano, who led off last inning with a single that started the rally.

Cano strikes out on an outside pitch but was given to him. Ah well, two outs, and the Yanks are going down quickly, with Swisher up.

Darren Oliver, of all people have been great against the Yanks this series. Strikes out Swisher, 3 outs, end of 5.

Figgins with a bunt, but touches the ball and is automatically out. Might’ve been foul anyhow, but ya, one out.

are they aging the film of the old games? That clip looked like it was straight out of some Kansas Royals flashback circa 1982

Hunter with an infield hit.. close play that time.. ARod went with the glove – maybe he underestimated the speed of Hunter but now Vlad is up as the tying run.
You might recall this situation in game 3..

Vlad is not liking the calls and letting the ump know about it. It is a bit wide, but to be fair, he’s been calling that all night, except when ARod walked..

Vlad, on a 1-2 pitch dumps a double to other way. That ball was on his ankles.. wow.
And now man on second and third, two outs, Morales up.

JD down 0-2 quickly, but worked the count, and blooped a single, moving Jeter to second.
Tex now up with two on, one out. Tex is 2 for 3 today so far and seems to be hitting the ball well..
Let’s pad this..

And Tex hits it hard.. into a double play. Second double play of the day for the Yanks, both killing rallies. End of 6, 3-1 Yanks.

Rivera dumps a single to right field, and here’s the super dangerous Mathis up.
AP comes out out of the game.

Izturis now pinch hitting for Mathis. I know, I know, but sometimes you should just go with the hot hand..
Joba against Izturis.

Jeter boots a possible double play (Izturis is fast anyhow) but Cano saves the play and gets the force at second..

Credit to Joba there. The biggest inning he’s pitched so far and he does his job. Now onto Hughes to Mariano. I’d like some insurance runs offense.

Nick – indeed. I like insurance. ;)
AP does his job, Joba does his job, and we’re maybe 2 outs away from Mo.
ARod, Posada, Matsui will be up this inning.

ARod 1 for 1 with two walks. So obviously he’s been pitched around, though one of the walks drove in a run.
Santana does go after ARod a bit, 1-2 pitch coming.

And ARod hits a 2-2 pitch up the middle. Only the 2nd time the Yanks got the leadoff hitter on this game, the last one led to a 3 run inning.

Here’s Posada, who killed the last rally with a DP when he could’ve done anything else and drove in a run..
ARod at first.

Santana paying tons of attention to ARod, I think he threw there at least twice before throwing a pitch.

Presumably, Hughes will come out to get an out or two before Mo comes in. He will face the top of the lineup – Figgins, Abreu, Hunter.

And Figgins lead off with a broken bat bloop base hit.. the kind that Mo gives up, I guess, only this time there’s no out, and Abreu is up.

Broken bat yet again, as a weak grounder between first and second and Tex dives for that one, and gets the sure out at first.

Beautiful play by Tex.
I’m going to need a heart / liver transplant after this series is over.

Up the middle, and Figgins did not go, smart play, as he probably would’ve been out, but Hunter will be the second out.

Vlad singles in Figgins with two outs, and now it’s a 3-2 game. Tough AB by Vlad, and the productive outs paid off for them that time..

If you lose with Mo on the mound, there are no regrets. Still, I’ll have less regrets if they win this.

Mo taking 21 pitches through that inning. The pitch count probably doesn’t matter at this point, but interesting to see how it develops.

Please someone get a run back. Since Posada isn’t due up this inning, I don’t think I’m asking for too much.

Another sac bunt, and another error by the Angels, and now bases will be loaded for Jeter!
By the way, Gardner is now running for Swisher.

They’re playing in to prevent another run, so bloop one!
JD walks and Tex will get a chance to hit with bases loaded, one out.

And ARod takes his 3rd walk of the game. Posada is now up. At least he can’t hit into a double play this time, but even a single out has essentially the same meaning. Maybe he should bunt here.

I wonder if TEN LOB is a record in post season or something.. in a 9 inning game.. that’s quite a bit.

The next two days are going to be like paradise. I think I’ve said all I can about the Yankees this season. Everything has been working this year up to this point. No reason it can’t continue for four more wins.
Anyway, for all the criticism of Girardi (and I think he deserves some, but nowhere near the idiocy we’ve heard), Scioscia is ten times worse. Good job going with Saunders in a must-win game, Mike!
I think we can finally put to bed the notion that Mike Scioscia is some kind of great manager. And the Angels signed him through 2018. Most overrated organization in baseball? They have a shot at it.

I think this World Series between the Phillies and Yanks just might be a classic.
Both teams have offensive weapons, a shut-down ace (or two), and decent bullpens.
What will be the deciding factor in who wins the Series–the manager, intangibles, or fate?

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