Pardon the bad pun. We're back after a little R & R, which in this case stands for lazy & listless. Okay, so they aren't "R" words, but who cares. Just needed a little time away from the blogosphere. But boy do we have a lot to talk about now.
Let's start off with the
Yankees-Red Sox games of the last 2 days. A remarkable set of games that enabled the
Yankees to split the 4-game series. And it was a HUGE split after losing those first two.
We'll work our way backwards starting with last night. Yankees got jump started in the 2nd inning when
Alex Rodriguez took
Sox starter
Tim Wakefield deep for a 1-0 Yankees lead. It was home run number 536, tying
Mickey Mantle for 13th place on the all-time home run list. The fans went crazy, even
Madonna, who shall be known as
Mad-Rod from this day forward.
The
Red Sox countered with 3 off
Joba Chamberlain in the 5th inning. The little gnat
Dustin Pedroia delivering a 2-run single to put
Boston ahead. We don't often (as in never) agree with
Joe Morgan, but he hit the nail on the head last night. With the game tied 1-1, two and two out, Chamberlain had a full count against
Jacoby Ellsbury. He twice shook off
Jose Molina, who wanted him to throw a fastball. Instead
Chamberlain threw a breaking pitch for ball four and one of the hottest hitters in baseball,
Pedroia, had an ideal hitting situation.
Chamberlain is way too inexperienced to be shaking off a veteran like
Molina. That last part is our theory not
Morgan's, but we'd bet he'd agree.
The teams exchanged runs, which put the
Yankees down 4-2 entering the 7th inning.
A-Rod led off with a single and one out later,
Jorge Posada singled off reliever
Javier Lopez. That brought up
Robinson Cano, who hit ripped one to right. The ball kicked around a bit allowing both runners to score and
Cano to pull into third with a game tying triple.
We take issue a bit here with
Joe Girardi here for not having
Melky Cabrera try to squeeze home
Cano.
Melky's swung the bat better the last few games, but he's still nowhere close to firing on all cylinders.
Melky put the ball on the ground and
Cano, running on contact, was easily out at the plate.
Molina then struck out to end the inning.
Mariano Rivera walked the tight rope in Saturday's save- more on that later- but was back on target last night. He did have to face
Manny Ramirez in the 9th with two out and the go ahead run on 3rd base, but
Manny never took the bat off his shoulder, looking at three straight called strikes.
Mo mowed them down in the 10th and then it was the
Yankees turn to face the
Sox closer.
Jon Papelbon has been good, but not as good as last year.
Cano took him back up the middle for a lead off single and
Melky laid down a perfect sac bunt.
Papelbon blew fastballs easily past
Wilson Betemit for the 2nd out, but then got into a battle with rookie
Brett Gardner. The kid finally hit one back up the middle, just off the glove of a diving
Julio Lugo and past
Pedroia, who was backing up on the play.
Cano raced home with the winning run and the
Yankees had themselves a mighty fine win.
Back to Saturday's chaos. A magnificent performance from
Mike Mussina, who was screwed out of an All-Star selection, but more on that later. He was great once again, throwing six shutout innings, allowing 4 hits, one walk, and striking out 5.
The
Yankees had scored in the 2nd on an RBI single by
Melky Cabrera and a sac fly in the 6th by
Brett Gardner (not a bad weekend for him).
Jose Veras and
Kyle Farnsworth pitched a stellar inning each, which brought things to the 9th and
Mariano Rivera. And that's when things got a little crazy.
J.D. Drew started the 9th with a single back up the middle.
Rivera then hit
Manny Ramirez, and just that quickly,
Boston had the tying men on base.
Mike Lowell poked a single to right to cut the lead in half, with pinch-runner
Brandon Moss stopping at 2nd base.
Mo then hit
Kevin Youkilis, which nearly caused us to spit our shrimp francese across the restaurant (made sure to get a seat with a view of the bar TV), to load the bases with no one out.
"Moose doesn't deserve not to win this" played over and over in our minds. But then
Mo went back to being
Mo.
Coco Crisp took a weak hack and struck out.
Jason Varitek, AL All-Star, yeah we'll get back to that later too, popped up to first. So it came down to
Julio Lugo and he was no match for "The Great Ree-Vare-uh", as
John Miller likes to say. Strike 3, ball game over,
Yankees win...yeah, you know the drill.
Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Bananas for a Split, Brett Gardner, Joba Chamberlain, Jon Papelbon, Justin Masterson, Mariano Rivera, Mike Mussina, Robinson Cano, Tim Wakefield, Yankees vs. Red Sox
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Joe Maddon knows the history. He has seen what the Red Sox have done in the past. A comeback from a 3-0 deficit to the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS that led to a World Series championship. A comeback from a 3-1 deficit to the Indians in last year's ALCS that led to another title. After last night's Rays 13-4 blow out of the Red Sox, Maddon's Tampa squad is in the same position. An American League pennant is in their grasp. Now they have to finish it off.
