AL Playoff Look - 7/20

The Rays were happy to hit the All-Star break in the midst of a 7-game skid. They've snapped out of it with 2 straight wins to leap frog the Red Sox and move back into first place in the AL East. The Red Sox have started the 2nd half with two straight losses to the Los Angeles Angeles.

Meanwhile with the Yankees winning 2 straight, things are closer in the AL East and the Wild Card is getting more interesting.

AL East
Rays 57-39 --
Red Sox 57-42 1.5
Yankees 52-45 5.5

Wild Card
Red Sox 57-42 --
Twins 55-42 1.0
Yankees 52-45 4.0
A's 51-46 5.0

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Thar She Blows!

Maybe next year instead of entering games to AC/DC's "Hell's Bells", Trevor Hoffman might take to the mound to the strains of Adam Sandler's "The Goat". The all-time saves leader continued to be one of the biggest big game losers, blowing a 2-run lead in the 13th inning last night (early this morning on the east coast), as the Colorado Rockies captured the NL Wild Card in a 1 game playoff.

The Pad's Scott Hairston had given his team the lead in the top of the 13th with a 2-run shot off of Jorge Julio. But as the inning ended, I said aloud, "Don't worry, Hoffman's coming in". The closer, who had blown a 9th inning save on Saturday in a game the Brewers would eventually win, had absolutely nothing last night.

Kaz Matsui lead off the bottom of the 13th with a bullet in the gap in right-center for a double. Rookie phenom Troy Tulowitzki hit a fly to the gap in left-center for a run scoring double. That brought up Matt Holliday, whose 8th inning misplay allowed the Padres to tie the score. Holliday hit a laser off the right field wall, just out of the reach of a leaping Brian Giles. Holliday cruised into 3rd with a game tying triple. The hit sealed up the batting and RBI titles for the Rock's left fielder.

The Pads intentionally walked Todd Helton, but instead of loading the bases, they chose to pitch to Jamey Carroll. With the outfield playing shallow, Carroll hit a line drive to Giles in right. Holliday tagged and raced home as Giles throw arrived. The ball short hopped Michael Barrett, who couldn't handle it, but blocked the plate from a head-first sliding Holliday. And that's where things got really interesting.

Home plate ump Tim Mcclelland made no signal. That translate to no tag and no touch of home by the runner. Barrett scrambled for the baseball and as he went to tag a prone Holliday, who had been shaken up on the play, Mcclelland suddenly signaled safe as if he had been thinking about it.

The Rockies raced on to the field to celebrate and there was no argument. But replays showed that Holliday never hit home plate. His hand was kicked away by Barrett's foot. Holliday also got a face full of infield, cutting his lip and leaving him a bit dazed. Pad's manager Bud Black felt that Holliday did get in. Perhaps he just realized the Rockies win, their 14th in 15 games, was inevitable.

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Game 163

Remarkably, the regular season continues tonight when the Padres and Rockies do battle for the final playoff spot, the NL Wild Card. And what a wild weekend it was.

While the Yankees were scoring 30 runs in taking 2 of 3 from the O's, the Mets were completely flushing (no pun intended) their season down the toilet. After losing Friday night, the Mets got another shot when John Maine pitched the game of his life, 7 2-3 innings of 1-hit ball, and 14 strikeouts. The Phillies split a pair with the Nats, setting up Sunday's big finish. Only someone forgot to tell Tommy Glavine.

The veteran left-hander and future Hall of Fame member, spit the bit...plain and simple. He gave up 7 runs and didn't make it out of the 1st inning, and the Mets were dead. Down in Philly, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins were laying the smackdown on the Nats, giving the Phillies their 1st playoff appearance in 14 years.

The Padres merely needed a win to snap up the Wild Card spot, but the Brewers weren't in a giving mood, even though they had already been eliminated. 4 Padres homers didn't matter as the Brewers won 11-6. The Padres could have wrapped things up on Saturday if not for Trevor Hoffman blowing yet another big game.

The Rockies finish was as improbable as the Mets. They took 2 of 3 from AZ to win 13 of their final 14 to force tonight's tie-breaker. Even better they get to play it at home.

Getting back to the Mets fiasco. A lot of fans are blasting Willie Randolph, and a manager certainly has to take a share of the blame, but this is on GM Omar Minaya. He constructed a poor ball club. He didn't do anything at the deadline to address the teams chief needs, and then brings in an idiot like Rickey Henderson to be a "positive" influence on Jose Reyes. WTF?!

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Let the Champagne Flow...

...and may the Steve Phillips and Mad Dog Russos of the world, shove it up their collective asses! I am not going to lie and say I was confident on July 1st that the Yankees would return to the post-season, but I never gave up watching/listening/hoping. And neither did millions of Yankees fans. Tonight we were rewarded.

The Yankees uncorked a blow out, beating up on the Devil Rays 12-4. Chien-Ming Wang won his 19th game for the 2nd consecutive season and Robinson Cano homered and drove in 5 runs.

In a scene repeated many times over the years, Mariano Rivera stood on the mound as the final out - in this case a Greg Norton pop out to Cano - was recorded. A jubilant, and is that ever understated, celebration ensued in the locker room with many of the Yankees youngsters energizing the party.

A tearful Joe Torre couldn't help but let his pride show through his emotions. And even owner George Steinbrenner was in the house. Seeing Andy Pettitte back where he belongs made a great night even more special. So was seeing Kim Jones soaked with champagne.

As for the game, it was only a contest until the 4th inning when the Yankees scored 7 runs. Already leading 2-1 on a Derek Jeter home run and a Cano ground out, the Yankees drove J.P. Howell from the game with a mix of timely hits, and battered the Rays bullpen. Jeter's sac fly gave the Yankees a 3-1 advantage and was the 2nd out of the inning. But with the help of an error by Josh Wilson to start the inning, the Yankees opened the flood gates.

Jorge Posada singled in 2 runs, Cano belted a 3-run home run, and Mientkiewicz, batting for the 2nd time in the inning, doubled in a run. The Yankees added 3 more in the 6th, which would be Wang's final inning. Joba Chamberlain tossed a scoreless 7th before Luis Vizcaino gave up a 2-run bomb to Jonny Gomes. But the plan was already in place for the Yankees Hall of Fame closer to enter and for another celebration to begin.

...

Robinson Cano's monster 2nd half continued. He's hit 13 HR and driven in 54 runs in 276 at-bats. He's also hitting better than .340 since the break.

Doug Mientkiewicz's post game interview with Kim Jones was special, as the Yankees veteran 1st Baseman clearly appreciated how much it meant for him to get back to playing this season. He talked about his moment with Joe Torre following the game, and how important the injured Andy Phillips had been to the team.

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Post Season Roster Not Set in Stone

The usual suspects will be on the Yankees post-season roster, but there are still a number of question marks for the bench, rotation, and bullpen. Lets take a quick look at each area and see how it shakes out.

Okay, the given - Jeter, A-Rod, Cano, Giambi, Posada, Matsui, Damon, Cabrera, Molina, Mientkiewicz, Betemit, Abreu, Pettitte, Clemens, Wang, Rivera, Chamberlain, Mussina, Vizcaino.

That's 19 players, leaving 6 spots to fill on the bench and the bullpen. And that's assuming Clemens will be able to give it a go.

Of those 6, Shelley Duncan is probably a lock to give the Yankees a right-handed bat off of the bench. That leaves 5 spots, all going to pitchers. The Yankees have already stated that its not likely that Ian Kennedy will be on a 1st round roster. With Mussina seemingly locking down a spot, Phil Hughes may not be needed either. He's certainly not used to pitching out of the pen.

A new rule change may also dictate how the roster is assembled. For the first time, a player may be replaced in mid-series because of an injury. A pitcher would have to replace a pitcher, and a position player would take the place of one of his colleagues. The injured player would not be allowed to participate in the next round.

With the new rule, the Yankees could opt to leave Hughes off the roster initially, and add him later if Clemens can't go or Mussina reverts back to total ineffectiveness. Also the division series is likely to have more off days than usual, so the Yankees may only use 3 starting pitchers.

That leaves Joe Torre, Brian Cashman, etc., to choose from Russ Ohlendorf (could definitely be the dark horse here), Jose Veras, Kyle Farnsworth (most likely will be added), Brian Bruney, Edwar Ramirez, Chris Britton, and Ron Villone (could be added simply beacuse he's left-handed).

So lets say Ohlendorf, Farnsworth, and Villone are added. That leaves 2 openings - the Yankees could take another position player (either Bronson Sardinha or Alberto Gonzalez) and leave the final spot for a coin flip between Veras, Ramirez, Britton, and Bruney. For now we'll say they go to Veras, whom they seem to have fallen in love with lately.

So the 25 would look something like this:

Catchers (2)
Posada
Molina

Infielders (6)
Giambi
Mientkiewicz
Betemit
Cano
Jeter
A-Rod

Outfielders (6)
Damon
Cabrera
Matsui
Abreu
Duncan
Sardinha

Pitchers (11)
Pettitte
Wang
Clemens
Mussina
Veras
Rivera
Farnsworth
Villone
Ohlendorf
Chamberlain
Vizcaino

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Yankees Sleepwalk to Tie Clinch

It seemed like the Yankee veterans were in too much of a hurry yesterday to see their rookie counterparts in Wizard of Oz regalia as part of this year's freshman hazing. The Yankees let rookie Jesse Litsch manhandle them in a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays. They did manage to clinch a tie for the Wild Card last night though, when the barely breathing Detroit Tigers were blanked by the Minnesota Twins, 2-0.

Andy Pettitte felt his stuff was good, but the Blue Jays battled him hard, scoring 3 runs in the 2nd inning to take control of the game. Pettitte retired Frank Thomas to start the inning, but allowed a single to Aaron Hill and walked Greg Zaun. Curtis Thigpen doubled in the game's 1st run and Hector Luna followed with an RBI ground out. John McDonald's double to deep center made it a 3-0 game, before Pettitte finally retired Reed Johnson to end the inning.

The Blue Jays added an insurance tally the next inning when Derek Jeter couldn't handle Hill's potential inning ending ground ball. The Yankees got their only in the 6th when Jeter doubled and came around on ground outs by Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez. It was A-Rod's 147th RBI of the season.

Litsch left after 7.2 innings of 5 hit ball. Casey Janssen came on for the final 4 outs to record his 6th save of the season.

...

Russ Ohlendorf continues to put himself into post-season consideration, especially with Ian Kennedy not likely to pitch this week. Ohlendorf's scoreless inning yesterday lowered his ERA to 2.45 and gave him 5 strikeouts in 2.2 innings.

Derek Jeter's double extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

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Wild Magic Down to 6

The Cleveland Indians completed a 3 game sweep of the Detroit Tigers this afternoon, 4-2. For the moment the Tigers drop to 5 games back of the Yankees in the Wild Card race. More importantly, the Yankees magic number to clinch a playoff spot has been reduced to 6.

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Yankees Take Over Wild Card

Moments ago, the Indians Kenny Lofton walked with the bases loaded to give the Tribe a 6-5 win over the Mariners. They M's had tied the game in the top half of the 9th against Joe Borowski, but the Indians jumped on Rick White. With the bases loaded, 2 outs, and a 3-2 count on Lofton, White threw ball 4 to force in the winning run.

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Angels Thump M's 8-2; Wild Card Update

Up to the second update - the Angels, behind Jered Weaver, beat the Mariners 8-2. The Yankees are a half game back in the Wild Card standings and can move into a tie with a win.

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Where We're At

Heading into the weekend, this is the way things look:

AL East

Boston 69 - 45
Yankees 63- 51 6 back

Wild Card

Seattle 63 - 49
Yankees 63 - 51 1 back
Detroit 63 - 51 1 back


Yankees have the toughest series with 3 in Cleveland. Boston takes on Baltimore.

Seattle plays the suddenly alive Chicago White Sox, and Detroit goes up against Oakland.

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Up to the Minute Wild Card Standings (8/9)

4:50 PM EDT

Tigers lose again.

Seattle 62-49
Yankees 63-51
Detroit 63-51

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