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Tag: Baltimore Orioles

Blogs • KTTC Classics

Oct 13, 2012

ALDS Game 5 Thoughts: CC Sabathia Is an Ace

The Yankees won Game 5 of the ALDS thanks to CC Sabathia as the left-hander improved to 7-1 in the postseason as a Yankee.

I felt like I was waiting for results from a pregnancy test on the morning and afternoon leading up to Game 5 with each passing minute causing me more concern, heartache and forcing my blood pressure to dangerously high levels. The Yankees had spent the entire month of September fighting avoid this very scenario: a one-game playoff.

I went back to my roots (and the pre-2009 world) for Game 5 of the ALDS and stayed off Twitter. Well, I tried to stay off Twitter, but the power of Nick Swisher’s incompetence forced me to tweet the following: “Nick Swisher is the worst player in Major League Baseball.”

I stole a line from Mike O’Hara (Daniel Stern) in Celtic Pride on Friday afternoon and said, “The Yankees won’t lose because I won’t let them lose.” I didn’t even need to kidnap Lewis Scott, or in this case, Nate McLouth to make sure the Yankees won. All I needed was to know that CC Sabathia was on the mound.

There isn’t much to say about the Yankees’ Game 5 win because it was all about CC Sabathia and had very little to do with any of the other Yankees. It was more of the same from the offense that runs and hides when the going gets tough in October and the No. 4 and No. 5 starters from last-place teams are nowhere to be found. The Yankees survived the ALDS because of their pitching and because of the man they extended for two more years in the offseason.

Here’s what I wrote about CC Sabathia after Game 1.

If anyone ever says CC Sabathia isn’t an ace, they’re wrong. CC was a beast on Sunday night and had his best postseason start since 2009 after rocky Octobers in 2010 and 2011. He’s now 6-1 in 11 postseason starts for the Yankees, and oh yeah, he’s 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA in four years in the regular season. That’s 74 and 29. He’s averaging an 18-7 record with a 3.22 ERA in 32 starts over four seasons with the Yankees. If he isn’t an “ace” then who is?

Change “Sunday night” to “Friday afternoon” and change “6-1 in 11 postseason starts” to “7-1 in 12 postseason starts” and there you have it. Sabathia won Game 5 for the Yankees and for an offense that might have trouble with Luke Hochevar or Bruce Chen. Games 1 and 5 are why Sabathia made $23 million this year and will next year and the year after that and that year after that and $25 million the year after with and a vesting option the year after that. He put the team on his back when the offense certainly wasn’t going to and he went out and won a do-or-die elimination game.

Three down, eight to go. This train carries Andy Pettitte in Game 1.

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Oct 12, 2012

ALDS Game 4 Thoughts: Everyone Left on Base

The Yankees lost Game 4 and are now faced with the scenario they fought so hard to avoid: a one-game playoff.

I remember this feeling. I felt it on Oct. 6, 2011. It was Game 5 of the 2011 ALDS. This feeling sucks.

The feeling is when “elimination” becomes a real possibility. It’s a word that no baseball fan wants to hear. It’s the strongest word in the sports vocabulary because it’s so final.

You don’t face elimination unless you screw up along the way, and the 2012 Yankees have done just that. Their regular season problem found its way to the postseason and the team’s inability to hit with runners in scoring position will be their downfall if the season doesn’t extend past Friday night.

One run in 13 innings. That’s how I will remember Game 4. I won’t remember it for Phil Hughes stepping up, Derek Jeter coming through on one good leg, Nick Swisher and Ichiro playing horrible defense in the eighth inning or A-Rod getting pinch-hit for once again. One run in 13 innings. That’s what I will remember about Game 4. The theme from April 6 through October 3 didn’t go away during the three off days before Game 1 of the ALDS. And now it has the Yankees in the scenario they fought down the stretch to avoid: a one-game playoff.

The Yankees haven’t made it out of the ALDS against a team not named the Minnesota Twins since 2001 when they came back from down 0-2 against the A’s. The Angels knocked them out in 2002 and again in 2005. The Tigers took them down in 2006, the Indians got them in 2007 and the Tigers did it again last October. Now the Yankees are one more bad game of leaving men on base from having their season end.

The Yankees will play their 167th game of the 2012 season on Friday night. The heart of the order will determine if they get to play for the 168th time on Saturday.

***

Here are my thoughts from Game 4 of the ALDS.

– Four runs in the last 25 innings and two of those runs are Raul Ibanez’s solo home runs. That’s disgusting and embarrassing on so many levels. I would take the San Francisco Giants offense in Game 5. At least they have guys who will deliver a big hit.

– Phil Hughes stepped up in Game 4 (6.2 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 8 K) and delivered as good of a performance as he did in Game 3 against the Twins at the Stadium in Game 3 of the 2010 ALDS (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K). He deserved to win on Thursday night the same way that Andy Pettitte deserved to win on Monday night. I didn’t trust Hughes entering Game 4, but I will trust him if there’s an ALCS for him to get the ball in next week.

– I really hope Nick Swisher’s roll in the 13th inning like he was 007 dodging gunfire makes hisYankeeography. It was the latest in what I call Nick Swisher Unnecessary Antics. My favorite has always been him climbing the wall on home runs that he is unable to catch or come remotely close to making a play on. You’re the worst, Nick Swisher. The worst.

– I always laugh when people say, “The moment always finds A-Rod.” The moment always found David Ortiz when the Red Sox used to make the postseason and Ortiz loved the moment and owned it.

– Hey, Yankee Stadium music guy, don’t play Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” while I’m walking out of the Stadium following a 13-inning loss in which the Yankees score one run, forcing them into an elimination game. Maybe that’s the time for you to play Howie Day’s “Collide” rather than in Game 3 when the Yankees were losing before Raul Ibanez’s game-tying home run.

– Remember when Robinson Cano was tearing up the Twins’, Blue Jays’ and Red Sox’ pitching in the last week of the season and everyone was calling him the best and hottest hitter on the planet. Good call, everyone! Cano will be as responsible for a first-round exit as anyone if he doesn’t show up in Game 5 and the Yankees don’t advance to the ALCS. He is now 2-for-18 in the series and is supposed to be the most important hitter in the lineup, even if Joe Girardi still doesn’t think he is.

– The Stadium has a montage for every moment. The problem is that most of them involve plays from previous years. There isn’t a “Left On Base” montage to the Rocky theme to be played when the team is trying to rally late, but there should be. Instead there are hundreds of clips from the last few years of big hits, plays and pitches from the Yankees. I think my friend Andrew said it best last night at the game when talking about great moments being shown: “I’m starting to think these aren’t real.”

– There was a time when there was a pitching change or a mound visit during the beginning of a Yankees rally meant “Black Betty” would fill the Bronx night and the Yankees would come through in the clutch. That time is long gone.

– Tommy Hunter helps win a Game 4 at the Stadium again. TOM-MY HUN-TER! Is this real life? Yes, it is.

– Curtis Granderson (1-for-9, nine strikeouts) is making Alfonso Soriano’s 2003 postseason look like A-Rod’s 2009 postseason. I find it hard to believe that the Yankees are going to look to lock up Granderson along with Cano. Yes, he has 84 home runs in the last two years, but I don’t see the Orioles rushing to sign Mark Reynolds to a long-term, massive deal. And yes, Granderson has become the left-handed Reynolds.

– Joe Girardi made the best decision of his managerial career in hitting Raul Ibanez for A-Rod in Game 3. But if Girardi is going to hit for A-Rod then when does he start hitting for Swisher and Granderson too? It’s not too late to do so, but the time is running out.

I’m not ready for the baseball season to end. This train carries CC Sabathia in Game 5.

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Oct 9, 2012

ALDS Game 2 Thoughts: It’s Always A-Rod’s Fault

The Yankees lost Game 2 of the ALDS to the Orioles and everyone wants to blame A-Rod.

On Tuesday morning on the subway I was standing with my back to the door and the guy sitting down in the second seat to the right of me was reading the New York Post on his iPad, so I decided to read it with him. I couldn’t actually read the articles from where I was, but I could see the headlines. I only needed to see one to stop reading.

Even when A-Rod hits liners it turns into outs for Yankees

If A-Rod went 3-for-4 in Game 2, but the one out he made was the strikeout to end the game against Jim Johnson, there would still be negative headlines about him. But when he goes 1-for-5 and is now 1-for-9 with with five strikeouts in two games, well he’s feeding the New York media exactly what they want.

A-Rod shouldn’t be hitting third. He shouldn’t have been hitting third for a long time now. But does that mean the Yankees’ Game 2 loss is his fault or that he should take responsibility for it because he’s the team’s highest-paid player? Of course not. But that’s how the world works when it comes to A-Rod. He has never been given any sort of pass since he arrived in 2004 when the Yankees lost the ALCS because of Joe Torre, Tom Gordon, Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez and a short wall in right field at Fenway Park. It was his fault in 2005 when Randy Johnson destroyed Game 3 and Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffifled crashed into each other in Game 5. It was all on him in 2006 when Mike Mussina couldn’t hold a lead and Randy Johnson and Jaret Wright couldn’t get an out. In 2007, it was all A-Rod and not Chien-Ming Wang giving up 12 earned runs on 14 hits in just 5 2/3 innings in two starts against the Indians. In 2009, the Yankees won because of A-Rod and really only because of him. It was on A-Rod when Phil Hughes pulled a Chien-Ming Wang in the 2010 ALCS against the Rangers and A.J. Burnett was given the chance to face Bengie Molina in Game 4. And last year, it was A-Rod’s fault that Freddy Garica started Game 2, CC Sabathia came up short in Game 3 and Ivan Nova looked like A.J. Burnett early in Game 5.

A-Rod has been bad in every postseason series for the Yankees except the 2004 ALDS against the Twins and all of the 2009 playoffs. And not just “bad,” but painfully bad. Here are his averages in playoff series that aren’t the 2004 ALDS or any of the 2009 playoffs.

2004 ALCS: .258
2005 ALDS: .133
2006 ALDS: .071
2007 ALDS: .267
2010 ALDS: .273
2010 ALCS: .190
2011 ALDS: .111

The last time A-Rod hit a postseason home run was in Game 3 of the 2009 World Series. Since then he has played in 18 playoff games and has had 65 at-bats. But even as bad as A-Rod has been in October, it’s disgusting the attention and criticism he endures because of his lack of production in October.

Guess who these postseason series averages belong to: .167, .222, .136, .308, .000 (0-for-14) and .167. Those would be the postseason series averages for Mark Teixeira prior to the start of the 2012 postseason. Guess how many postseason home runs Teixeira has for the Yankees in six series prior to 2012? Three. That’s three home runs in 29 games and 106 at-bats. Mark Teixeira has been a worse postseason player than Alex Rodriguez in his three postseasons with the team before this year. So why is it that Teixeira gets a free pass for failure and A-Rod doesn’t? It’s not like Mark Teixeira is making the league minimum at $22.5 million per year (just $6.5 million less than A-Rod will make this year) as the second highest-paid player on the team. The reason is because Mark Teixeira was part of a championship team in his first season in New York and A-Rod wasn’t. The ironic part is that Teixeira was part of a championship team because of A-Rod.

Teixeira never had to deal with questions about why he hit .167 against the Twins in the 2009 ALDS or .222 against the Angels in the 2009 ALCS or .136 against the Phillies in the 2009 World Series because while he was busy leaving everyone on base and being what A-Rod was from the 2004 ALCS through the 2007 ALDS, A-Rod was busy winning the World Series for the Yankees. So instead of hearing about what a terrible free-agent signing Teixeira was for Brian Cashman because he isn’t a clutch player, the lasting image of Mark Teixeira in 2009 is him hugging A-Rod and Derek Jeter in the center of the Yankee Stadium infield.

A-Rod is going to hear it from the Stadium on Wednesday night if he doesn’t produce in Game 3 and Mark Teixeira will hear it too, but he’ll hear it less. Because if the Yankees don’t win every postseason game and don’t win the last game of their postseason then it’s on A-Rod’s and no one else. Mark Teixeira will get a free pass. He always does.

***

As I wrote after Game 1 and will do after every Yankees postseason game, here are my thoughts from Game 2 of the ALDS.

– Sweeny Murti is calling it the “Ichiro Shuffle.” I’m going to call it magic. The slide and moves that Ichiro put on Matt Wieters in the play at the plate in the first inning were unbelievable. The sad thing is that Rob Thomson sent Ichiro on the play. Is there a worse third base coach in the league than Thomson? I’m not sure, but I don’t know a more known third base coach and that’s never a good thing. Most of the time Thomson holds guys up when he shouldn’t, but when he finally has a chance to, he sends Ichiro home and the ball got to Wieters before Ichiro was even at the “P” in “POSTSEASON” written on the third-base line. If Ichiro was tagged out there, that would have been the second out made at the plate in two games for the Yankees. No big deal!

– If A-Swisheira doesn’t produce then the Yankees will not advance to the ALCS. It’s that easy.

– Mark Teixeira might have been the slowest player in Major League Baseball before his calf injury. Now it’s not even a discussion. If I need Teixeira or Jorge Posada to score from second on a single, I’m taking Posada every single time and that’s scary. Teixeira was thrown out at second in Game 1 on a ball off the right-field wall and in Game 2 he couldn’t score from second on a single up the middle from Curtis Granderson. But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that after his leadoff single in the eighth inning, Joe Girardi chose not to pinch run for a guy who has proven he is a station-to-station runner. I guess the decision to leave Teixeira in the game isn’t worth complaining about since Brett Gardner is out for the season and not on the playoff roster and wasn’t available to pinch run for Teixeira. Wait? Brett Gardner is on the postseason roster and was available off the bench to pinch run in Game 2? I don’t believe you.

– I never talk negatively about Derek Jeter and I’m not going to here. All I’m going to say is that he looked drunk in the field and he probably shouldn’t have swung at the first pitch against Jim Johnson in the ninth inning, a night after Johnson was embarrassed for five runs in 1/3 of an inning. But again, I’m not going to talk negatively about Derek Jeter or criticize his play.

– Wei-Yin Chen was getting fatigued and his pitch count was rising like Jason Hammel’s and then in the fifth inning, Ichiro got out on the first pitch and then A-Rod got out on the first pitch and then Cano got out on the second pitch. Three outs on four pitches without a double play. That’s impressive.

– It’s hard to win in the postseason, period. It’s even harder to win when you have to get four outs a few innings a game. Luckily an error hasn’t cost the Yankees yet, but eventually one will if they continue to play this bad defensively.

– How much money did Mark Teixeira give Ernie Johnson, John Smoltz and Cal Ripken Jr. to say nothing negative about him? (Did you notice how I didn’t ask if you think Teixeira paid them because it’s not a question. He paid them.) I’m going with $145,061.73 each since that is what Teixeira makes per regular season game and since he didn’t play for the final month of the year because he wasn’t about to play at 80 percent (his words not mine) during a pennant race that went down to the last day of the season, he probably felt like he could afford to give up three games pay to make sure national TV viewers don’t think he sucks.

The problem with Teixeira supporters is that when he doesn’t hit they can always say, “Well, he makes up for it with his defense.” That’s nice and all, but Teixeira didn’t get $180 million because he plays great defense. Doug Mientkiewicz played well defensively and he made $1.5 million for the Yankees in 2007. If you’re going to misplay grounders like Teixeira did in Game 2 then that argument is destroyed.

– Here’s a picture of Robisnon Cano’s effort on Mark Reynolds’ RBI single that made it 3-1.

If you didn’t see the play, the next picture in the sequence isn’t Canoon the ground with the ball in the outfield after laying out for it. The next picture is Cano standing there with Nick Swisher fielding the ball. What does that mean? It means Cano didn’t dive to knock the ball down. If Cano knocks the ball down then Wieters doesn’t score. If Wieters doesn’t score then the Orioles’ lead is only 2-1. The Yankees scored again later in the game. That means the score would have been 2-2. I understand this is all part of Michael Kay’s “fallacy of the predetermined outcome,” but how is Cano not going to dive there and knock the ball down? Not giving maximum effort to save a run in the postseason doesn’t matter anyway.

– For the second straight game I had no idea what was a ball and what a strike was, and I wasn’t alone.

– Ernie Johnson dropped the old “(Player name) and (Player name) are a combined (number) years old” line when Andy Pettitte faced Jim Thome. Is there a worse and more meaningless saying in sports? No.

– In Game 1, Derek Jeter was asked to bunt. Derek Jeter is the all-time Yankees hits leader. Derek Jeter is the all-time postseason hits leader. Derek Jeter was Major League Baseball’s hits leader this year.

In Game 2, Ichiro was asked to bunt. Ichiro might be the best hitter in the history of baseball and he hit .322 as Yankee in 67 games. Right now Ichiro and Jeter are the only two Yankees you can fully trust to come through in a big spot and they have both been asked to give up at-bats.

Again, I know Joe Girardi will keep bunting in these spots even if he successful zero percent of the time, so I’m wasiting words even talking about it, but if I don’t get my frustration out here it will come out during or after games and lead to me getting evicted from my apartment. And because of me blaring The Wallflowers’ “One Headlight” a couple weekends ago late at night, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

– I wish I were upset when Curtis Granderson strikes out in big spots, but I’m not. At this point I assume he’s going to strike out and if he makes contact I consider it a moral victory. That’s not good, is it?

– I’m saving everything that I have built up in my head for Nick Swisher for another time and another column.

This train carries Hiroki Kuroda in Game 3.

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Oct 8, 2012

ALDS Game 1 Thoughts: Land of Hope and Dreams

If anyone ever says CC Sabathia isn’t an ace, they’re wrong. CC was a beast on Sunday in his best playoff start since 2009.

Back in February I did a retro recap of the NFC Championship Game and then also wrote down my thoughts from Super Bowl XLVI and those teams game played out nicely, so I decided to take it one step further and do the same for every Yankees playoff game this October. Here are some thoughts from Game 1 of the ALDS.

– I’m so scared of “Land of Hope and Dreams” forever being associated with postseason failure. I love the song and can’t get enough of it even with TBS playing it 79 times during each game. I liked “Written In the Stars” and still do, but whenever I hear it I think of the Yankees losing to the Tigers in the 2011 ALDS. I think of Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher leaving men on base every time through the order and I see Ivan Nova giving up two solo home runs in Game 5 and Joe Girardi using Luis Ayala before a rested David Robertson and Mariano Rivera. But when I hear the Black Eyed Peas’ “Meet Me Halfway” I think of the 2009 playoffs and all of the glorious memories. When I hear Nonpoint’s version of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight” I think of the 2004 playoffs and I start to cry. Please don’t let “Land of Hope and Dreams” forever be associated with negativity.

– Derek Jeter is the all-time Yankees hits leader. Derek Jeter is the all-time postseason hits leader. Derek Jeter was Major League Baseball’s hits leader this year. He sounds like a good candidate for a sacrifice bunt in a tie game, right? No, not at all. Like Stevie Janowski tells Reg Mackworthy in Eastbound and Down, “No bunts! No bunting!” But Joe Girardi will stop at nothing when it comes to sacrifice bunting and no matter what the outcome of the bunt is, he will bunt in the same situation from Sunday night every single time.

– If anyone ever says CC Sabathia isn’t an ace, they’re wrong. CC was a beast on Sunday night and had his best postseason start since 2009 after rocky Octobers in 2010 and 2011. He’s now 6-1 in 11 postseason starts for the Yankees, and oh yeah, he’s 74-29 with a 3.22 ERA in four years in the regular season. That’s 74 and 29. He’s averaging an 18-7 record with a 3.22 ERA in 32 starts over four seasons with the Yankees. If he isn’t an “ace” then who is?

– I’m going to talk about Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher together because they are all one unit once the postseason stats. The success of the Yankees will be determined by these three and whether or not they can hit with runners in scoring position, or really hit at all. Before the series I said that either A-Rod or Teixeira and Swisher need to hit. I only expect one of the first two to come through (and that looks like Teixeira right now) since asking both of them to come through would be asking too much. You wouldn’t win the lottery and then expect to win it again, would you? In Game 1, Teixeira and Swisher showed up and A-Rod didn’t and the Yankees won. My theory for postseason success is now a proven formula.

– A lot of people complain about Russell Martin’s bat and of course this complaining comes when the Yankees are losing. FYI: Russell Martin plays catcher. He isn’t a Yankee because of his bat and any offense he can provide should be viewed as extra, but not needed. If the Yankees’ offensive problems are ever blamed on Martin it’s because the guys who are here to hit aren’t. (A-Rod, cough, cough. Teixeira, cough, cough). Martin was the MVP of Game 1 and during the game there was a Jason Hammel fastball that missed his head by an inch that might have forced us to see a lot of Chris Stewart this October. Instead Martin dodged the high heat, made an incredible fielding play, looked like Henrik Lundqvist behind the plate and then showed his muscle with a leadoff home run in the ninth inning. If Martin goes hitless in Games 2 or 3, you will start to hear moans about how bad he is offensively, but he has already done his job offensively for this series.

– Until the ninth inning, Game 1 felt like a continuation of the 2011 ALDS. I really thought I was watching a sixth game against the Tigers from last October. Baserunners every inning and men in scoring position all over the place and nothing to show for it. If the Yankees lost Game 1 after all of the chances they blew in the first eight innings they would have ruined Columbus Day for me.

– How is Cal Ripken doing the Yankees-Orioles series? I don’t care if the broadcast team was determined before the outcome of the one-game playoff. You can’t have the Orioles’ most iconic player sitting in the booth and trying to act objective at Camden Yards’ first playoff game since he played. Ripken was a centerpiece of the Yankees-Orioles rivalry and he’s supposed to not openly root for the Orioles on national TV? If TBS can get away with that then John Sterling’s broadcast might as well double as the national radio feed if you want to really say “Eff it!” when it comes to objectivity for postseason games.

– How about Cal Ripken trying to reverse jinx CC Sabathia while facing Adam Jones and Matt Wieters late in the game? Ripken was talking up Sabathia’s ability to get the duo out so much that it would have made Michael Kay proud if the opposite result happened. Ripken might want to wear a suit to Game 2 because I’m not sure if wearing his actual Orioles uniform with dirt on it should be allowed again.

– John Smoltz was excellent on the broadcast of the game. Maybe Ben Cherington and the Red Sox will think that because he is great at talking about pitching that he is still great at actually pitching and bring him back for the 2013 rotation. I think it would be a good idea. Run prevention!

– I hate Lew Ford. That’s all there really is there. I have a bad feeling Lew Ford is going to dagger the Yankees in one of these games (he tried to in Game 1) and I’m not capable of handling a 35-year-old journeyman who last played in the league in 2007 being responsible for the outcome of a playoff game.

– I think there needs to be a rule or law in place that prohibits fan bases from chanting their team name if it exceeds six letters. “O-R-I-O-L-E-S!” is a bit much and I’m not even sure everyone was spelling it right. If Orioles fans are going to do this then I’m all for Columbus Blue Jackets fans (if there are any) doing the same thing.

– “Yankees Suck!” chants have always puzzled me. It has always been kind of awkward and embarrassing to sit at Fenway Park and have an inferior fan base start chanting this, but then again those are the same fans that will sing and sway to “Sweet Caroline” for a last-place team losing by five runs in the eighth inning, so it has never really bothered me. It also doesn’t bother me that Camden Yards has now taken over as the “Yankees Suck!” haven since the Red Sox are irrelevant, but really Orioles fans? It’s your first playoff game since I was in sixth grade. Orioles fans chanting “Yankees Suck!” would be like UMass students chanting “Safety School!” while playing Harvard. It just doesn’t make sense.

One down, 10 to go. This train carries Andy Pettitte in Game 2.

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