Neal Pomea Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 TB Rays. Too bad? Tuberculosis? Congratulations Dallas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) Tell you what, the way the Rays always find a way within their budget...that's a damn fine organization with a real eye for talent. Just one or two more careless pitches by the Rangers in the last two games and the Rays would be the ones celebrating tonight. Much respect here! I feel their pain: http://espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs/2011/story/_/id/7059990/tampa-bay-rays Edited October 5, 2011 by JSngry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) Looks like the Yankees will survive their gut-check test in Detroit tonight and force a Game 5, barring the mother of all late-inning collapses. Great and pleasantly surprising outing from A.J. Burnett tonight (aided by a tremendous catch by Curtis Granderson in the first inning--Grandy also made an outstanding catch in the 6th), and NY finally managed to start generating some good offense again. Will be quite a showdown Thursday night at the Stadium! Hopefully NY can pull through and square off with the Rangers again for an ALCS rematch. Edited October 5, 2011 by ghost of miles Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 Granderson's two amazing catches from last night's game. On the first one he made it more difficult for himself by starting in on the ball and having to go back, but still... if he doesn't catch that the Yankees are probably down 3-0 in the bottom of the first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stryker Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) Granderson's two amazing catches from last night's game. On the first one he made it more difficult for himself by starting in on the ball and having to go back, but still... if he doesn't catch that the Yankees are probably down 3-0 in the bottom of the first. Wished for a different outcome last night but one reason why baseball is so great is how thin the lines are from different outcomes. If that ball in the first gets over his head, it's at least a 3-run lead and its highly possible that Burnett never makes it out of the inning. Plus, assuming the Yankeees go on to lose, Granderson, rather than being hailed the hero, becomes a co-goat along with Burnett, because he'll be blamed for misjudging the ball and coming in, before backtracking and (just) missing the chatch. Granderson was everybody's favorite player when he was in Detroit so odd feeling today for many here -- we hate the Yankees but nobody hates Granderson this morning. On to NY. Coda: Has anybody checked to see if the Rays are really actually still dead this morning? Those guys are like Vampires. You need to drive a stake through the heart. Edited October 5, 2011 by Mark Stryker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papsrus Posted October 5, 2011 Report Share Posted October 5, 2011 Ah well. It was fun while it lasted. Good luck to the Rangers. Wouldn't mind at all seeing them get to the WS. Baseball Tonight crew did a good job of illustrating how Beltre kept launching bombs on pitches up in the zone, apparently a sweet spot for him. Makes you wonder if that was bad execution on the part of Rays pitching or bad scouting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 (edited) Game 5 match up between St Louis and Philadelphia will feature Carpenter and Halladay. I bet it's higher scoring than the pitchers' duel we would anticipate. Soon be moving to 7 game series. I wish they were 5 games long, or they cut the regular season by 10 games so they could finish before All Saints Day! Edited October 6, 2011 by Neal Pomea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 It's the return of the pinch-running squirrel! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Them squirrels can carry rabies, ya' know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Bill Veeck would offer that squirrel a contract! He could be the next Herb Washington: (I actually had this card, once upon a time...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Them squirrels can carry rabies, ya' know. Knock him out, John! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 6, 2011 Report Share Posted October 6, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neal Pomea Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) Nail biter in NY in the 7th and 8th innings! Now bottom of the 9th! Last out swing and miss by ARod! Tigers win!!! Good season, Yankee fans. Lots of good baseball and memorable milestones for Jeter and Rivera. Hoping for Cardinals to eliminate Phil tomorrow. Edited October 7, 2011 by Neal Pomea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Well, NY just didn't have enough gas... just as well, in a way, as I think Texas would have picked them apart handily. CC clearly not pitching like the ace he was earlier in the season, once again a 2.5 starter rotation for the playoffs, and a giant black hole in the middle of the postseason lineup aka A-Rod/Tex/Swisher. The much-talked-about decline remains real, even if it's a slow process; they've gone from WS champs in '09 to AL runner-ups last year to not even getting out of the ALDS this year, and their AL East title, while built to some extent on a much better September than last year's, still benefited immensely from Boston's crazy collapse. Congratulations to Detroit; I'll be pulling for either them or the Rangers in the WS. Go American League! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Didn't want to play the Yankees w/o home-field advantage. Not exactly drooling at the prospect of playing the Tigers with it, but this is the best available scenario. Thanks again, A-Rod! And still peeved that the post-games on TBS & MLB are at least as much about "sad yankees" as they are "happy tigers". Let the winner have their night in the sun, please! Although to be fair, after having seen both happy tigers and happy rangers, happy tigers maybe need to bump it up a notch or three in order to compete with sad yankees! Ultimately, though, it begins on Saturday, in Arlington. Allow me to speak for the minority when I say in no uncertain terms, FUCK TEXAS-OU. We got baseball to play! It's an uphill climb. Always it's an uphill climb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave James Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) Well, it's over. When you have the bases loaded twice with less than two outs and you score a single run, you aren't going to win very often. Not sure what happened to Nova, but he wasn't ready. Just hope this disaster doesn't leave him with any long term scars. Oh well. At least I don't have to worry about baseball again for another six months. Just a couple of other observations and them I'm outta here. In the post-game interviews, A-Rod is talking about "getting his health back". Already making excuses for an ALDS performance for which the words "dismal" or "atrocious" are insufficiently descriptive. $25 million a year for that? And for six more years? God help us by the time he's done. And Sabbathia did himself no favors over the last few weeks of the season and certainly not in the playoffs. This makes the Yanks decision when he opts out much more difficult. I can see them massively overpaying him and for way too long, so that his salary will be an A-Rod like black hole when he's winning 6-7 games a year. Lots of issues going forward. Edited October 7, 2011 by Dave James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Ken Rosenthal on the mess that would have been the Yankees' rotation against Texas if they'd managed to stagger into the ALCS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Rosenthal says: But for the Rangers, who will now face Verlander on full rest in Game 1, the Yankees would have been the preferred opponent, even if it meant opening on the road. Nobody I know felt this way at all. The ideal match would have been Yankees, opening in Arlington, but that was not an option (and this is another example of how winning just two of those ten or so mid-season games that we lost/fucked away for no good reason at all would have advantaged us now, here in the post-season. EVERY win matters!!!). Given how even our best pitchers can be little homer-nyphos at any given moment, keeping out of Yankee Stadium as much as possible was definitely a factor to consider. The Tigers are going to be tough, and as I said a week or two ago, weird stuff seems to happen to us every game we play in Comerica, but...Tigers with home field advantage was the preferred available opponent and scenario, make no mistake. Rosenthal is another one of those guys who can't help himself when it comes to seeing the whole of baseball through Yankee-colored glasses. Smart guy, just not without his reflexive "prejudices" (probably too strong a word, that, but "bias" is so overused these days...). Besides, Yankees pitching never really imploded against a hard-hitting Tigers lineup, wheras Tigers pitching did give it up pretty seriously against the Yankees more than once. Rosenthal's basic premise seems to me just one more reason to write about the Yankees. Fair enough, but don't just make shit up, ok? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Jsngry: while the Yankees' starters did indeed do relatively well against Detroit (they're certainly not why we lost the series), I think he was saying the rotation was going to be a bit of a shambles going forward, what with Nova's status uncertain, Burnett totally unpredictable, Garcia continuing to be mediocre, and CC increasingly running out of gas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Al Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Ultimately, though, it begins on Saturday, in Arlington. Allow me to speak for the minority when I say in no uncertain terms, FUCK TEXAS-OU. We got baseball to play! Damn effing straight!!!I actually feel bad for Yankees fans, even though I was rooting for the Tigers. Wonder how many Yankee fans felt some deja vu when ARod struck out to end the season for the second year in a row? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Jsngry: while the Yankees' starters did indeed do relatively well against Detroit (they're certainly not why we lost the series), I think he was saying the rotation was going to be a bit of a shambles going forward, what with Nova's status uncertain, Burnett totally unpredictable, Garcia continuing to be mediocre, and CC increasingly running out of gas. Yeah, I got that. But we'd still rather play the Tigers and have home-field advantage. It might not work out well for us, but the consensus here is that it was the best available scenario. So where does he come up with this? But for the Rangers, who will now face Verlander on full rest in Game 1, the Yankees would have been the preferred opponent, even if it meant opening on the road. That's just not the case, and seems like another example of looking at everything (or so much of everything) through a Yankee-centric lens. Him & Heyman are both bad about that. If you're a Yankee fan, you probably don't notice it. But non-Yankee fans do. Why not just write about how the Yankees' starting staff is in need of shoring up, this post-season being a good example of why? Why does it instead become that the Yankees would be the Ranger's "preferred" opponent when that is just not so? Hell, what we really wanted was for us to get Boston in the first round & for the Tigers to take care of the Yankees. That worked out pretty well anyway. But to think that any team with a home run-prone staff (and on any given day, ours can be that, starters & relievers alike) would want to play a series with the Yankees having home field advantage, that just does not make sense, not unless the Yankees' pitchers are at least as much home run-prone, which I don't believe they are. Hell they've learned how to pitch in that boom box, or at least know in theory how to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quincy Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) I noticed Justin only pitched once against Texas this year, not all last year and 3 times in 2009. It's always difficult when players haven't seen a pitcher much, let alone one of the best in baseball. Not that Game 1 needs to be amped up a notch. Of course some players were elsewhere so they may have seen him pitch more. C.J. has the same sort of appearance record as Justin except he was a reliever 3 years ago. He has not done well in the very small sample vs. the Tigers whereas Justin has been Justin. Edited October 7, 2011 by Quincy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost of miles Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 This comparison is exactly what I was thinking this morning--via Tyler Kepner of the NY Times: It was an odd series, tough to make much sense of it. The Yankees outscored the Tigers, 28-17. They reached base more often, had a better slugging percentage, hit for a higher average — .260 to the Tigers’ .228. The Yankees’ pitchers had a 3.27 earned run average, more than two runs better than the Tigers’ 5.73. This was not the colossal beating the Yankees absorbed from the Rangers last fall. It was more like a compressed version of the 1960 World Series, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, when the Yankees won the blowouts and lost the close games. Jsngry: while the Yankees' starters did indeed do relatively well against Detroit (they're certainly not why we lost the series), I think he was saying the rotation was going to be a bit of a shambles going forward, what with Nova's status uncertain, Burnett totally unpredictable, Garcia continuing to be mediocre, and CC increasingly running out of gas. Yeah, I got that. I was just responding to your comment about the Yankees' staff not imploding against the Tigers. I think they would have against the Rangers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stryker Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 I heard a stat on the radio this morning -- not sure if it's true but the claim was that the Yankees lost their last nine 1-run games in a row. Nine in a row (!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted October 7, 2011 Report Share Posted October 7, 2011 Jsngry: while the Yankees' starters did indeed do relatively well against Detroit (they're certainly not why we lost the series), I think he was saying the rotation was going to be a bit of a shambles going forward, what with Nova's status uncertain, Burnett totally unpredictable, Garcia continuing to be mediocre, and CC increasingly running out of gas. Yeah, I got that. I was just responding to your comment about the Yankees' staff not imploding against the Tigers. I think they would have against the Rangers. Maybe, maybe not...patience is not a constant with Rangers hitters, and they can be played because of it. They finally showed some consistent discipline in the last two games against the Rays, but...they're free-swingers by nature (save for Kinsler, mostly) & they gonna be what they gonna be. So your fears of a possible pitching implosion are/were based on a hitting mindset that, as much as I'd like to think was going to be there every time out, could just as easily be there as not. They're going to have to deal with the same discipline issues against the Tigers, and even more so against Verlander (and possibly Fister, and on a good day, Scherzer). But I like having the home field "advantage" in terms of their mindset, and definitely in terms of who pitches which game where relative to the likelihood of careless home run pitches. Knowing that under no circumstances will Colby Lewis, Derek Holland, or Matt Harrison have to pitch in Yankee Stadium until next year easily equals, if not exceeds, any anxiety about having to fave Verlander twice and having to play as many as three in Comerica. Whatever else the Yankees are having problems with, jerking mistake pitches out of their home yard ain't among them! Just how I look at it, and like all such speculations, meaningless to how the games will actually get played! Right now, though, I'm hoping that, if the Brewers win, the lady in the yellow top a few front row seats to the first base side of home is a season ticket holder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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