ghost of miles

I think a few of these showed up on the Count Basie/Harry James Hep label CD BASIE RHYTHM, thought that title now seems to have gone OOP as well.

They're literally halfway there, and one of the things they've still got to dig out is a potential Cliff Lee start at home for Game 7. I was hoping that NY would tag Lee for at least a couple of runs tonight and get him out of the ballgame by the 7th or 8th inning--as I've noted before, they hit him early and late in Game 5 of last year's WS, even though they ultimately lost that game. After tonight, where are their heads regarding Mr. Lee? They couldn't pull it out at home in a Game 3 situation... that doesn't leave me feeling good at all about a Game 7 road situation. Like I said after Game 1, Texas is a damn good team; if NY went into this series underestimating them they're fools. Right now the Rangers look like a team on the rise and NY looks like a team that's edging a bit too comfortably into near-champion decline. They've been completely dominated, just 1/18th of a game shy of being down in the dreaded 3-0 hole. So far Texas has outscored us 20-7. 20-7! I mean, it's a slaughterhouse out there, when you look at the statistics. Again, congrats to the Rangers for playing so tough so far. They don't show any signs of stopping, Jsngry. That's interesting--I thought the crux of the matter was that Seattle really wanted Smoak and was using NY to get Texas to give him up. At the time I wasn't all that disheartened to see the Lee trade fall through, as I had real doubts about giving up Montero to essentially rent a guy for half a season who we had a good chance of signing anyway over the winter. Of course, at the time Andy Pettitte hadn't gone down with an injury yet and there was still hope for Javy and A.J. pulling out decent seasons as starters. In retrospect it might have been worth giving up Montero to get Lee, but I can't really blame Cashman for hesitating to give up better 2nd and 3rd prospects at the time, even if Seattle was indeed truly willing to deal Lee to NY and not just playing us to get Smoak.

More than kind of. Why is Joe G leaving D-Rob out there for so long? I guess he's just given up on the game, but can't be good for Robertson to just keep getting lit up like that. I don't know what it is about this year's team--last year's edition had some kind of spark, some kind of fight that appears only sporadically this year and hardly at all in the past two months. Outside of a good roll against the Twins in the ALDS they've played like a mediocre not-quite-.500 team since the beginning of August. Right now they look like they're in way over their heads against the Rangers. A lot of talent that just can't seem to pull it together anymore. That's why losing like this is far worse to me than the Rangers' blown game the other night. They could tell themselves after that game, "Hey, we outplayed these guys, they got on one hot streak and took it, but we outplayed them." The Rangers have outplayed NY all series long. What can we tell ourselves right now? We can tell ourselves we're lucky it's not a 3-0 series at this point. Well, I'm certainly not gonna begrudge Texas a pennant and a trip to the WS if they follow through over the next 2-4 games, and I'd be happy for the long-suffering Texas fans around this joint. Damn, though, I'd sure like to see NY go down fighting. Andy did tonight, at least.

Sorry, I hit the 8 key instead of the 9... If Hamilton scores you can book this game for TX. Also, is anybody warming for Texas in the pen? Or are they sending Lee back out? Like I said the other day, if the Yankees can't beat Cliff Lee in a postseason game, they don't deserve to go to the WS anyway. EDIT 2: yep, it's over. Nice... a bullpen meltdown on top of everything else. Credit to the Rangers for once again dominating us all over the place. Sorry to see Andy's fine effort go to waste.

You wanna talk about "demoralized" and "disheartened"...I wanna see NY's hitters come back after THIS game. And they'll have to do it likely from the big hole A.J. will dig for them. Yes, Cliff Lee is an amazing pitcher, but this is just an appalling performance from NY's side of the plate as well. Add in the factor that they'll now feel they need to win every single game from here on out to prevent a game 7 in Texas. If Texas holds on tonight, they're firmly in the driver's seat for taking this series.

Lee's at 109 pitches through 7. I'd be astonished if they don't bring him out for the 8th...and unless he runs into trouble, he should be able to finish it, setting up the 9th for Feliz. OTOH he'll most likely be facing the four dudes mentioned above who are performing in less-than-Murderers'-Row fashion so far for this series. BTW, much as I'm disappointed by the Yankees once again having such an epic fail against Cliff Lee, hats off to Mr. Lee for having become such an amazing pitcher over the past several seasons. The Yankees scored the most runs in MLB this year, so it's no mean feat to shut them down in such dominating fashion. Matter of fact, all three Texas starters have handled them with aplomb in this series.

New York's top four hitters through 7 innings of ALCS Game 3: Jeter .250 Swisher .100 Tex .000 A-Rod .154 Hard to do much on the ol' offensive end when your first four are putting up #s like that.

I'll say yes, Yankees' pen probably has the edge. Lee's at 97 pitches, though, so I figure there's a chance he goes close to a fullblown 8, and then you can bring in Feliz. If Texas goes to the WS and ends up facing the Phillies, how weird will that be? Cliff Lee facing the very team he pitched for on the same big stage last year. EDIT: Andy finished the 7th at 110 pitches. Very unlikely we'll see him next inning, I'd think. Classic postseason effort from him for sure, and one this team sorely needed, whatever the outcome of this particular game.

At least Andy is throwing a hell of a game, which is very heartening to see, after the way our starters got knocked around down in Texas. Problem is Cliff Lee is throwing a hell of a game that's even hotter.

Pass the smelling salts--the Yankees actually somehow finally managed a hit. On a happier note, I'm following the game with the sound turned off while listening to some hip, interesting, and obscure sides made by a certain famous singer in the twilight of his career, sans certain elements that were later added to the released mix, recommended to me by a certain poster in this thread. It's great!

I think that's NY's only hope--he's at 65 after 4 IP. Still, he went all the way against the Rays in Game 5, well over 100 pitches, and could end up going quite deep into this game. I'd love to see NY get him up to 100 after 6 innings. Hell, I'd just like to see NY get a HIT. He's about to cross into serious-no-hitter territory.

Yankees gutcheck report to date: failing miserably. Be nice to, uh, at least get a guy on base, y'know? EDIT: outside of the 2-run shot to Hamilton, Andy is giving them a good start so far, the first they've had all series. OTOH his pitch count is already at 74 after 4 innings...I'll be surprised to see him go more than 6 tonight. Jsngry, two runs is more than enough for the Rangers to win this game with Lee on the mound. I know we came back on him bigtime a couple of months ago, but that was when he was experiencing his back problems and looking mortal to hitters all around the AL. A walk! Boy, this game is really going a long ways towards getting Cliff Lee out of the Yankees' heads.

Lots of online speculation about whether or not a major character will die in tonight's season finale. Rumors that Sally might, but I doubt it (somebody suggested that brother Bobby might instead). Here's an amusing comment from one online forum: I don't think Roger's going to kill himself either, although they've thrown some feints in that direction.

Voila--published right now at Yahoo under the headline, "Turning the Tide: the Rangers Suddenly Are in Good Shape in the ALCS After Rebounding in Game 2. Tim Brown Explains:" Turning the Tide I agree, Dave--NY's road to winning this series pretty much runs through beating Cliff Lee at least once. If Texas does win on Monday, I have to wonder if we'll see CC instead of AJ for Game 4.

They didn't look too disheartened to me today. I'm simply saying I'd rather be in a position of thinking, "Man, we outplayed those guys, we were a better team than them, and they took it away from us with a lightning-stroke of an inning" than "Damn, we just got our butts kicked from one end of the diamond to the other." That, to me, is far more disheartening than being the better team that blew it with one bad stretch.

"Powerhouse," maybe? "Juggernaut"? I don't mean "behemoth" in a bad way--simply saying that Philadelphia has been a superlative team for several years now, perhaps the best in baseball over the 2008-2010 span. They and NY are the two old-school East Coast heavyweights. Anyway, I certainly wouldn't give up on Philadelphia just yet (and despite all of my pessimism about the Yankees, I think they still have an almost 50-50 chance of taking the ALCS). So we could still see that rematch.

Actually, that would be quite enjoyable to see. They're the character/narrative teams this year, while NY and Philadelphia are the behemoths.

Wow--big win for the Giants!

So Halladay's hitless streak ends with a surrendered home run...but at 11 1/3 IP, is that the longest hitless stretch for a pitcher ever in postseason play?

Coming into this game Hughes had pitched extremely well in this park--and I think Joe G wanted Andy to be the one who faces Cliff Lee. But yeah, it sure makes me uneasy about a potential Game 6 rematch. Yet another reason we simply need to beat Cliff Lee. Post-loss consolation music, just picked up today at Landlocked Music in downtown B-town:

Jim, I understand the troubled-Texas-legacy issue, but still, I’d rather lose the way they did last night than the way the Yankees did today. Last night Texas lost because of one abysmal half-inning. NY lost today because they were dominated inning after inning…pretty much the way they were last night, with the exception of that 8th inning. Texas has outhit and outpitched us, and we’re extremely lucky to be leaving town tied 1-1. I don’t like losing close games, but I hate like hell just getting beat up for several hours straight. The only thing the Yankees can be proud of is their bullpen performance--and they got their workout because NY's starters were so awful. Gutcheck time for NY on Monday night the way it was for Texas today. Pettitte on the mound, at Yankee Stadium—they have got to beat Cliff Lee. Screw this “win four around Lee’s starts” notion (and anyway, by those lights we’ve now given away our one non-Lee loss). And congratulations again to the Rangers for showing up in a big way today. Well, at least it’ll be a pleasure to watch Lincecum-Halladay, after two such embarrassing outings from the Yankee starters.

BTW, hats off to the Rangers starters in these first two games--they've made the highest-scoring team in baseball look pretty lame. With all of the buzz about Lee, Wilson and Lewis have both given Texas high-quality starts. Maybe one of these days NY will get one too in this series.

Joba's pitched a hell of a lot better than either CC or Hughes in this series. I didn't think anybody would be able to top CC's abysmal outing last night, but Phil Hughes sure did: 4 IP 10 H 7 ER 3 BB 3 K 15.75 ERA Welcome to the ALCS, kid. So we'll get a slew of "Texas made sure lightning didn't strike twice in the same place," "Rangers did it right this time," etc., along with their finally winning a playoff game at home, finally ending NY's winning streak against them, etc., etc. Momentum will definitely be with them going up to NY. I'll tell you this--the Yankees need to get Cliff Lee out of their heads and defeat him. If they can't beat Lee at least once in this series, they don't deserve to win the ALCS, let alone the World Series. (If they can't beat Lee, how on earth will they deal with the Philly rotation? Or the SF one, for that matter?) But there's no way in hell they can beat Cliff Lee if their starting pitching gives up 5, 7 or 8 runs in the first five innings. Andy Pettitte will have to come through with an incredible game to keep them in the mix.

Another reason, too, why the whole "this game destroyed them, no way they come back" stuff is just utter junk. How many times have you heard that said? Most famously, I remember hearing it ad nauseam after NY came back in Games 4 and 5 against Arizona in the 2001 WS. "No way Arizona wins the WS now... no team can come back from two such demoralizing losses," etc., etc. Well, they DID come back. Boston got slaughtered in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS... "no way they come back from that." I mean, any team that gets to the playoffs generally has enough fight in them to bounce back the very next day. That's at the heart of baseball as a game, the clean slate biz and all that. The Rangers are showing today why they won the AL West. EDIT: Yankee starters in this series so far--7 IP, 10 ER given up. That's, what, an ERA of 15 or something?

Mine's already going on. It'll be nice to see some great starting pitching for a change, instead of the joke performances I've witnessed in the past 24 hours from my favorite team. We are not going to come back from a 5-0 deficit two games in a row. Book it...no reverse-jinx nonsense or what have you. Great way to let Texas get back up off the mat, NY. The whole narrative changes now... "they survived horrific meltdown and go to NY w/Cliff Lee yada yada yada." I don't know if it's the long rest or what, but this is one of the worst outings from Hughes I've ever seen--right on the heels of one of the worst outings I've ever seen from C.C. What is going on with these guys? Kudos to the Rangers for hitting them so hard--the Twins sure didn't.