ghost of miles

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.

Here we go again--an absolutely crappy start by a Yankee pitcher. What happened to that beautiful, shiny record Hughes had pitching on the road here against the Rangers? Gawd almighty, I don't think you can count on Texas to blow another lead at home again... pathetic. Hughes' pitch count is at 56 after just two innings. If Texas clean's NY clock today, last night is just a bad blip and you've got an even series with Cliff Lee pitching two of the next five for the Rangers and A.J. Burnett pitching one for the Yankees.

Thanks for the link, Ted--I added it to the Afterglow program page. I'll have to check out that DKE Naxos CD too (I have Duke's Musicraft sides on the HAPPY-GO-LUCKY LOCAL cd).

Papsrus, I have to hope that CC fares much better the next time out--he'll be pitching at home (Game 5 in NY) where he's been nearly unbeatable, and he'll also be going on normal rest.* It'll be really interesting to see if Ryan is able to convince Cliff Lee to sign/stay with Texas after this season ends. Given how obviously invested (personally, as well as financially) he is in the Rangers, could be quite an era for Ranger baseball, whatever the ultimate outcome of this series. In addition to being keyed up for Game 2 of NY-TX, I'm also really looking forward to the Lincecum-Halladay matchup that follows. *Speaking of long rests, another note about A.J. Burnett--by the time we get to Game 4, it will have been 17 days since his last start. And his simulated game the other day doesn't sound as if it went too smoothly. I think he's going to get shelled.

Agree that it was a tough one for Texas to drop, and yes, their bullpen is a vulnerability (though we haven't yet seen Feliz, their ace closer, as Dan noted). But if I'm the Rangers, I'm thinking that a win today would put a 3-1 advantage within striking distance. As I commented up the thread, the Yankees can indeed sometimes hit Lee, but you have to think the odds are in Texas' favor for winning his Game 3 start. And then you have A.J. taking the mound in Game 4--a total crapshoot, or is it? In the sense that he has pitched badly so much more often than not this year (worst ERA in Yankee history for a single-season starter with 180 IP or more)--he's been predictably awful. Joe G seems to have this magical faith in A.J., that somehow he'll turn in another World Series '09 Game 2 (but look up his stats for the postseason overall last year, and he wasn't so hot then either), but any game he pitches is a challenge for the Yankees...they were 13-20 this year in games that he started! Plus the Rangers have already proven that they can win on the road in the playoffs, having knocked off the Rays in all three games at Tampa Bay in the ALDS. So that's what I'd be telling myself if I were the Rangers. Just focus on winning this game today, and then it's a tied series with good odds for the next two games. EDIT: Frank Francisco is the Rangers' set-up guy, correct? And he's out of commission--we would have undoubtedly seen him last night if he were healthy. That issue definitely adds to their bullpen issues.

That was an incredible play by Gardner and ended up opening the floodgates in the 8th. Kinsler getting picked off in the bottom of that inning was huge, too, especially with Kerry Wood not looking too hot at that point. Just glad to see NY win the opening game after coming off such a long layoff. No way, Jose! I've seen way, way too many best-of-7 series, and this is a damn good Texas team. They are not going to fold... tough loss, yes, but if they win tomorrow, the series is tied--and then you've got Lee pitching for Texas in Game 3 and A.J. pitching for NY in Game 4.

Obviously I stand happily corrected. What an incredible comeback--probably the best NY postseason comeback since Game 4 of the 1996 World Series. You're right, J.H., it's a huge win for NY... Texas winning tonight with Lee set to start Game 3 would have really put NY in a hole. On another note, the bizarre AL postseason homefield DISadvantage continues. Home teams are now 1-8.