Yanks In (More Than) A Sentence: Angels 5, Yankees 4 (11 innings)
1. We’ll get to Girardi’s ADD management style in a minute, but to me this game was lost when Nick Swisher blew two chances with a runner on third and only one out. If he gets the ball into the outfield one time between those two at-bats, this dispatch has a distinctly different tone to it. Solo dingers and opponent-facilitated rallies aside, this offense has been flat since the Orioles left town in September. That’ll change.
2. I also put some of this on Pettitte. In that situation, you throw Vlad Guerrero something outside the strike zone - preferably a time zone or two away, because you know he’s going to swing regardless. Instead, Pettitte delivers a beach ball and the game (and series) takes a turn.
3. What is it about this Yankees team that prompts opposing baserunners to faceplant on such a regular basis? When Abreu realized that the decision to pull up between second and third was perhaps less than wise, he got a look on his face reminiscent of a kid seconds away from elimination in musical chairs. That would’ve loomed huge had the Angels not won.
4. One thing I’m loving about the Yankees this month: they make plays, as generic and footbally an expression as that may be. The Jeter/Tex play on Abreu at second base, the Punto/Gomez takedowns, the way the defense (Tex again) tightened up during the man-on-third/fewer-than-two-outs situations yesterday and in Game 2 of the ALDS - this is the first Yankee defense in years about which I feel relatively sanguine. Just imagine if they had more than a single outfielder with a big-league arm.
5. Jeff Mathis? Really? .211/.288/.308 this season, .200/.277/.320 career. Shame on the pitchers (Hughes and Aceves) who helped him run into those two doubles. It was inevitable that the non-Mariano relievers would eventually get touched up, but the way the Angels pulverized Joba’s offerings in particular is a bit troubling.
6. …which brings us back to Girardi and his hyper-aggressive pitcher tweaks: removing one lefty for another (Marte/Coke) with a lefty hitter coming to the plate, replacing Robertson with Aceves, etc. The latter move was the one the b’casters spent the most time yapping about, with good reason. Robertson was throwing darts and there was nothing in the data to suggest he’d have a tougher time with Kendrick (who had a grand total of two previous at-bats against Robertson and Aceves combined). If Aceves gets Mathis out, as most everybody else has, the overmanaging of the pen becomes a third-order talking point. But he didn’t, and it’s now officially an Issue-with-a-capital-‘I’.
7. Nobody thought this series would be over quickly, but I can’t lie: I started thinking about potential World Series pitching matchups when the Yankees went up 3-0 in the fifth inning. Today is a biggie.
8. Phillies/Dodgers: I didn’t turn on the game until the sixth inning, so I have only two comments. One, Manny usually plays that Ibanez liner into a triple. Two, I am happy that the team for which I root, root, root employs Mariano Rivera as its closer. That’s all.
