Yanks In (More Than) A Sentence: Angels 7, Yankees 6
1. The calm, analytical instinct is to say “hey, tough loss, we’ll get ‘em tomorrow. We’re still up by a game.” The less rational instinct, and the one I’m currently leaning towards, is to say “they didn’t just shit the bed. They shit the pillows, duvet, alarm clock, slippers and bathroom sink.”
2. The seventh-inning seizure screws things up but good for the Yankees. Not to look ahead - the lessons of 2004 have not been unlearned - but Game 6 tomorrow night will likely be rained out. Fine, you push it back to Sunday (and set up a temporal clash with Giants/Cardinals). If the Yankees lose that one, Game 7 will be played on Monday. This lets the Angels bring back Lackey on short rest or have a Lackey/Weaver tag team at the ready, which relieves the pressure on their inconsistent bullpen. This also means the Yanks go from a potential three C.C. Sabathia starts in the World Series against a team that struggles against elite lefties to two. In short, there are lots of repercussiony aftershocks. This is bad, dude.
2a. Maybe a fully-rested Sabathia pitches on Sunday, regardless of whether it’s Game 6 or 7. I ‘unno.
3. Who had the first inning in the “which inning will Burnett temporarily lose his crap in?” pool? When the Angels started teeing off early in the count, the guy didn’t have the slightest clue how to respond. Adjustments, kashmustments. Thank heaven he has such a psychic connection with Molina (on a side note, we’re probably done with the personal-catcher thing after Posada and Burnett successfully retired six whole batters later in the game). Anyway, after the four-run first, Burnett predictably revived for five solid if not dominant innings. Girardi stuck with him a batter too long in the seventh, I thought, but you could argue that one either way.
4. Maybe that’s the overarching storyline for last night’s game: Managers coming out on the wrong side of tough bullpen decisions. I was giddy when Scioscia removed Lackey, even if the guy had become rattled in the wake of the borderline ball four to Posada. The Angels’ starters are good; the relievers can be had, as we almost saw once again with the Lohan-shaky Brian Fuentes in the ninth.
5. Heading into the playoffs, I thought that Girardi’s handling of the pen was one of the Yanks’ key strengths. Never mind. Where was the hyper-aggressiveness of the playoffs’ first eight games when it came to yanking Burnett, no matter how many pitches he’d thrown? Was Girardi playing with his beloved black match-ups binder again? Was he caught in a bear trap?
5a. When did Damaso Marte pass Phil Coke in the one-lefty-batter role?
5b. Joba Chamberlain is surrendering a *lot* of extra-base hits nowadays, leaving me to wonder why he still ranks above David Robertson in the bullpen pecking order. If Joba were throwing 97 mph, fine. But he’s not - the TV radar had him at 92/93, which means he was likely at 90/91 - and it’s not like his control is appreciably better than Robertson’s. Also, let’s not forget that he’s been a dirt-rotten pitcher regardless of his role since August. If his name were Bill Smith or Ken Jones or Beppy Gigglepants instead of Joba Chamberlain, he’d have been demoted to lower-leverage situations by now.
7. When you have two strikes on Vlad Guerrero, you don’t throw the ball anywhere near the strike zone. How hard is this to digest? That’s the second time in this series the Yankees have made this mistake. It’s not a coincidence that they lost both games in which they did.
8. Nice two-out rally by the hitters in the top of the seventh. It’s a shame it was wasted.
9. Deep breaths. In with the good, out with the bad. I’m in my happy place.
