Yanks In (More Than) A Sentence: Yankees 7, Phillies 3 (Yankees win series, 4-2)
1. Wheeeee!
2. It’s simplistic to reduce a series to this, but the better team won. Again. This Yankees team had more in common with the 1998 version than it did the 2002 or 2006 ones - or the 1996, 1999 and 2000 ones, for that matter. The lineup was Baldwin-deep and relentless. The pitching staff had enough front-liners to render the lack of bottom-rotation options moot.
3. Loads of respect and admiration for the Phillies, especially Utley (duh), Lee (duh duh), Ruiz and Manuel. The big shocker to me was how easy it proved to neutralize Ryan Howard. Anybody with access to Baseball-Reference.com knows that the guy can’t hit lefties, but the Yanks made sure he didn’t see a fastball all series. Sliders are his kryptonite… well, sliders and aerobic exercise. I was also surprised by how much Rollins has slipped, especially defensively. He has more range than Jeter - as do most fire hydrants and kitchen appliances - but not as much as we’d been led to believe.
4. Manuel almost always pushed the right buttons, but he blew last night’s game when he brought in Durbin to face the top of the Yankee lineup. My precise words at that moment, I believe, were “Wow. Him? This guy fucking sucks.” I’d have gone with Park. This was not the type of game in which Manuel should’ve been rationing his resources.
5. I’m on the record as being a fan of the great Pedro Martinez, but he had less than nothing last night and should’ve been yanked before Matsui’s second at-bat. Ironically, his strikeout of A-Rod with the bases loaded and one out proved to be fortuitous for the Yankees. Manuel saw something in that four-pitch at-bat that prompted him to keep Pedro in the game against Matsui, who couldn’t have been more locked in. Bad non-move.
6. Joe West’s strike zone was the size of Nancy Grace’s conscience. That called third strike on A-Rod: Really?
7. Had you told me in August - or in April, May, June, July, September or the first two weeks of October - that Damaso Marte would be getting the biggest outs in late October/early November, I’d have had you institutionalized. If the Phillies had a lefty weed killer like him on their side, maybe this series turns out a bit differently.
8. A-Rod is now officially just one of the guys. Again: unexpected.
9. As I commiserated the old-fashioned way (in a vat of domestic beer) after the Yankees lost to the Marlins in 2003, my saloonmate commented simply, “Dude, winning is hard.” That may not be especially profound, but it holds true. So much can go wrong in a short playoff series: your relief ace can get attacked by gnats, your venerable skipper can lose his mind and bat his best hitter eighth, etc. Winning a World Series title, with or without a $287774643 kashmillion payroll, is a huge accomplishment. Nobody invalidated the Phillies’ 2008 title when they outspent the Rays by $55 million; nobody should invalidate what the Yankees just did, either. Great team. Great season.
