ALDS Game 4: Evening it up
ByIn case you haven’t heard yet, Ron Villone has been added to the roster in place of Roger Clemens. This means Clemens won’t be available until the World Series at the earliest, and it likely signals the end of his career. We’ll put something together for the Rocket over the off-season. No, we won’t be going to get him down in Texas.
Got a few e-mails from friends lambasting the decision to bring in Villone over IPK. Guys. We don’t work for the team. We don’t know everything they know. IPK just got married on Saturday; perhaps he’s simply not ready to go on a moment’s notice. Maybe they’d like to have him work some more in the bullpen to confirm that his back is in pitching shape. But whatever it is, no one said “Ron Villone is better than Ian Kennedy.” So chill, please.
No complaints about tonight’s lineup. After watching Giambi’s two at bats last night, it’s tough to argue against leaving him on the bench. Yeah, you’d like to get him into a groove, but the team has painted itself into a corner in that regard. Turning back now would be counterproductive. Plus, as has been said many times, with Wang on the mound you want Minky at first. Couple that with Hideki looking solid at the plate last night (not just the results, but his swing was looking markedly better), and you have Giambi as the odd man out. He can always pinch-hit for Minky later in the game.
1. Johnny Damon, LF
2. Derek Jeter, SS
3. Bobby Abreu, RF
4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B
5. Jorge Posada, C
6. Hideki Matsui, DH
7. Robinson Cano, 2B
8. Melky Cabrera, CF
9. Doug Mientkiewicz, 1B
And on the mound, No. 40, Chien-Ming Wang.
We’re at about quarter to 5 right now, and game time is 7:30. If Eric Wedge is going to end up going with C.C., we’ll probably hear it within 45 minutes. It still wouldn’t surprise me.
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Villone was the right move. IPK just got married, was coming off of back stiffness and, oh yeah, has only about three career major league appearances.
If the choices were Edwar, Bruney, Britton, and Villone, we made the right move.
What’s up with Shoppach in the lineup over Garko? Victor can’t catch four games in five days, but can play first? Shoppach’s .000/.000/.000 in 2 PAs vs. Wang so nothing there. Or is Shoppach Byrd’s personal catcher?
For a guy with a 2-1 series lead, Wedge seems to be making too many moves. Nixon was a wash last night, although you could argue that leaving him in the game after Roger was gone was a colossal blunder that led to the game being broken wide open.
Shoppach is Byrd’s personal catcher.
Go figure — Paul Byrd merits a personal catcher and takes Garko out of their lineup.
I thought I had read somewhere that Kennedy wasn’t ready to go. I might be making that up in my head.
Giambi didn’t just look bad last night. He’s looked terrible for at least a month now. Even worse than Matsui, which is difficult.
Hope Wanger can give us 5 solid innings tonight, and Byrd gets lit up early. If they can get this thing back to Cleveland I think they have a pretty good shot. They weren’t able to capitalize against CC last time, but they had their opportunities.
Hard to tell on GameDay (yes,, unfortunately I can’t watch…), but it looks like Wang is leaving his pitches up. Is this the case if you are watching the game?
Yep, everything is up, even the balls he’s getting guys out on are up at the waist or higher
Crap, that is bad news. I hope Mussina is ready to go.
The guy is too strong and hes throwing on 3 days rest. Geez dont we have a “happy ending” specialist in the training room for these things?!
If ever there was a time for A-Rod to come through…this would be it.
Sorry to dissapoint you
This is getting ugly in a hurry.
Thats one of the worst calls i have ever seen…..aweful. When will umpires learn that people don’t come to watch them. Stop deciding the game for the players
first it was bugs, now this.
We need a huge performance out of Moose now. Huge.
Horrible, those umps should die and burn in hell. That was the worst call I have seen in a long time. This whole series has been messed up, if it end because of this I am gonna be pissed
Im glad TBS was showing his hand after that too. That completely non existent sweilling and redness from getting hit must be painful.
Bad call or not — you gotta pitch better than this in a do or die game.
And the season is over because of a bad call and some friggin bugs, great
Alright its not looking good, but the defecit is only 4. I believe that this offfense can muster 5 runs somewhere between Byrd, Borowski, et al.
Alright its not looking good, but the defecit is only. I believe that this offfense can muster 5 runs somewhere between Byrd, Borowski, et al.
Edited by Admin: Please do not post links to pirated or illegal online video feeds of Major League Baseball games.
Sorry bout the double post
No problem, you’re the only two optimistic people on this wall
I can’t watch this ugly fucking dork beat us. Please just knock Byrd out of this game…
Chip Caray is incredibly irritating.
Can we go ahead and officially stop calling Wang an “ace” now? He may be our #1 starter, but he is hardly an ace. What a horrible way to end the season.
can’t wait for joba and hughes to be our 1 and 2 next year. i can’t even remember the last time we’ve had a strike out power pitcher as an ace … david cone ? it’s ridiculous. whenever we need an ace pitcher in the playoffs, its someone with a sinker, or mike mussina …. we need power strike out pitching. ughhhhhhhh
umm..Clemens had fantastic K/9 rates during his first stay.
It’s not the strikeouts that prevents him from being an ace. It is his fear of big games.
Joe Torre will wke up tomorrow unemployed and there will be people happy about this (nomaas) and the reactionary fan will be apeased for a moment but it does not change the fact that in these last 3 postseasons this team has been seriously out pitched and has not been able to get that big 2 out hit. The pitching should be better next season but very young and inexperienced. Until they can go into a short series with an edge in the rotation this will continue to happen and it won’t matter who the manager is.
Wang might be this team bet pitcher but to put your team in a big hole twice is inexcusable and an example of why he is not an ace. To put you offense down 2 in a due or die game is inexcusable a lineup is playing for their PS life and tight before they even see a pitch awful job.
No question the pitching was awful. But the continued ability of this lineup to make the Paul Byrds of the world look like Cy Young in the playoffs is pathetic. When you lead the majors in every meaningful offensive category but can’t manage to score more than one run off Paul Byrd…that’s inexcusable. At some point, it’s no longer good pitching beats good hitting — it’s mediocre pitching beats lousy hitting.
I’ve never been a Torre fan myself, but I know he does some things well. You can’t take that away from him.
Regardless though — sometimes you need to change just for the sake of change. This pattern has been repeated one too many times now. The players may think the world of him, but they have played like crap in the PS since game 3 of the 2004 ALCS. At some point, you need to shake things up. Maybe they need a manager they hate.
Another crappy call.
Is it me or has every little break gone the indians way. I mean most of two out hits with risp have been bloopers or see in eye hits. Calls have gone not our way. Oh well what you gonna do.
That was a Vlad type of swing. Golfed that one.
soooooooooo Jeter’s been clutch
jeter hits into a dp with 2 on and 1 out. it literally is mind boggling this series.
the yankees cannot do anything right. they cannot get a hit with RISP, that is staggering.. Repeatedly the failure is mind boggling…
jeter has been a major buzz kill. daaamn
The moment we’ve all been waiting for: Farnsworth time!
jeter has been one hell of a choker this series
wang has a 19+ ERA in this series. when your ace lays 2 eggs it is bad news..
he has come up real small, sorry to say..
I betcha A-Rod is saying to himself boy I wish that wasn’t me
this is hard to watch…quieted crowd, no bob shepherd, HORRENDOUS tbs coverage, and a lackluster performance by the boys.
im trying to keep hope alive but for fucks sake this is a tough one.
4 freakin runs…lets get this done. with our offense we should be able to get this damn thing done!
what would it take to jut shut Chip the hell up
chip is a horrendous douche
AROD!
There we go, A-Rod. 3 runs down, 8 outs left.
Joba or Mo coming in for the 8th? Gotta hold the Indians to 6…
Veras?????????
Why was Veras even in this game?
If Torre is going to bring Rivera in with 5 to go, wtf was stopping him from starting the 8th with Rivera? Now Rivera has to come in with 2 men on.
that DP would have been HUGE
alrite, 6 outs left, 6-3… can we do it?
7 minutes later, make that 3 outs
One down, two more to go
this series is wang and jeter nuff said
Derek Jeter was PATHETIC this PS, what happened.
Four months till pitchers and catchers.
the sad thing is that we woulda given Boston much more of a run for their money than Cleveland. they’re not likely to repeat their ridiculous RISP hitting. unfortunately Boston should rip right through them.
like the playoffs have become, the hot team wins. despite Cleveland having an OPS with RISP 90 pts lower than the Yanks during the 162 game season, during this short series it happened to be insanely higher. how does one explain that?
Wang sucking AGAIN didnt help either. next year when Phil, Pettitte and Joba are our 1-2-3, i’ll feel a lot more confident.
the three big calls against us didn’t make things any easier.
or the pathetic excuse for starting pithing (not named Andy Pettitte)
Wang and Melky for Johan Santana
im tired of this year after year, its fucking horrible. now this pile of shit known as a post season will be dissected and dissected for 2 months.
but what can you do, theres no magical recipe for winning. u need to play good baseball. u need to get hot early and keep the momentum in such a short series.
we had a few chances to turn it around and we crapped out. they played better. they won. thats the nature of the game.
oh well, it was a fun season.