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As we tick off the hours, minutes and seconds until Andy Pettitte’s first pitch to Jimmy Rollins tonight shortly after 7:57 p.m., we have ample time to reflect upon tonight’s starter. On Sept. 28, Andy Petitte got the win when the Yankees clinched the AL East with a victory over the Red Sox. On Oct. 11, Pettitte earned himself a W when the Yankees eliminated the Twins in the ALDS and secured themselves an ALCS berth. On Oct. 25, Pettitte won again as the Yanks downed the Angels to move on to the World Series.

So tonight, Pettitte will go for what is, in horse-racing, termed a superfecta. He’ll try for the chance to win all four clinching game for the Yankees this year. That would be some feat for a pitcher who perennially can’t decide whether to keep pitching or just retire.

For Pettitte, tonight will mark his 40th playoff start. If all goes according to plan, if he can last 6.2 innings or more, he will throw his 250th playoff inning tonight as well. Those are gaudy numbers, Pettitte is no stranger to Game 6. Tonight will mark his fifth Game 6 start. In three of those starts, the Yankee needed a clincher but got it from Pettitte just once. In the fourth, the Yanks were averting a World Series loss, and although Pettitte was masterful, Josh Beckett was better. So let’s review.

November 3, 2001: World Series Game 6
After two dramatic come-from-behind wins in New York City, the Yankees returned to Phoenix to face the Diamondbacks with the World Series hanging in the balance. The Bombers had a 3-2 lead with Andy Pettitte lined up to pitch in his first career Game 6. Just two innings and 14 batters later though, Pettitte’s night would be over.

The Diamondbacks were merciless that Saturday night in Arizona. They scored one in the first and three in the second. Pettitte put the first two runners on in the third, and Jay Witasick, in one of the World Series’ most disastrous relief performances, came in. Witasick allowed two inherited runners to score and six more that inning. The Yanks were down 12-0 before anyone realized what just happened.

On the night, Pettitte threw just two innings and gave up six runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out just one. Later on, word emerged that Pettitte may have been tipping his pitches. Even if he was not, that’s one game YES watchers will never see on Yankee Classics.

October 15, 2003: ALCS Game 6
Considering the outcome of Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS, Game 6 is often overlooked. In it, Joe Torre gave Pettitte the ball; Andy pitched well enough to win; and Torre and the bullpen gave this one away as the Red Sox won 9-6.

Pettitte’s final line in this outing wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. He struck out five in five innings and allowed four earned runs on eight hits and two walks. The damage, though, was limited to one inning. In the third, a home run, two walks and two singles gave the Red Sox a 4-1 lead, but that would be all for the scoring against Pettitte. He left this one with the Yanks up 6-4, but Torre gave the ball to Jose Contreras, Jeff Nelson, Felix Heredia and Gabe White. Nine outs away from the World Series, Mariano Rivera never pitched, and the rest is Aaron Boone-inspired history.

October 25, 2003: World Series Game 6
Ten days after a mediocre ALCS Game 6, Pettitte got the ball with the Yanks’ backs against the wall. Heavy favorites to win the World Series, they split two games in New York against the Marlins before losing two of three in Miami. The Yankees returned, then, to Yankee Stadium needing a home sweep to win, and Pettitte, masterful in throwing eight shutout innings in Game 2, would get the ball.

Pettitte was great that night. He threw seven innings and allowed two runs, one earned, on six hits and three walks. He struck out seven and threw 71 of 106 pitches for strikes. He should have been hailed as a hero, but Josh Beckett was just better. Beckett threw a five-hit shutout and struck out nine as the Marlins stunned everyone to win the World Series.

Little did we realize at the time, but that Saturday night affair would be Pettitte’s last start in pinstripes until 2007. The Yankees assumed he would just resign with them, but the Houston Astros offered more. For three years, the Yankees had little in the way of shut-down starting pitching, and Pettitte would be missed. I’ll take another Game 6 similar to that one tonight.

October 25, 2009: ALCS Game 6
This one — the ALCS clincher — is still fresh in our minds, and every Yankee fan would take this outing and outcome from Pettitte. Facing a feisty Angels’ club and with the Yanks just 27 outs away from the World Series, Pettitte came through in a big way. In 6.1 innings, he allowed just a run on seven hits and one walk. He struck out six and threw 64 of 99 pitches for strikes. He could locate his curveball, spot his fastball and keep the Angels off balance. With Mariano Rivera in for the final six outs, the Yanks found themselves back in the Fall Classic.

And so we arrive at tonight’s game to see if a tried-and-true formula can deliver a win. Mariano Rivera has saved more wins for Andy Pettitte than any other duo in baseball history. We want one more. As we sit 27 outs away and a few hours from first pitch, Andy Pettitte, number 46, the man with the stare, will be on the mound, ready to deliver.

Categories : Playoffs
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Nov
04

Booing Pedro Martinez

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak | Comments (75)

Later tonight, the Yankees and Phillies will take to the field in the Bronx for Game 6 of what has been a very compelling World Series. Tonight’s game will pit Andy Pettitte and his 17 postseason victories against a reinvented Pedro Martinez. During the regular season, these two pitchers have faced each other six times, and the Yankees were 4-2 in those games.

For the Yankees, this will be their second crack against Pedro, and tomorrow’s game should be a bit more serious than the Game 2 pitcher’s duel. During Game 2, the crowd soaked up Pedro Martinez, and Pedro Martinez soaked up the crowd. Chants of “Who’s your daddy?” rang through Yankee Stadium from the first pitch to the last, and as Pedro left the mound, he smirked at adoration from the crowd.

After the game, Pedro’s press conference featured Pedro being Pedro. He talked at length about his relationship with the Yankees and New York. “If I was on the Yankees, I’d probably be like a king over here,” he said after Game 2. “I know they really want to root for me. It’s just that I don’t play for the Yankees. I’ve always been a good competitor and they love that. They love the fact that I compete.”

In addition to these hyperbolic comments, Pedro gave his thoughts on New York parenting. Although FOX replays showed no words coming out of Pedro, the Phillies’ right-hander claims he was shocked at the words spewed forth from the stands. “It’s a new Yankee Stadium, but the fans remain the fans,” Pedro said during a rambling post-game press conference. “I remember one guy sitting right in front, in the front row, with his daughter. He had his daughter in one arm and a cup of beer in the other hand and saying all kinds of nasty stuff. I just told him, ‘Your daughter is right beside you. It’s a little girl. It’s a shame you’re saying all these things.’ I had to stop and tell him because I’m a father myself, and God, how can you be so dumb to do those kinds of things in front of your child? What kind of example are you setting?”

Pedro didn’t stop to tell anyone anything. Instead, he embellished to seem more like an entertainer than a pitcher. We go to the park to see Pedro pitch, win, lose or draw, he thinks.

That has to end tomorrow. As 7:57 p.m. rolls around, Yankee fans can’t let Pedro enjoy himself on the mound. He is expecting a world of “Who’s your daddy?” and he is expecting to be half-loved and half-jeered. Let’s give him a proper Bronx jeer. Let’s just boo and boo and boo. The love-hate relationship should disappear into the meaning of Game 6, and we should remember the Pedro who went head-hunting against Chuck Knoblauch and Derek Jeter, not the Pedro who wishes he could have been a Yankee.

Nearly 11 months ago, I called upon the Yankees to sign Pedro Martinez. At the time, I judged it to be a low-risk, high-reward signing that would have given the Yanks a veteran arm mid-way through the season. Now, with the World Series in the balance, the Yankees will face off against Pedro Martinez. Once, we might have wanted Pedro Martinez. Tonight, we want to beat him. Let’s do it — and show him New York’s tough love. No one deserves it more.

Categories : Playoffs
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With two on and out, with the top of the order up and the Yanks facing just a three-run deficit, we wanted to believe that the World Series would end on Monday night. But while the Yanks whittled away the Phillies’ six-run lead to just a two-run gap, they couldn’t overcome those final two runs.

And so as the World Series heads back to New York for a Game 6 match-up against two unannounced pitchers probably named Andy Pettitte and Pedro Martinez, let’s play the blame game.

A.J. Burnett
Staked to a 1-0 lead in the first, A.J. Burnett could not hold the Phillies. Pitching on short rest, he had no command early, and Bad A.J. reared his heard. He gave up a hit to Jimmy Rollins, and then he hit Shane Victorino with a fastball flush on the right index finger. The next pitch was a fastball, 94 miles per hour and right down the middle of the plate. The ultra-hot Chase Utley deposited it into the right field seats, and the Phillies had a 3-1 lead.

“It was supposed to be a sinker away,” Burnett later said of this key pitch, “but it ran right back over the middle.”

Not only did it not sink, but it wasn’t close to being outside of the strike zone. Burnett settled down for six outs, but in the third, he fell apart. Walk, walk, single, single. The Yanks found themselves down 5-1, and Burnett found himself on the bench. After just 53 pitches, Burnett’s Game 5 was over. Because he threw so few pitches, he could be available for bullpen work on Wednesday or Thursday. Whether the Yanks would go to him is another question altogether.

After the game, Burnett talked about the Yanks’ braintrust’s decision to start him on three days’ rest. The short rest, he said, had no bearing on his stuff. “I felt strong,” he said. “It’s just a matter of locating pitches. I didn’t throw strikes, there really isn’t much else to say.”

The results bore him out. His velocity was there; his break was there; the results were not. On a night when Cliff Lee didn’t have his best stuff, when the Yanks tagged him for five runs and ten baserunners, A.J. could not get the job done. Goat Number One.

Phil Coke
We didn’t know the Yanks would mount a last-gasp rally in the 8th and 9th. We didn’t know the Yanks would twice send the tying run to the plate in the 9th. And so, down by six runs, Joe Girardi did during Game 5 what he almost did during Game 4: He gave the ball to Phil Coke.

Coke was flat out awful. Chase Utley hit a 3-2 fastball — another 94-mph job right down the middle — over the fence in right-center field for his Reggie Jackson-tying fifth home run of the World Series. After retiring Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth, Coke faced Raul Ibañez. Although Ibañez hits lefties better than righties, although Joe Girardi manages by his ever-important Book, Coke stayed in the game. Ibañez, a non-factor so far this series, belted a 420-foot home run deep into the night. It was an 8-2 game, and Coke was gone.

Later, Coke would seemingly shake it off. “I want the ball again tomorrow,” he said. “That’s all I’m thinking about.”

He can have the ball tomorrow for the Yankees do not play tomorrow. On Wednesday, though, if the Yanks have a lead or are within striking distance of the Phillies, you can bet that Damaso Marte, Joba Chamberlain or the seemingly redeemed Phil Hughes will be handed that baseball.

We could argue the fallacy of the predetermined outcome all night long. If the Yanks mount their comeback and if Phil Coke gets the job done, then the Yankees tie the game on Derek Jeter’s ill-timed double play. Instead, Phil Coke struck back. Goat Number Two.

Derek Jeter
Dare I suggest that Derek Jeter deserves some criticism for his play tonight? Dare I throw the Captain under the Game 5 bus?

As a leadoff hitter, Jeter went 1 for 5 and saw just 16 pitches. With two on and no out in the top of the 9th, he was the tying run. He got ahead of Ryan Madson 2-0 and then took a pitch he should have shellacked. On the next ball, he bounced into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play. Although a run would score, the Yanks could not overcome that failure. We saw “past a diving Jeter” twice on key plays, and we saw the captain, a former Mr. November, not come through when he was needed the most. While Mark Teixeira left four runners on and struck out as the tying run to end the game, Derek deflated us when we were at our highest. For that, he gets the Goat Number Three hat.

And so here we are. The Yankees come back home for one final home stand. They were the best team at home this year, and all they have to do is win one game. Let’s put this one behind us, sit out an off-day and go get ‘em on Wednesday.

Categories : Game Stories
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A few minutes ago, Joe Girardi revealed that Melky Cabrera suffered a mild strain of his left hamstring during the 6th inning of last night’s game. He will be unavailable for the remainder of the World Series, and the Yankees are working to replace him on the roster, most likely with Freddy Guzman. Official word will come down at 6 p.m., and we’ll update this post accordingly. With Melky out, the Yankees will hand center field over to Brett Gardner this evening, and the Yanks’ lineup will feature a 6-7-8-9 combination tonight of Robinson Cano, Gardner, Jose Molina and A.J. Burnett. On the bright side, the bench is very strong tonight.

Update (5:45 p.m.): The Yankees have announced that Ramiro Peña will take Melky Cabrera’s place on the roster. Peña isn’t as fast as Guzman but provides more versatility both with the bat and in the field. Peña could be asked to bunt tonight as well if the situation calls for it.

Categories : Asides, Playoffs
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For a World Series game, last night’s three-hour and 25-minute affair isn’t a long one. We’ve seen nine-inning playoff games stretch well past the four-hour mark. It wasn’t though for a lack of trying on the part of CC Sabathia and Jorge Posada. As many noticed, the two had enough conversations on the mound to last a lifetime.

Landon Evanson at Bugs and Cranks summed up his feelings:

For f*** sake, how many times does Posada need to head out there for a heart-to-heart? I mean, trips to the bump on 0-2 counts with two outs and nobody on? What could possibly be shared at that moment? Seriously, is it too much to ask that Posada and the likes of C.C. Sabathia or any of New York’s hurlers get on the same page?

I understand you have to get the signs and the sequences down but the Bombers battery does realize that they can talk in the dugout, right? I mean, that’s still allowed in the World Series, isn’t it? Or have the Yankees done away with that like the whole facial hair thing?

You get the point. Except for Yankee fans placing their hopes, fears and low blood pressure on every pitch, most baseball fans — and especially those sporting red in Citizens Bank Park — just wanted CC Sabathia to throw the ball. Of course, it’s never really that simple, and today, Buster Olney offered up a reason in his blog post dissecting the game.

“Sunday night,” Olney writes, “Jorge Posada went with multiple pitch signs even when there were not any runners on base — and the reason, one longtime talent evaluator said, is that there has long been a concern among visiting teams that the Phillies steal signs from their bullpen and relay them to the hitter.”

In the prior paragraph in his post, Olney notes that the Phillies are concerned with the Yanks’ hitters as well. Apparently, Carlos Ruiz believes that A-Rod peeks back for a hint at pitch location — something every good hitter does — and has tried to shift late to receive the pitch.

Meanwhile, Olney wasn’t the only person noting the sequences behind the plate. In a rare moment of good analysis, Tim McCarver and Joe Buck noted that both teams’ batteries seemed to be going with a series of signs with no one on base instead of just one sign with location. Clearly, someone or everyone is trying to gain an edge.

Some baseball fans might object. Are the Phillies trying to cheat? Are the Yankees trying to disrupt the Phillies’ hitters’ rhythms at the plate? Is A-Rod trying to gain an edge? It’s all part of the game within the game as the league’s top two teams fight it out for the crown. Keep an eye tonight on A.J. Burnett and Jose Molina. The two of them love to chat, and if Olney’s analysis is right, we should see a lot of conversations and fewer signs from Molina.

Tonight, though, won’t be the end of this sign-stealing brouhaha. Between A-Rod’s getting plunked and the Sabathia/Posada conversations, sparks will fly when these teams play during Spring Training next year. For now, winning the World Series is what matters, but baseball players never forget.

Categories : Playoffs
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damonfeliz560x375

Because of the way FOX produces baseball games, when Johnny Damon slid safely into second, popped up and then started heading for third, my heart dropped. “What are you doing?” I thought. How could Damon, already in scoring position for Mark Teixeira, dream of taking third when Pedro Feliz was covering second and had the ball?

It was then that I realized Pedro Feliz, the Phillies’ third baseman, had the ball. If he had the ball, well, then no one was covering third. And why was no one covering third? Because Mark Teixeira was up from the left side, and all year teams have put a drastic shift on for lefty Teixeira.

So when Feliz fielded the ball in front of the base, Damon raced him to third. Says Jayson Stark:

Damon admitted afterward he had never done this before. And, in fact, it wasn’t immediately clear the last time anyone did this. But Damon said he’d been talking about it and thinking about it all year, since it became clear The Shift was going to be a regular feature of Teixeira’s left-handed at-bats.

Damon had to be safe. He had to know he would be safe because with Phil Coke, and not Mariano Rivera, warming up for a tie game, the Yankees couldn’t afford to take chances. After the game, Damon chuckled disbelievingly at the play. “If it was Chone Figgins,” he said, “that might have been tough. I just went off of instinct. And fortunately, it worked out.”

Once on third base, Damon was firmly inside the heads of Brad Lidge and Carlos Ruiz, the Phillies’ battery. Lidge hit Mark Teixeira with the next pitch and refused to throw Alex Rodriguez a slider for fear that a wild pitch would give the Yanks the lead. A-Rod and Jorge Posada made that slider a moot point, and before the dust had settled, the Yanks were sitting pretty on a 7-4 lead.

While thinking about the play as the post-game show unfolded last night, I remembered 2003 and so did Derek Jeter. On Opening Day, the Yankees were in Toronto, and Jeter had a lead off first base. Jason Giambi hit a bouncer to Roy Halladay, and Doc threw to Carlos Delgado at first. Jeter knew that, with the Giambi shift on, third base was unoccupied, and he didn’t stop. Delgado threw across the diamond as Ken Huckaby, Toronto’s catcher, raced up the line. Huckaby caught the ball and crashed into Jeter. Derek’s shoulder was dislocated, and he would not play again until May 13.

Last night, there was no Ken Huckaby, no Carlos Ruiz, no Brad Lidge awaiting Johnny Damon at third base. The Yanks’ left fielder caught everyone off guard, and as the Yankee bench, millions of fans, and Carlos Ruiz watched the play unfold, Damon beat Feliz in a dash to third. It was a race for ages.

“You know how people always tell you that they’ve been in baseball for 40 years, 50 years, and things happen every game that they never saw?” Yankees bench coach Tony Pena said last night. “Well, I’ve never seen that before. I never saw that before in my life.”

Categories : Playoffs
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Yanks hang three on Lidge in the 9th for 7-4 Game 4 win

Revised (1:49 a.m.) with an update on the injured Melky Cabrera: The Bridge to Mariano just needs to stay together for one more victory. As it stands now, that bridge is on shaky, shaky footing, and yet, the Yanks made it work tonight. In a game that resembled a roller coaster of emotions — looking something like this — the Yanks brought us up early, down late and then bashed around Brad Lidge for a key 7-4 win in Game 4. They are but one win away from their 27th World Series title.

Without a clock looming over play, baseball teams get 27 outs to figure out a way to outscore their opponents. Tonight, the Yankees needed all but one of them to top the Phillies. After 26 outs, the Yanks were facing a tie game on the road. They had no one on, and Phil Coke warming up in the bullpen. But then Mystique and Aura arrived after getting stuck in traffic on the Benjamin Franklin bridge.

The rally started with Johnny Damon, playing perhaps his final few games as a Yankee. Ball 1. Strike 1. Strike 2. The 1-2 pitch was huge as Damon nicked a foul tip into the dirt and Carlos Ruiz could not hold on to it. Ball 2. Ball 3. Foul. Foul. And then, life! On the 9th pitch, Damon singled into left, and Brad Lidge’s armor showed a chink. “The key to that inning to me was the tenacious at-bat by Johnny Damon,” Alex Rodriguez, the eventual hero, said to both Mark Grace and Michael Kay after the game.

With Mark Teixeira batting, Damon hit the bases. He stole second on a pitch in the dirt and then noticed that, because Pedro Feliz was covering second due to the Mark Teixeira shift, third base was wide open. Damon won the race and found himself just 90 feet away from giving the Yanks a lead with Mariano Rivera looming.

For those of us watching at home, we had little idea what was happening. It first seemed as though Damon had thought the ball was behind Feliz, but then it dawned on all of us: Third base was unoccupied. Joba Chamberlain, though, summed up the fan reaction to this unique play. “I had a heart attack, a little one,” he said after the game. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

Damon did, though, and it paid off. The Yanks would plate Damon and more though. Teixeira was hit by a Brad Lidge fastball, and then A-Rod, with just one hit all World Series, lined an 0-1 double into the left field. Jorge Posada then lined a 2-2 pitch into the left-center field gap. Although Posada would be tagged out at second, Teixeira and Rodriguez scored.

The Yanks had a three-run lead with Mo in, and eight pitches later — one fewer than Johnny Damon’s entire AB against Lidge — the game was over. Matt Stairs grounded out to first; Jimmy Rollins popped out to first; and Shane Victorino grounded out to Mark Teixeira for the ball game. Over the last two days, Mariano Rivera has faced five batters. He has retired all five of them and has used just 13 pitches — thirteen! — to get those five outs. This is vintage Mariano for you. Appreciate it now because, as we saw just one inning earlier, that ability to control a game from the bullpen is rare indeed.

The Yanks, of course, almost didn’t need Mariano. Starting on three days’ rest, CC Sabathia wasn’t as sharp as he had been against the Angels, but he made it work. After 6.2 innings and 107 pitches, Sabathia would leave with a 4-3 lead. He allowed seven hits and three walks on six strike outs, but he wasn’t too sharp. He threw first-pitch strikes to just 17 of 30 batters faced and managed just two 1-2-3 innings.

Again, though, the real CC killer was Phillies’ second baseman Chase Utley. After homering twice against Sabathia in Game 1, Utley went 2-for-3 with a double and a home run. He drove in two games and drove CC from the game. On the series, Utley is 4 for 6 with 3 home runs and 4 RBI against Sabathia while the rest of the Phillies are just 7 for 45 with one run batted in.

With Sabathia out, Damaso Marte, enjoying a mid-contract Yankee revival, did the job. Pumping 94-mph fastballs past Ryan Howard, Marte got the Phillies’ feared first baseman to fly out to Damon. Enjoying a slim one-run lead, the Yanks handed the ball over to a new 8th Inning guy.

With Phil Hughes in the doghouse following some very rough outings, the Yanks gave Joba Chamberlain a chance to reclaim his old job, and it seemed as though Joba would deliver. He struck out Jayson Werth on a 97-mph fastball and blew away Raul Ibañez with another 97-mph fastball. But then, disaster! Ahead of Pedro Feliz 1-2, Chamberlain fell behind 3-2 and let a pitch stray. It was supposed to be a fastball on the outside corner. Instead, it was a 97-mph pitch on the fat part of the plate, and Feliz deposited it over the left field wall.

“He put on a good swing. There’s nothing you can say about it. He did what he had to do,” Chamberlain said after the game. On the mound and in the dugout, he was clearly distraught. Even after Carlos Ruiz struck out on a nasty 88-mph slider, the damage had been done, and the fans were momentarily heartbroken.

But the Comeback Kids rebounded. They scored their runs; they won the game; they stand but 27 outs away from a World Series title. The team, at least on camera, isn’t letting the weight of the moment get to them, and they know that Cliff Lee looms large on Monday night. “It’s important for us to stay focused,” A-Rod said in a post-game interview with Mark Grace.

Damon, though, the YES Network’s Chevy Player of the Game, spoke some calming words. “We’re going to try to win,” he said. Here’s to hoping.

Melky Cabrera unlikely for Game 5
Lost in the brouhaha over the Yanks’ victory was the news about Melky Cabrera. While trying to run out a ground ball in the sixth inning last night, the Yanks’ center fielder strained his left hamstring. The Yankees are calling it a minor strain, but as Mark Feinsand reported, the team does not expect Cabrera to play in Game 5. I would guess that he won’t be available for Games 6 or 7 either.

At this point, the Yankees have a few choices. They can put Brett Gardner in center field, but Joe Girardi said after the game that Jerry Hairston, Jr., remains a distinct option for the start. Girardi prefers to deploy Gardner as a late-inning pinch running. If Melky is truly hurt, I believe the Yanks can activate another player — probably either Freddy Guzman or Francisco Cervelli. For the Series, Melky was just 2 for 13 before leaving with the injury but had played a solid center field throughout the playoffs.

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Once again, the winner of the Great Beat Writers’ Race to Twitter is Joel Sherman. He is the first among the Yanks’ crew to report that A.J. Burnett will start Game 5 on three days’ rest. Burnett, dominant in Game 2, will face off against Cliff Lee tomorrow night. This start, the last of A.J.’s season, will be his first for the Yanks on short rest. He has made four career starts on three days’ rest and is 4-0 with a 2.33 ERA in 27 innings. If both pitchers are at their best, Game 5 could be one for the ages.

Categories : Asides, Playoffs
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Earlier this week, the Yankees announced that, weather permitting, the team will open Yankee Stadium for tonight’s Game 4 World Series match up. With blue skies above in the city and rain no longer in the forecast for Philadelphia, the team will open the turnstiles at Gates 4 and 6 at 7 p.m., and fans can watch the game on the big screen in center field from the Field Level seats or in the Great Hall. Of course, food stands and concessions will be available for all, and the Hard Rock Cafe and NYY Steak will be open as well. First pitch is at 8:20 p.m., and tonight marks the second time this postseason the Yanks have opened the stadium for a road game.

“When we opened the Stadium for Game 3 in the ALCS, the response was positive and the energy from our fans was truly infectious. They really enjoyed coming together to watch the game,” Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement this week. “Once we reached the World Series, we felt that it was the perfect time to open the Stadium again. We remain grateful for the support of the best fans in baseball.”

Categories : Asides, Playoffs
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I watched tonight’s 8-5 from Blondie’s on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Surrounded by Yankee fans, we were dejected when the Yanks fell behind early, elated with the three-run 5th inning and generally clapped for every two-strike count and sang along with Frank Sinatra after Mariano Rivera induced a weak pop-up off the bat of Jimmy Rollins for out number 27. With that win tonight, the Yanks grabbed a 2-1 World Series win and become the first team to win two games against the Phillies in a playoff series since the 2007 NLDS.

For the Yanks, this one got off to a slow start. Cole Hamels seemed to have his fastball, change-up and control working. The Yanks went down in order in the first, and their only baserunners through three innings came through an A-Rod hit-by-pitch and a Jorge Posada fielder’s choice. Andy Pettitte meanwhile had his problems. He needed 51 pitches to get through three innings and found himself on the wrong end of a 3-0 game.

For Pettitte, the righties tonight were the problem. The lefties couldn’t touch him, but he had his fair share of problems getting the Phillies’ right-handed hitters out. Jayson Werth belted two no-doubters, and Pettitte walked Jimmy Rollins with the bases loaded to force in a run in that awful third. But Pettitte settled down, and the Yanks’ bat showed up.

The first sign of life from the Yanks’ offense came from A-Rod in the fourth. Suffering through an 0-for-8 World Series spell, A-Rod hit a screamer down the right field line. The ball stayed fair and hit off of a camera absurdly placed above the wall in fair territory. After an instant replay review, A-Rod’s shot was ruled a home run, and the Yanks had cut the Phils’ lead to just a run.

An inning later, after Pettitte pitched around an A-Rod error, the bats showed up. Nick Swisher, coming off of a mental vacation in Game 2, doubled to left, and although Melky Cabrera struck out on a nasty pitch, Andy Pettitte hit a looper to center. Swisher was running with the hit and scored the tying run. Derek Jeter singled, and then Johnny Damon lined a two-run double into right-center field. The Yanks had a lead, and they wouldn’t give it back. After a Mark Teixeira walk, Cole Hamels would exit the game. Afterward, he would say that he “can’t wait until [2009] is over. It’s been mentally draining.”

Over the next few innings, Andy persevered. He wasn’t at his best, but he made it work. He retired the Phillies in order in the 5th, and Nick Swisher homered in the 6th. Although Jayson Werth answered with his own home run in the 6th, Andy K’d Raul Ibañez and Pedro Felix. Eric Bruntlett, batting for the first time in nearly a month, flew out to end the inning.

Over the next few innings, the Yanks would add a pair. Jorge Posada blooped a single to drive home the Yanks’ 7th run. In the 7th, Joba Chamberlain looked great retiring the top third of the Phillies’ order, and Hideki Matsui launched a pinch hit home run to give the Yanks a four-run lead. In the 8th, the real Damaso Marte showed up. He fanned Howard on a 95-mph fastball, struck out Werth and retired Ibañez on a line out.

After a quick 9th, Phil Hughes came in with a four-run lead. Pedro Felix grounded out, but Hughes threw two high fastballs to Carlos Ruiz. Chooch is a high fastball hitter, and the second fastball ended up on the wrong side of the left field wall. The Phillies had cut the lead, but the Yanks brought in Mariano. It wasn’t a save, but five pitches later, the game was over. Matt Stairs grounded out, and Jimmy Rollins, the man who predicted the Phillies would win in five games, popped out to A-Rod.

With that out, the Yanks grabbed a 2-1 lead, and they guaranteed that, at worst, the World Series will return to the Bronx. CC Sabathia will face Joe Blanton tonight at 8:20 p.m., and the Yankees are feeling pretty good right now. On Halloween, I went as a Yankee fan watching Game 3 of the World Series, and I was not disappointed.

Categories : Game Stories
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