Tag: alcs

Yankees get #40… off to the World Series for them

The Angels gave them a pretty good fight considering the outcome of the first two games.  But the Yankees won.  They won their 40th AL pennant.  In a league that is barely a century old, that is quite a feat. 

As was the ALCS, yesterday’s game between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was a whole lot closer than the 5-2 would lead you to believe. The Halos were within one at 3-2 with runners on base in the top of eighth inning.  The Yankees were helped by two errors in the bottom of the inning to seal the fate of the Angels and put New York into the World Series for the first time since 2003. 

For the series, yeah yeah, there was Alex Rodriguez.  9 for 21 with 3 homer and 6 rbis.  The Angels caught on quick to him because he also had eight walks.  Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon contributed also to the Yanks’ victory.  Both had 2 dingers and Damon had 5 rbis while Jeter scored 5 runs. 

No can deny C.C. Sabathia’s role in the ALCS.  In two starts and 16 innings,  he only allowed 2 earned runs giving up nine hits.  

Vladimir Guerrero overcame his putrid Game 1 to put up some good series numbers.  He was 10 for 27 (.370) with 5 rbis.  But Jeff Mathis had some interesting stats.  He was 7 for 12 (.583) but with only one rbi.  He made his one rbi count, though as it was the game winning hit in Game 3. 

The award for most least productive for the Yankees goes to Nick Swisher who not only went 3 for 20 (all singles) with 0 rbis, but didn’t come through in key situations. 

As for the Angels, the goat is Chone Figgins.  He started out with a 0-18 streak for the series.  Before the dust settled, he went 3 for 23 (again, all singles) with 1 rbi and 2 runs scored. 

A frustrating LCS for me.  This is going to force me to root for the Phillies. 

ALCS Beat: Yankees comeback not enough against resurging Angels

As Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over till it’s over”.  And as my buddy Don, who is an Angel fan said late night, “If Brian Fuentes had walked Swisher, I think I would have jumped off my roof”. 

Fortunately for the Angels (and Don S), he didn’t.

I learned my lesson though.  I watched the game on TV at home till the beginning of the 7th.  John Lackey had been pitching brilliantly up until then and had a 4-0 lead.  Thinking that Big John had things well in hand, I decided to head to local coffee shop and watch the rest of the game on Gameday while I got some work done.

It’s a 6 block walk to the coffee shop and I was away from the game for 15 minutes, 20 tops.  Logging into Gameday, I was rudely greeted with a 7-6 Yankee lead.  Refreshing the browser didn’t seem to help. 

Looking back at it, I had a sneaking suspicion that Lackey was tiring.  Mid-inning, the camera crew show him in the dugout and boy, he really looked spent.  I remember commenting on that to my kid.

But thanks to a 3-run seventh fueled by back-to-back base hits by Guerrero and Morales, the Angels got back on top for the final score 7-6.

I’d like to say that was the end of the excitement but the Yankees made the Halos earn their pay Thursday night.  Angel reliever Brian Fuentes made things a little too interesting.  After a two-out, bases empty intentional pass to Alex Rodriguez, Fuentes followed that up with a Matsui walk and a Cano HBP to load the bases.  If that weren’t enough, Nick Swisher took him to a full count before popping out to short for third out to end the game. 

Fuentes line looked good.  One inning, no hits and a save.  But that sure didn’t tell the story of the game.  However, he got the job done.

The Angels got their miracle.  Three-Two sounds a whole lot better than Two-Zero or Three-One.

 

Other Postseason News:

 

ALCS Beat: Hello Angels!

Game 3 of the ALCS started ominously (and quite familiarly) for the Angels.  Shortstop Derek Jeter led off the game with a homerun off Halo pitcher Jered Weaver.  It was Jeter’s 20th postseason dinger which puts him third behind Manny Ramirez of the Dodgers and postseason superman of lore, Bernie Williams. 

Down 3-0, in the 5th inning, things weren’t looking much better for the Angels.  Things started to click with the help of some questionable decisions by Yankee skipper Joe Girardi.  With a decent lead going into the homestretch of of the game, some of his calls just didn’t go his way. 

561px-Joe_Girardi_April_2009Putting Jerry Hairston in left field is somewhat questionable.  But the fact that it required removing the designated hitter is beyond me. 

Girardi (left) also replaced David Robertson in the 11th after he got the first two outs only to bring in Alfredo Aceves.  Girardi  justified his move saying that Robertson threw 33 pitches on Saturday.  True but many of those pitches on Saturday were on intentional walks. 

Too much micro-managing.  Girardi just needs to relax and let his boys play ball.

When all was said and done, the Angels came up with the big ‘W’, thanks to a game-winning double by Jeff Mathis off Aceves.

Box Score

Howie Kendrick was 3 for 5  with a homer and 3 runs scored.  Vladimir Guerrero went 2 for 4 with a homer and two rbis.  Reliever Ervin Santana got the win. 

So the Los Angeles Angeles, on the brink of a 0-3 deficit, buck up and take advantage of some weaknesses as the Yankees did the first two games.  Now it’s 2-1 and a whole new ALCS.

ALCS Beat: Yankees looking pretty and Angels losing ugly

The New York Yankees will hope to continue their 2009 playoff dominance today against the LA Angels.  They have yet to lose this year in the postseason.  It was close on Saturday… real close. 

Yankee fans can thank Alex Rodriguez for keeping the Bombers in Game 2.  In the bottom of the eleventh inning, he hit his third homerun of the postseason to keep the Yankees tied with the Angels.  Before 2009, ARod had one homer in his last 13 postseason games.  

Yanks fans can probably also extend a little gratitude towards Macier Izturis.  Thanks to his errant throw in the bottom of the 13th inning, ex-Cub Jerry Hairston Jr scored to break the 3-3 tie and brought the Yanks their second win of the ALCS.

Box Score

That’s five errors in two games for the Angels for those counting and a lot out there are.  LAA has come into the postseason with one of the best defensive teams in the majors yet it’s one of their facets that has let them down.

They wasted a great outing by Joe Saunders who allowed just 2 earned runs in seven innings and pretty decent work from the pen by Kevin Jepsen and Darren Oliver. 

One more interesting key stat from the boxscore:

Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Guerrero 7

Yikes!

 

So right now, the Yankees are up by two (and already up 2-0 in the 4th inning of the 3rd game as of this writing).  It’s nice to say that anything can happen in baseball but not every team can pull off what the Red Sox did in 2004.  Is the writing on the wall for LAA?  It is unless they can pull away with a comeback today. 

ALCS Beat: “C.C.’s the real deal, man”

Sloppy.

That’s the adjective I keep seeing repeated in the headlines regarding the Los Angeles Angels play last night in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees.  The Angels, who bested their error record during the regular season with only 85 miscues, made some pretty nasty and costly ones in Friday night’s game.  Like a botched routine popup that ended up to be an rbi single. 

I’ll admit I was rooting for Big John Lackey.  But it’s hard to give that kind of edge to the Yankees and expect to win because you know the Yanks will step in and seize the advantage.  With the way C.C. Sabathia was pitching last night, that was kiss of death.  True, Sabathia has had issues with the Angels during the regular season (0-2, 9 ER in 13 1/3 innings though he did strike out 11).  But that was all ancient history and as they say it’s a brand new season when it comes to the playoffs.  Sabathia went 8 innings last night against the Halos allowing only 4 hits and just one run (an rbi single by Kendry Morales).  Sabathia walked one and struck out seven. 

Torii Hunter had begrudging praise for Sabathia (in reference to the mid-40s temperature):

"CC was the cold weather.  He was pitching his butt off. CC’s the real deal, man."

Box Score

 

Other ALCS Bits:

 

  • Speaking of mid-40 degree weather, yes, it was that cold.  And we’re only in the beginning of the League Championship Series.  The MLB Postseason schedule is set till November 5 (assuming all games are played).  It’s going to get a whole lot colder unless the Angels and Dodgers pull it off. 

    Jim Caple of ESPN has a tongue in cheek article about how HE feels about the postseason schedule.

     

  • Apparently, singer Ronan Tynan was a late scratch for singing God Bless America in last night’s game for making an anti-Semitic remark.

     

  • Anyone care what Nick Swisher has to say?  If so, check out MLB.com’s Q&A with him posted today.