Results tagged ‘ Championship Series ’
Yanks raise bar in march to postseason play
The Yankees have set their sights on higher ground than finishing in first place in the American League East. Before Sunday’s game, manager Joe Girardi cited the best record in the league for home-field advantage in the first two rounds of postseason play as a goal. That seemed in their range certainly until they went out and played a relatively sloppy game against the Athletics, who came off the canvas impressively on the day after a demoralizing, 14-inning loss.
Despite the 5-4 loss Sunday, the Yankees maintained their one-game lead in the AL East but were still at least one game behind the AL West-leading Rangers for the top mark in the league. Home-field advantage in the World Series will belong to the National League entry thanks to its All-Star Game triumph, but the Yankees are trying to guarantee playing more games at Yankee Stadium in the Division Series and Championship Series.
To do that they have to play better than they did Sunday when they looked more like the team suffering from a hangover instead of the A’s, who are still in the playoff picture. Oakland spit up a 3-0 lead but fought back to gain control of the game by the sixth inning with the aid of a tainted run.
Actually, there were a couple of tainted runs along the way for the A’s, but the one that hurt was the tiebreaker in the sixth which was created in part by one of two errors by Eduardo Nunez, who reverted to early-season form. Josh Donaldson, who reached base on a wild throw by Nunez that inning, eventually came around to score on a two-out single by Cliff Pennington.
With Derek Jeter relegated more to designated hitter duty while playing with a bone bruise in his left ankle, Girardi has gone with Nunez at shortstop to utilize his speed on offense. But on a day like Sunday when Nunez went 0-for-4 two errors stand out even more. An alternative to Nunez would be Jayson Nix, but Girardi seemed inclined to stay with Nunez.
Donaldson and Pennington also combined for one of those tainted runs in the second inning when Nunez should have been credited with an assist. He made a strong throw to first base after fielding a grounder by Donaldson, but umpire Larry Vanover called the runner safe, which was not verified by video replays.
“That’s the hardest play for me to see from the dugout, but I thought he was out by a step,” Girardi said. “I didn’t see the replay, but I could hear the crowd reaction. That usually tells you what the replay showed.”
Two batters later, Pennington homered, so the blown call at first base loomed huge.
Yanks starter Hiroki Kuroda hasn’t had a lot of run support this year, but he did Sunday. The Yankees came back from 0-3 to make the score 4-3 in the fourth that led to an early exit by A’s starter A.J. Griffin. Kuroda had wild-pitched a run home in the first inning and threw another one in the fifth that preceded an RBI single by Yeonis Cespedes. It was a decidedly uneven outing for Kuroda, who has been in many ways the Yankees’ most reliable starter.
The Yankees got all their runs in the fourth inning, two on Nick Swisher’s 22nd home run, one on a double by Raul Ibanez and one on an infield out by Nunez. Swish has a six-game hitting streak during which he is batting .409 with two home runs and seven RBI in 22 at-bats, and Ibanez has 5-for-8 (.625) with two doubles, two home runs and four RBI since lifting himself out of a 0-for-18 slump.
Jeter had two singles to push his hitting streak to 17 games in which he is batting .372 in 78 at-bats. Ichiro Suzuki had 1-for-5 and is batting .600 in 25 at-bats in a six-game hitting streak. The Yankees had a seven-game winning streak halted but were 7-2 on the homestand and move on to a soft spot on the schedule with a trip to Minneapolis and Toronto against last-place clubs.
“I am careful about saying you should win against such teams,” Girardi said. “The Twins won a game and scored 10 runs at Detroit.”
If the Yankees want to reach the goal Girardi has set for them, they need to play tough against every team they face.
No relief for Hughes, except from bullpen
Maybe what the Yankees should have done Thursday night was to fool around with the readings from the radar gun that are flashed on the video board after each pitch. Instead of a reading of, say, 89 mph, flash 93. Instead of 90, 94. Instead of 87, 91. Then, Phil Hughes might have felt a lot stronger than he actually showed.
Hughes’ velocity – or lack thereof – has been a Yankees topic since spring training. I happen to agree with manager Joe Girardi that it is overblown, not Hughes’ fastball but all the talk about it. I am with Joe that location and pitch selection mean more than miles per hour. Fact is, Hughes has been little better than a .500 pitcher for quite some time.
The problem with all this yakking about velocity is that it is in Hughes’ head. It is only natural for him to wonder why he can’t hit 94 anymore. Forget about the fact that before 2010 Hughes was known to be a slow starter whose readings on jugs guns early in the year were always tepid. After an 18-victory season that was considered breakthrough, the expectations are that Hughes has suddenly turned into Nolan Ryan.
In actuality, this is a continuance of a rather lengthy stretch of mediocrity for Hughes, who was 11-2 with a 3.65 ERA in the first half last year and earned a spot on the American League All-Star staff. Hughes ended up being the losing pitcher in that game at Anaheim and then had a very ordinary second half, posting a 7-6 record with a 4.90 ERA.
After working a seven shutout innings of four-hit ball against the Twins in the Division Series, Hughes was pounded for 11 earned runs and 14 hits in 8 2/3 innings (11.42 ERA) in losing both his starts against the Rangers in the AL Championship Series.
Now this. The Orioles, who despite their positive start this season have not exactly torn the cover off the ball, shoved Hughes around for five earned runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings Thursday night, which marked the third consecutive start that the righthander did not pitch long enough to qualify for a victory even if the Yankees had somehow managed to get a lead.
One consolation was that Hughes’ ERA actually dropped, from 16.50 to 13.94. The other is that the Yankees eventually tied the score in the ninth, so he got a no-decision.
Even some of Baltimore’s outs were smoked. Center fielder Curtis Granderson and right fielder Nick Swisher climbed walls to catch potential extra-base hits. Of Hughes’ 70 pitches, 51 were strikes, which may sound impressive until you realize that all hits are considered strikes.
Yanks going wild toward pennant
So this wild card stuff isn’t so bad after all. In fact, being the wild card might have been the best thing to happen to the Yankees, although there is no suggestion here that it was done by design.
Yes, by finishing second to the Rays in the American League East, the Yankees lost home field advantage during the post-season, and we all know how much they love to play at Yankee Stadium. The benefit came from being paired in the AL Division Series with the Twins rather than the Rangers, who would have been pretty dangerous with Cliff Lee starting twice in a five-game series.
The Rangers with Cliff Lee or the Twins without Justin Morneau, who would you rather face?
Someday, the Twins will free themselves from this hold the Yankees have on them in post-season play, but not now. The Yankees’ sweep, which they completed Saturday night at the Stadium with a convincing 6-1 victory, extended Minnesota’s post-season losing streak to 12 games.
The Yankees are 12-2 against the Twins in post-season play and 48-16 overall against them since 2002 when Ron Gardenhire, a good manager and an even finer person, took reins of the team. Saturday night’s loss was the 26th in the past 30 games by the Twins in the Bronx.
This is the fourth time the Yankees have been a wild-card team in the playoffs, and the ALDS marked the first post-season series they have won in that capacity. They were defeated as wild cards in 1995 by the Mariners and in 1997 and 2007 by the Indians.
“I think it says a lot about our club that it just keeps putting pressure on the other team,” manager Joe Girardi said.
That pretty much explained how the Yankees manhandled the Twins again. They never quit in any of their at-bats, which allowed them to overcome deficits in the first two games and maintain a sizeable early lead in the third. Phil Hughes pitched even better than CC Sabathia or Andy Pettitte, both of whom were pretty damn good, and took note that he was aware the perception out there was that the Yankees’ rotation was “CC and then who?”
Something to prove? You bet. The maligned staff allowed the Twins only one hit in 17 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the series.
The Yankees won’t play again until Friday, which gives a team with a lot of older veterans a chance to rest up for the AL Championship Series. Yankees fans paying attention to the other ALDS should become Rays fans for Game 4 today at Texas. If Tampa Bay can push that series to five games, then both staff aces, David Price of the Rays and Lee, would start Tuesday night, which means neither could start Game 1 of the ALCS three nights later.
The Yankees may not have home field advantage, but they could end up with some kind of advantage.
No falling behind this time for Yanks
The Yankees took a different approach Saturday night in their post-season matchup with Minnesota – they scored first.
The Yankees’ modus operandi in playoff games against the Twins is to fall behind early and come back late. The Twinkies haven’t been able to hold leads throughout this post-season drought against the Yankees that had reached eight games after the Yanks won the first two games of the American League Division Series earlier in the week at Target Field.
The Yankees treated Yankee Stadium fans by drawing first blood in the second inning of Game 3 against Twins lefthander Brian Duensing. Robinson Cano, who hit .285 with 13 home runs off lefties this year and had an RBI single off lefthander Francisco Liriano in Game 1, led off the second inning with a triple. The slicing drive eluded center fielder Denard Span, who had to run the ball down when it caromed off the wall back toward the infield.
After Marcus Thames popped out, Jorge Posada lined a first-pitch changeup into left field for a single to score Cano. An announcement was made in the press box stating that it was Posada’s 41st RBI in post-season play as he passed Mickey Mantle on the career list.
This is a pet peeve of mind, so I may as well get it off my chest now. No criticism of Posada is intended here, but to compare his post-season RBI with those of Mantle is ridiculous. All of Mickey’s RBI were in the World Series. His last season in the majors was 1968, the year before divisional play began and an additional level of post-season play was added. Since 1995 when the wild card was added, post-season play has had three levels.
The format change has played havoc with post-season records, particularly those established when there was only the World Series, such as Mantle’s 18 home runs and Yogi Berra’s 71 hits. To equate World Series statistics with those in the first round of the playoffs is irrational. They should be kept separately.
For the record, Posada’s breakdown in post-season RBI is 14 in the Division Series, 16 in the Championship Series and 11 in the World Series.
The Yankees kept up the scoring over the next two innings threatening to make this a rout. They got a two-out run in the third when Nick Swisher doubled and Mark Teixeira singled. Thames hit an opposite-field home run in the fourth for two more runs.
Also scoring on the blow was Cano, who beat out an infield single. On the play, first baseman Michael Cuddyer’s hurried throw went past Duensing and struck Yankees first base coach Mick Kelleher in the, well, let’s just hope coaches wear cups.
Duensing was replaced after walking Curtis Granderson, who subsequently stole second, continued to third on an errant throw by catcher Joe Mauer and scored on a fly ball to left by Brett Gardner for a 5-0 Yankees lead. It was Minnesota that had to do the catching up now.
No hangover lineup for Yanks
Yankees manager Joe Girardi kept good his pledge to go for the American League East title. The starting lineup Wednesday night at Toronto was proof positive that clinching a post-season berth was not an end all.
It was not your usual hangover lineup on games following a clincher when regulars normally are on the bench and backups fill most of the slots. The only regulars sitting were catcher Jorge Posada and outfielders Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner, primarily because the Blue Jays started a lefthander, Brett Cecil.
The only difference from prior plans was to skip Andy Pettitte and go with Javier Vazquez on the mound. Pettitte was pushed back to Friday night at Fenway Park. A.J. Burnett will start Saturday against the Red Sox. Girardi was non-committal beyond that saying only “Mr. TBA,” as in “To Be Announced,” will start Sunday’s season finale.
There was also no indication from the manager about a post-season rotation except that CC Sabathia will definitely start Game 1. Girardi said he could not be more forthcoming because it is still not known who their opponent will be in the Division Series. That won’t be decided until the AL East standings are settled. They will play one of the other two division winners, the Twins (Central) or the Rangers (West), because teams in the same division cannot oppose each other in the ALDS.
The Yankees have an uphill climb to finish first in the East and have a shot at home-field advantage throughout the ALDS and the AL Championship Series. They were a game behind Tampa Bay in the loss column entering play Wednesday night. The Yankees will have an open date Thursday while the Rays, who ended their home schedule against the Orioles, open a four-game set against the Royals in Kansas City.
Tampa Bay won the season series against the Yankees, 10-8, so the Bombers essentially need to run the table and hope the Rays lost at least two of the next five games to get back into first place by season’s end. It is not out of the question, but it will not be a cakewalk, either.
At least they are giving it a good try.
Yanks, Rays have safety net
Fans seem to like the wild-card system in baseball because if gives more teams a chance to reach the playoffs. The powers that be in the game certainly approve it of it because the more teams involved in races the greater the interest there is in the sport in the final month of the season.
There is one downside of the system that was adopted in 1994 by which the second place team with the best record qualifies for post-season play as a wild card, and that is it can ruin an old-fashioned race for first place.
Take what is going on this year between the Yankees and the Rays, for example. These two teams entered play Tuesday night tied for first in the American League East for the eighth straight day. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that marks the most consecutive days that a pair of teams has been tied for first this late in a season. The previous record was seven straight days by the Dodgers and the Astros in the National League West Sept. 10-16, 1980.
That season featured one of the wildest finishes in major league history. The Dodgers swept the Astros in a three-game series at Los Angeles to force a one-game playoff that also took place at Dodger Stadium the day after the regular season ended. The Dodgers’ bubble was burst by Joe Niekro’s knuckleball as Houston won the playoff to qualify for the NL Championship Series against the Phillies.
Had there been a wild-card system, there would have been no need for a playoff because both teams would have made it.
Something similar happened in 1993, the last year there was no wild-card in the majors. In fact, the finish in the NL West that year was a major reason the wild-card supporters got what they wanted. The Giants won 103 games but finished one game behind the Braves (then in the NL West) and went home.
It was as wild a race as every existed. Atlanta trailed San Francisco by a season-high 10 games July 22 and by 9 as late as Aug. 7. A seven-game losing streak Sept. 7-15 brought the Giants back to earth as they fell 3 games behind the Braves, who were amid a 9-1 run. It came down to the final weekend. The Braves swept a three-game series from the Rockies, but the Giants lost to their arch-rival Dodgers on the final day of the season.
There was no fallback position for the Giants without the wild card. As tight as that race was, it does not compare really to what is going on between the Yankees and Tampa Bay. The Braves and Giants were tied on the same day only eight times total in 1993, only as often as the Yanks and Rays have been for a little more than the past week.
Over the past 30 days, the Yankees and the Rays have been tied for first place 12 times and have had the same share of the top spot 23 days during the season. But with the third-place Red Sox having fallen seven games behind them and the second-place teams in the other divisions nowhere near contention for the wild-card berth, the juice is missing from the Yanks-Rays race because whoever doesn’t win the division will make the playoffs anyway.
Sure, there is home-field advantage in the Division Series and Championship Series at stake, which is sort of a carrot but not as appetizing as eliminating a foe altogether.
Jack O'Connell
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