Friday, September 7, 2007

Lucky Number Seven (Post Game Notes 07 Sept 07)

Yankees escaped with a win tonight. There is good and bad to take away from tonight's game. First, the GOOD:

Despite a very shaky first two innings, Ian Kennedy settled down and had a great third, fourth and fifth. Lesser pitchers would have caved--we saw it earlier in the year. That Ian was able to regain himself is a great sign.

Maybe, when the game starts, we should start with the third inning? ;)


A-Rod went yard again, and he's off to a crazy September--five home runs in seven days, and considering the Yankees have only played six of them, it means there are only two games in which A-Rod did not have a HR (he had the multi-HR game on the 5th). He also had two singles, with some great baserunning mixed in.

Jorge Posada also had a hr, but more importantly, threw out the guy at second in the fourth.

Kyle Farnsworth....got the WIN. Wow. That's where optimism and Scooter join forces...

Joba is...well...there aren't words to describe it, really. 14.1 Innings Pitched, and he still has an ERA of 0.00. More importantly, he pitched tonight, finally, in front of his father. If you saw the game, you saw Harlan's tears. Only someone unfamiliar with the story or with a heart of stone could fail to be moved by that.

Johnny Damon had a GREAT play. I don't want to say he plays left better than Matsui, but he's certainly not any worse, especially now that he's getting considerable time there.

Mo was his vintage self. Loved the ending with a strikeout!



The NOT-SO-GOOD:

The Yankees had the bases loaded with two out in the sixth, seventh and eighth, and scored NO runs in any of these.

The Yankees were lucky their pitching and defense held up; however not coming through in these situations won't help much in October.



About the LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN:

The Yankees more or less own the seventh inning right now--they blew the last two games against Seattle out in the seventh, and they won it tonight in the seventh.

Tonight was Mo's 777th appearance.

Game one in '98? Tino's grand slam was in the 7th.

So the fact that it's 2007 and we're going for 27...

Yeah. I feel it too.


[edit] Can't believe I forgot!

Other scores around the league:

Boston beat Baltimore, 4-0. Cabrera, the pitcher for Baltimore, was thrown out after throwing behind Pedroia of Boston, sparking a benches-and-bullpen clearing brawl.

Detroit beat Seattle, 6-1, meaning that Yankees fans gain another game on Seattle and Detroit is still three back. To hope for the best, the Yankees fan should hope for Seattle to win one game, and the Yanks to sweep in KC...unless Detroit sweeps we won't lose significant ground.

Toronto beat Tampa, 7-2, of note is that Toronto's pitcher had 12 Ks.

In the Battle for the Bottom of the AL West, Texas beat Oakland (and it actually is a battle--Oakland only has three more wins than Texas, a team that can apparently score 30 runs in a game).

After both rolling 6s in the 9th, Minnesota and the Chi Sox are tied at 10 in the 12th.

Angels are up on the Indians, 2-1 in the eighth.


All NL Central contenders (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis) lost, Milwaukee's loss being the ugliest. Rick Ankiel did not have a home run, but Prince Fielder did. Don't think he's going to catch A-Rod, though.

In Atlanta, John Smoltz took a no-hitter into the eighth, he lost the bid but won the game, which keeps Atlanta on life support.

Mets won and Philadelphia lost, so the NL East right now seems to be a battle for second place, and a chance at the Wild Card.

Colorado is up on San Diego, and the Giants have just taken the lead on the Dodgers, making the NL West officially baseball's 2nd most interesting division, after the NL Central.

11 comments:

  1. 7even. Wow.... THAT was how baseball was meant to be played. Despite all the Eeyore's on PeteAbe's blog, I actually had a good feeling about tonight, especially going to the bottom of the ninth, up a run, and the Great Mariano astride the hill. Good, good stuff, and I am still not willing to concede the division. We may die trying, but the valiant attempt is what matters. On to Saturday!
    Oh, Rebecca, my comment on PeteAbe's got lost in the shuffle, but thank you for this blog. You do a fine job of updating and maintaining it, and it has a homey, relaxed feel. Kinda like we all are sitting around a lounge with cups of coffee or mugs of tea, friends chatting away about baseball. Good stuff!

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  2. Charles--I did see the comment, thank you! I'm going with the philosophy that simpler = better, and while I can't promise, I try to respond to each comment.

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  3. Hey Rebecca! Congrats on your new blog. I'll make it a tradition and comment on here after every Yankee win. The bullpen did a great job tonight from Krazy Kyle to Joba to Mo. Kennedy also did a fine job of damage control. Hopefully Andy can pitch well tomorrow and keep the momentum going!

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  4. J-Dawg: Well, I think I'll like that tradition!

    It's weird having Andy on the mound after a Yankee win, but hopefully he can do his thing, and unlike last time, the Yankees' offense can pick him up--we need him to go 7+ because we've got Bruney, Villone, Ramirez and Mo in our pen...Viz is shut down for the weekend and Joba pitched two tonight.

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  5. Not everyone should have a blog. There's plenty of yankee blogs already. You're not a very good writer, and you obviously know very little about baseball.

    Give it up.

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  6. Do I detect a bit of jealousy there? Actually, our Rebecca knows quite a lot about baseball, and she's an excellent writer. You have your [bitter] opinion, Meg, and I have my [cheery] opinion. Meg's opinion notwithstanding, I sincerely hope that Rebecca continues this blog.

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  7. meg--There is no law that says you have to read this.

    Charles--Thank you for your support =)

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  8. Wow. I was about to say it was great to have so much support from people on your blog and meg had to go and ruin it. But glad to see someone stick up for you!

    You don't have to analyze every single play to prove that you "know a lot about baseball." That's obviously not what this particular blog is all about. I like it. I wish I had the balls to create a blog---I also don't anticipate anyone would actually read it.

    Your post-game post wasn't exactly as optimistic as I would have expected from you, but I'll let it slide because of how many freaking times they left the bases loaded :(

    Keep up the good work!

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  9. Andrea--I'd read it! Seriously...the best thing about blogs is that anyone can create them, and anyone is supposed to!

    I'm as optimistic as I can be before and during the game, but after it doesn't hurt to be a bit realistic, as long as you mention both good AND bad.

    The optimism got us the win, no doubt!

    (oh, and don't worry about the trolls. I've had plenty, plenty worse on my personal journal. Seriously, I mean, that they have nothing else to do with their lives speaks volumes...)

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  10. Rebecca, you're welcome, ma'am [Tips cap]. :-)

    Andrea, I would read it :-)

    My point [other than shouting down naysayers - they can choose to not read if they so desire] is that you don't have to be a stathead to "know a lot about baseball". There's varying layers which are not mutually exclusive. I know a lot about baseball. I've been a fan for all of my life, and I watch a lot of ball. I've coached Little League. I played ball. I dabble in stats [but not to the degree of Bill James, for example]. So what if someone's level of expertise is different? We're all individuals, so OF COURSE our levels vary. I enjoy chatting baseball with friendly people. Sometimes I learn things, sometimes my knowledge is reinforced, and sometimes I help others learn or understand. It's about sharing :-) It irks me, how condescending some people can be. "Obviously, you do not know a lot about baseball." Why is it so obvious? I know a lot about ball, possibly even more than Meg does, and I did not come to that conclusion. By the way, Meg [this is more for moral support since I don't really expect you to return], interesting that you have a blog linked to your signature, but the setting is such that we cannot read it. Afraid of something? Anyway, ladies, a pleasure chatting with ye... Happy Saturday!

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