Tuesday, September 4, 2007

That Squirrel's Got Nuts! (Postgame notes 4 Sept 07)

When that squirrel made his appearance in the sixth, you knew something was going to happen.

You probably didn't think it'd be a seven run seventh, but if you're reading this, chances are you enjoyed it just the same.

The Yankees burst out of their recent offensive woes in a big way, with 20 hits tonight, including hits with RISP, two from Betemit and four each from Abreu, Posada and Cano each with four. Abreu was a triple shy of the cycle, Posada had two home runs and A-Rod had a MONSTER shot.

That aside, until the sixth inning, there was a lot of anxiety.

Until the sixth inning the Yankees had just one run on six hits, and it looked like it was going to be a repeat of the weekend.

If it wasn't for the absolute gem from Wang, and Matsui's great play in the fifth, there's no way the Yankees take a 1-0 lead to the sixth.

However, they did take the 1-0 lead to the sixth, and they did, finally, decide to bring the bats to the game, and for that you can't complain.


Wang has seventeen wins and is now tied for the major league lead. He just needs three more for twenty, and as it's only September fourth, he has an outside shot of it. Might be the quietest year ever for a guy trying to get to 20 wins. If you consider that he missed the beginning of the year with injury, he probably WOULD have 20 wins and be a definite Cy Young candidate.


Otherwise:

Vizcaino has given up five runs in his past two innings of work. It's an area of concern--overshadowed right now because the Yanks won big, but if it's a 4-2 game and you don't have Joba available, you need your eighth inning guy to be able to pitch well.

Scary, scary, scary, SCARY moment with A-Rod in the seventh. Readers, if you play baseball, please don't slide head first. It looked for a moment that A-Rod was down and out...but TOUGH ALL DAY prevailed.

Looks like Wang was just stiff in the eighth from the long half inning before, and that's another huge sigh of relief.

Phil Hughes starts tomorrow, so let's hope the Squirrel (Rocky Squankee?) makes another appearance ;)





Other scores of interest:

Red Sox beat Toronto 5-3. Toronto's playing for their playoff lives. They've lost two to the Red Sox so far, but they're obviously not playing for the division. It's not surprising to see Toronto put up the fight it's putting up.

Chicago White Sox beat Detroit 3-1. Detroit had runners on second and third with two out for the ninth, but the ChiSox had Bobby Jenks. You can guess how that went.

Minnesota is up on Cleveland 5-3 in the bottom of the eighth.

Mets beat Cinncinnati and Phillies beat Atlanta, meaning that the NL East is becoming a race between the Mets and Phillies. South Jersey must be near war...

Rick Ankiel did not hit a HR today, but he does have an RBI.

Arizona is up 5-0 on San Diego in the fifth.

As far as the NL Central goes, Chi Cubs lost and Milwaukee and St. Louis won.




Interesting night. Feel free to comment with name suggestions for the Squirrel...or anything else, for that matter.

10 comments:

  1. Well, Lucky Squirrel kinda has a nice ring to it [pun accepted :-) ]
    Of course, Rocket J. Squirrel comes with a nice rally song and portends well for Roger's elbow.
    What a life our squirrel leads!!

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  2. Notice the route that Alex took in going into third base? He was between the ball coming in, and Adrian Beltre`...essentially, he went THROUGH Beltre to get to the bag [perfectly acceptable]. I know from my playing days, I'd have gone in headfirst here, too [never into first after batting, though]. Better control, ability to crash through the 3rd baseman if the play was closer. If Alex HAD gone feet-first, he probably would have avoided the stress to his ankle from Adrian falling on it - of course, he'd be pilloried for having spiked Beltre`. Glad he's okay!!

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  3. If you think about it, Beltre rolled over A-Rod's ankle. If A-Rod were turned around and slid feet first, he may have rolled over his head instead. AHH!

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  4. Charles--Haha! What would the J stand for?

    A-Rod's slide was EXTREMELY scary. I would have rather he been called out and be healthy than safe and injured. Any day.

    Saucy--Ycch! Though I think there's a general consensus to avoid the head at all costs...

    Still, that's a nasty image!

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  5. Hokey Smoke!!
    The "J" stands for "Jay" after
    Jay Ward, the producer of "Rocky and His Friends" and "The Bullwinkle Show". Bullwinkle's [yes, we love mooses too!!] middle initial is also "J". :-) MGW

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  6. I was going to suggest this over at Pete's, but I wasn't sure how the connotation would go over with the language policy there.

    My suggestion for the squirrel's entrance music: "Deez Nutz". Yeah, baby. He's a fly little squirrel, yo.

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  7. Wolf, I think that captures the essence of Squirreldom!

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  8. Charles--Hah! J seems to make a great middle initial!

    Wolf In Pinstripes: Because everyone knows he needs entrance music. Can you imagine, the Stadium erupting...

    I fully expect Game Seven, World Series, the squirrel to appear in the bottom of the ninth, with a man on, two out, down by one and Shelley at the bat...

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  9. It would be classic!! After all, we've already had black cats make an appearance [Mets, '69 and Braves, '57 I think it was]. Don't have a reference, soory, just remember reading it somewhere.

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  10. Turns out I was thinking of shoe-polish incidents. Cleon Jones in the '69 Series with the Mets, and Nippy Jones [no relation, and in his final plate appearance in the bigs!!] in the '57 Series with the Braves. During the stretch drive in '69, when the Mets overhauled the Cubs, a black cat ran through and out of the Cubs' dugout. oincidentally or otherwise, the Cubs' goose was cooked after that.

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