Damaso so good?

If there's one thing that's surprising about the Yankee postseason thus far, it's this: the bullpen has struggled more than we expected.

Mariano is still Mariano, but nearly everyone else has struggled at some point--even Robertson had a less than stellar appearance last night.

Despite the fact that the malaise seems to be so widespread, there's just one Yankee pitcher that seems to bear the brunt of everyone's emotions: Damaso Marte.

The thing is, although Yankee fans are generally astute (I hope, anyway), Marte might not actually deserve all the blame that is being heaped on him.

While it's true that Marte struggled in Game 2 of the ALDS, allowing two hits with no outs in extra innings, he has not allowed anything in the two innings (spread out over four games) he has pitched since then--no hits, no walks, no nothing.

While you might be thinking that spreading two innings over four games may not say much, keep in mind that, as a LOOGY, this is exactly how Marte is supposed to be used: to nab the left handed bats and no more.

In other words, then, what Marte has been doing is simple: his job.

It doesn't sound like much, but when you consider how much the other, normally reliable, relievers are struggling, it does matter.

Would I advocate, like I did with Robertson, for Marte to be used more? No, not really--being used as he is is the best way to use him, and the track record of using him too much isn't pretty--but what I would suggest is that perhaps he does not necessarily need to bear the brunt of our ire.

At any rate, tonight the Yankees need AJ Burnett to be solid. As important as Damaso Marte may or may not be, he will still not be important as the starting pitching the Yankees receive.

The Legend of Mariano Rivera

The kid, no more than six or seven, sees the pitcher warming up in the bullpen.

"Is that Mariano?" He asks, his eyes wide with excitement.

"No," says the man sitting next to him. No, it's not Mo warming up in the bullpen, it's Damaso Marte.

****

One is 42, one is 43, and yet there are such different emotions attached to the two numbers.

What's the difference between 42 and 43?

What's the difference between the sun and the moon, night and day, water and land?

One enters the game and there is an air of inevitability, even when he does his job: the Yankees will lose this game, it's just a matter of when.

One enters the game and there is an air of inevitability, because he does his job: we are witnessing the Hammer of G-d.

****

In his sci-fi series, Douglas Adams humorously proposed that the number 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything.

For the Yankees, 42 is the answer, the solution to any ailment, any ill, any misstepping reliever.

Number two might be an icon, the number most readily associated with the team, but 42 is something else entirely.

Forty-two is legend. Myth. Forty-two cannot be mortal. It cannot.

****

Forty-two has had his failures, just as the Greek gods had theirs, but the failures are noticeable only because the successes are so great.

Of the eight teams to enter the 2009 postseason, midway through the LCS, only one has not blown a save opportunity. Only one.

You have three guesses.

You'll need one.

****

There is one reason that the legend grows: he does not lose himself in it.

He does not promote himself as the Greatest of All Time; he lets others do it for him.

****

When did we know?

Have we always known?

It's grown over the years, grown to the point that we cannot imagine life without Forty Two.

Sometimes they say that the most important ballplayers are the ones that you don't think about until after they are gone, but he has transcended this.

We know he can't pitch forever, but we hope, and he teases us.

He has the greatest season of his career at an age when most athletes have already begun to break down, with an injured shoulder to boot, and he follows it with 2009, with his 500th save, first career RBI, and a flat-out magic act last night.


****

Forty-two doesn't need any Chuck Norris facts, any internet memes or doctored videos. He doesn't need the promotion.

He just does his job. No more and no less.


****

He misplays the bunt.

Going to third is the right decision on the play, the out is right there for him to take, but he slips on the grass and we groan.

We hold our breath. Any other pitcher on the mound and surely some of us would have left, but we can't leave here. All he needs is a chance. A strike out and then a double play, maybe. A broken bat grounder. If anyone can do it, he can.

Chone Figgins grounds out to first. Mark Teixeira makes the put out.

Bobby Abreu is intentionally walked to set up a force, and then Torii Hunter grounds to Teixeira who gets the out at home.

We exhale, a little. An out can't score a run. Vladimir Guerrerro grounds out.

The Stadium explodes.

In this moment, anything is possible.

The legend grows.

Singing the praises of the unsung

There are many heroes to choose from in last night's game.

The most obvious of these is easily Alex Rodriguez, who has gone from having a "Yankee moment" in game 2 of the ALDS to having a "Yankee postseason", pure and simple, but others should not be overlooked.

Like, for example, David Robertson.

Before this season started, we knew a few things about Robertson: he was rumored unhittable when he threw strikes, did not always throw strikes enough, and tended to have issues in high leverage situations.

Well, I must say, the ability to watch a pitcher mature throughout a season is a favorite pastime of many.

Phil Hughes would be the most glaring example--and no, I don't think he's slated for the bullpen permanently, but watching him turn from a question mark to a secret weapon to a not-so-secret weapon has been awesome.

One should not, however, forget Robertson.

In April, there is perhaps no way you trust Robertson in such a high-leveraged spot; in October he's now save the Yankees' collective behinds twice.

The ALDS game 2 performance is certainly flashier--bases loaded, no one out, and not giving up a run--while the ALCS performance involved pouring rain and pitching into Sunday morning.

It does say something about how important a pitcher is perceived by the fans when, as Girardi went to bring in Marte, Twitter was afloat with comments mostly akin to the tune of "we want D-Rob!"

As the Yankees postseason run continues--they are, at the very least, guaranteed at least four more games--more heroes will emerge.

The remaining games the Yankees have to play, however, would have a remarkably different tune without the contribution from the young right hander.

On Bullpens and Nostalgia

Although the Yankees have played just three games in the postseason thus far, a clear pattern seems to be emerging in Joe Girardi's managerial style.

Girardi, as many Yankee fans will remember, was a member of the 1996 Yankee team and had, perhaps, one of the biggest hits in the series--a triple, hit by the most unlikely guy on the team to hit it.

So perhaps it's not much of a surprise, then, that Girardi is managing the Yankees as though the year still was 1996, some 13 (!) years ago. In all three games, Girardi went to the bullpen no later than the seventh inning, and while CC Sabathia's pitch count may have warranted the move, Andy Pettitte's, at a meager 81, did not.

In 1996, the starters left after six for the shut-down duo of Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland.

In 2009, the starters are being removed for the trio of Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera. At least, theoretically, this is what's supposed to be happening.

More than once, however, Chamberlain was pulled before getting the final out of the inning. The example I am thinking of here is Friday night's game, where Chamberlain was pulled for Phil Coke. At the time the move worked, Coke got the strikeout that the Yankees needed, but it hurt the team later on when Damaso Marte was the only, and not very good, lefty in the bullpen in the eleventh inning.

The idea to use a shutdown bullpen a la 1996 is one I understand in theory, but not necessary execution.

It's one thing when you have a game where the starter is clearly gassed by the seventh inning, and thus there is no dilemma, but quite another where your playoff-experienced starter is pitching extremely well and you remove him for a relatively inexperienced (postseason, here) set-up crew.

What happens, then, is that when a game goes into extra innings, Girardi is soon left with a depleted bullpen that may have been avoided.

Again, the idea to shorten the game and get to Mariano as quickly as possible has a lot of merit, both historical and theoretical, but sometimes you will have a situation such as last night, where letting the starter go one more inning or even just one more out is just as prudent as going to the bullpen.

The Twins are easily a weaker opponent than the Angels, and any questionable bullpen decision could be obscured by the Yankees' brute strength that allowed them to overcome deficits in every game. With the Angels, the Yankees are unlikely to have this luxury, so Girardi's use of the bullpen has the potential to become true tabloid fodder.


The major difference I see between the 2009 and 1996 Yankees is that in 1996 the Yankees went to Rivera so quickly not just because Rivera was that good (and he was), but also because the caliber of the starters were not what they are in 2009.

The Yankees shortened the game in 1996 because they had to in order to succeed. The 2009 Yankees are lucky enough that this is not necessarily the case.

*****

So I realize this is kinda a downer post from me, so to cheer you up, have a look at the TV and radio calls of the final 2009 ALDS out

Yankees Sweep Twins, Move to ALCS

For the first time since October 2004, the Yankees won a postseason series.

Not only did they win the series, but they swept the way they were supposed to sweep, not like underachieving squads of not too long ago.

The game was similar to most of the Yankee-Twins games played this season: a close affair in which the Twins had a lead, lost it, and had one too many miscues to be able to recover.

Baserunning miscues may have coast the Twins two games this series, and the Yankees' ability to step on the Twins' neck, with two more runs in the ninth inning to turn a 2-1 nail-biter into a 4-1 game almost assured of being a sure thing with Mariano Rivera on the mound, Minnesota never had much of a chance.

No one will forget that the losing pitcher in this game was Carl Pavano, because it simply fits too well.

Pavano, in a sense, is THE symbol of the underachieving Yankee squads of recent note--$40 million to ride the disabled list, pitching just enough in 2008 to prove he can and get signed by another team in the offseason.

When motivated, Pavano is a decent pitcher--and he showed it tonight, matching Pettitte nearly pitch for pitch into the seventh inning.

Still, even the great Carl Pavano (note the biting sarcasm) could contain the Yankees forever. They were simply a better team than the Twins.

There are no MVPs awarded for the ALDS, but if there was such an award, there is no question that its recipient would be Alex Rodriguez.

How many of you thought you would be reading that sentence back in February?

Long the brunt of many a "but-he's-not-a-true-Yankee" criticism, Rodriguez was simply stellar throughout the series and tonight, again, played a hero, tying the game at one with a no-doubt home run into the stowed away football seats.



Andy Pettitte's pitching was also stellar--only one run through six and a third and only throwing 81 pitches in doing so.

There's a considerable question mark as to whether or not Pettitte should have been removed from the game at that point--and I would argue that Girardi simply remembers 1996 too well: going to a lock-down bullpen in the seventh inning to shorten the game, won championship #23.

It remains to be seen whether or not it will bring about #27, but for the moment Yankee fans can content themselves with the knowledge that no matter what, there will be at least four more games of Yankee baseball in 2009.


*****

Check back throughout the week for ALCS previews and analysis. Game one is Friday, 10/16.

TBS: Total Broadcasting Stinkatude

This from The Biz of Baseball



You know what the worst part? We're stuck with these guys through 2013, and unless I've missed something in the past three years, the broadcasting hasn't improved much, if at all.

Say what you want about Joe Buck's smugness or Tim McCarver, whose made an appearance on my brand new "365 Stupidest Things Ever Said 2010 Calendar", but compared to TBS they're downright palatable, and we all know that says something.

Reflections

By the time you read this post, it will have been 24 hours since the first pitch of last night's ball game and last night's win that was everything that 2006 and 2007 were not.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that last night's game was a microcosm of everything this season, a microcosm of the team, of its flaws and its strengths, of its poise and of its fight.

We've been following this team all year. We know about the walk off wins, about the pies, about the pitching staff that at times is unhittable and at other times can't find anything that looks remotely like a strike zone. We know about all the breaks that just seem to go the Yankees' way, about the A-Rod story that is over and done, and we know about the life injected by Sabathia, Burnett, Swisher and Teixeira.

So last night played out like any important game this season did: a close game with just enough breaks going the Yankees' way and a pie a la AJ.

It can't be a coincidence that Rodriguez has the two biggest home runs (thus far) of the 2009 Yankees: the bottom-of-the-fifteenth inning blast to win a scoreless marathon against Boston, and last night's game-tying ninth inning blast. Rodriguez has hit many other home runs--like the first pitch he saw of the 2009 season and a three run home run and grand slam in the final regular season game, and it seems odd to say but he may very well have been the most underrated Yankee this year.

It can't be a coincidence that, not since the middle of October 2003, did such a thing seem possible.

Yet, this is, historically, who the Yankees are: they reign in October. They find heroes in the likely, in the unlikely, in those in need of redemption and in those further cementing a legendary glory.

Just look at Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and David Robertson.

All three of them have had an impact on 2009--two of them with salaries more than the GDPs of some small nations, and one of them whose role last night might, some years from now, be forgotten by all except his teammates and the most die-hard among his team's fans.

Rodriguez had helped his case with his Game One performance, but he still needed that ultimate redemption, that signature moment in the postseason in which fans could forever ask, "remember when A-Rod hit that home run?".

Mark Teixeira had found himself welcomed this season in the Bronx with open arms--his defense alone, perhaps, being worth the honor--but he was on the verge of an 0-for-two-games and there was not a single Yankee fan that wanted to stomach, no matter how briefly, that as being a possibility.

Then there was Robertson, a bullpen pitcher who has largely remained unnoticed because he has been so effective. The closer and eighth inning spots already taken, Robertson often appeared either earlier, or later, in extra innings, when the most climactic moments of the game seem to have passed by. Robertson, who has none of the experience of Mariano Rivera, found a way to exhibit the same poise.


Three different players, at three very different points in their careers, three different personalities and three different projections and postulations by the media, and yet all three crucial to the win.

That's the thing about the Yankees that resonates so well: sure, there are the heroics from Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Derek Jeter, Reggie Jackson and Alex Rodrigues, but then there are also the heroics from those like Bucky Dent and Chad Curtis, Luis Sojo and Jose Vizcaino.


We don't know what tomorrow's game will bring; the only guarantee is that since the Yankees are not the home team, they can't have a walk off win.

That doesn't seem likely to matter, however, as this team, like the great ones not so long ago, has found a way to win in nearly every situation.

Will the game story be the starter, Andy Pettitte? Will it be another hitter? A baserunning play that saves the Yankees' the game or costs them it? We don't know, and that, perhaps, might be why we love this team so much.

Anything is possible.

Demonize This

"I can't believe this," Jason says. "I can't believe we're going to lose to this team."

"I can," I say, sighing. "My luck isn't that good."

We're sitting in luxury suite 32, tickets that were a gift from my father. We've got a view that looks a bit like this:



Only, now it's night time and everyone's in a bit of a state of disbelief. It's not that the Yankees are losing this game that has us baffled, it's that the Yankee offense has only managed one run and that two of Minnesota's three runs were gotten off of Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera.

Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera. The back end of the Yankees' bullpen. The reason the team won 103 games. They are going to cost the team the game.

****

Earlier:

The story heading into the game was whether or not Joe Giradi (#27 below) and his decision to start Jose Molina over Jorge Posada would be cause for concern.



As it would turn out, the decision would be a non-issue. Molina, as we suspected, did not get a hit, but he never came to the plate in a crucial situation, either.

When AJ Burnett was done pitching after the sixth inning, Jose Molina was done catching. And so it went.




The Yankees didn't score a run until late in the game, when Alex Rodriguez drove in Derek Jeter after Jeter hit a double to right field.



We celebrated A-Rod's RBI hit, his third RBI in two postseason games, further strengthening the notion that A-Rod's demons are stuff of myth and slow-news-day media constructs. We didn't know what would happen later.

After Burnett came out of the game, Joba Chamberlain came in to pitch the seventh.



Chamberlain was sharp, getting the first two hitters he faced out before failing to get the third and Girardi, with a quick hook, pulling him from the game.



We were treated mid-seventh inning to Ronan Tynan's stirring rendition of God Bless America.





The entire Stadium sang with him, maybe because it was him, maybe because it was the postseason, but whatever reason, we sang.

****

In the eighth inning, Phil Hughes fails. The game is a 1-1 tie, and Hughes gets two quick outs, but can't get the third. Minnesota scores one run and Girardi goes to Mariano Rivera, who is more or less the Hammer of God, as multiple sources call him. If Mo can just hold it here, we think, we'll have a chance.

Thing is, Mo does not. The Twins score another run and it's a 3-1 game with only two at bats left for the Yankees.

It gets worse in the bottom of the eighth, when the Yankees go down 1-2-3, not even making an effort of it.

Jason is inconsolable, but the man sitting to my right is stoic.

"They're going to win," he says.

****

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Mark Teixeira is first up.

"He really needs a hit here," Jason says, "he can't take an oh-fer for the first two games." Jason is right. Teixeira doesn't have a postseason hit yet, and if he doesn't get one here, he'll fast become a goat.

Maybe Teixeira hears us; he lines the pitch into right field for a single. The Stadium begins to sense something and gets a little excited.

After all, Alex Rodriguez comes to the plate.



My thoughts are simple: I just want Alex Rodriguez to get on base without making an out. I even pray: please, G-d, please let the Yankees do this. Please let them win.

Jason's are more elaborate: "This place is going to go ape-shit if Alex hits one out."

We watch as Joe Nathan deals ball one to Alex. Then ball two. And ball three. Nathan gets Rodriguez to a 3-1 count and then...

...A long, high, grand drive. It's going to be pretty darned deep. It's going to be at least a double. It's going to hit off the wall. It's going to be GONE.

One swing, and all of the past Rodriguez playoff demons are forgotten as though they had never existed in the first place.





The Stadium crowd is so loud, so excited that it's literally shaking. A home run. A game tying home run. A game tying home run by Alex Rodriguez. A game tying home run by Alex Rodriguez in the ninth inning.

Whatever happens from here on out, we've all beared witness to this. We'll all remember this. Everything about it. Everything that went into it, and everything that came out of it.

We make Rodriguez take a curtain call.

****

The Yankees don't win the game in the ninth, and they don't win the game in the 10th although they should have: Brett Gardner, running for Jorge Posada makes it to third base on a bad throw to second while trying to steal, and Derek Jeter is on first base with only one out.





All Johnny Damon needs to do is hit a fly ball deep enough to score Gardner and the Yankees will win.

Damon, however, does not. He lines out, and because Gardner is halfway to home--having gone on contact--it becomes an easy double play.

The Stadium deflates. Minnesota has another chance and the Yankees are running out of pitchers.

****

Damaso Marte enters the game because Joe Girardi has already used Phil Coke.

Marte hasn't had a good season and none of us have much faith in Marte's ability to get three outs. We'll take just one, and Marte can't even do that tonight.

Girardi has three choices: leave Marte in, go to Chad Gaudin or go to David Robertson. Gaudin is a generally effective long reliever, but Robertson, who has occasionally struggled in high-leverage situations, has the better stuff.

Girardi goes to Robertson.

At first, the choice is disheartening as Robertson allows a single that loads the bases with no one out.

"There is no possible way this can end well," I say, not because I'm Optimist Prime, but because I want to temper my own expectations.

Yet, Robertson gets the next batter to line out to Teixeira, so hard that no one has a chance to tag and score.

After one out, there's a soft grounder that Teixeira throws home for out number two, and all of a sudden, there is a palpable relief of tension. It doesn't matter how the third out is gotten, just as long as there's the out.

There's a fly ball to Brett Gardner, who sets under it, catches it, and runs off the field.

***

It's fitting that in the bottom of the eleventh, Teixeira is first at bat.



He had the two stellar defensive plays last half inning, and had he not had that single in the ninth inning, Rodriguez's home run would have meant little.

Here, we'd just like Teixeira to get on base. We want the game to end this inning.

So Jose Mijares, a rookie reliever who's not actually that shabby, pitches to a $180 million first baseman.

There's a drive to left field.

We know it's hit hard enough, but we don't know if it's fair or foul.

It stays fair, but we don't know if it's high enough.

It has the height. Just. Barely. It grazes the top of the wall, and if you watch the replay, you can hear a hush as the crowd tries to process what has just happened. Then we realize:

"It went over! It's over! We win!"









We stay for the pie, because you have to. These are the New York Yankees, this is 2009. You stay for the pie.




****

I had never before been to a game and thought, afterwards, "I'll remember this for the rest of my life."

Never, that is, until tonight.


*****

I was able to meet up with a fair few: fellow bloggers Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues, Amanda Rykoff (@amandarykoff), fellow blog reader Justin Y. and beat writer Marc Carig (@ledger_yankees).

I went to meet Justin while the Twins were taking BP. Justin was sitting in the bleachers, but we'd never met before, so while I was looking for him I wasn't entirely paying attention to what was going on on the field.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a bad idea. My head was nearly lopped off by a home run ball, saved only by my very innate and well developed instinct to duct.

I attended the game with Jason Rosenberg from It's about the money, Stupid. He has a much, much better camera than I do so please hit him up for some truly amazing shots.

TBS LDS Coverage Lacking

It's become an almost perennial right: to complain and mope about the TV or radio crew broadcasting a current baseball game. We complain about John Sterling, about Michael Kay, about Joe Buck and Tim McCarver and about Joe Morgan and John Miller.

In fact, the only currently working broadcaster of whom I have not heard a bad word spoken is one Vin Scully.


Still, despite our lofty expectations--that the play-by-play announcer receive timely eye exams so that faulty depth perception may be corrected with *gasp* glasses, that the HD feed remain steady without freezing or jumping, that the camera angle be set to the greatest advantage for the fans--the TBS broadcasts of the 2009 League Division Series have got to be at or at least very very near the bottom of the barrel.

My biggest issue right now is that TBS still employs Chip Caray to do play-by-play broadcasting.

Check out this post from It's About the Money Stupid. One line sums it up: "Line drive. Base hit. Caught out there."

We all saw this when we were watching the Twins/Tigers game--perhaps one of the greatest baseball games ever played. Well, almost all of us. I had by then switched to the Spanish language broadcast--something I'd taken to doing last year to avoid listening to announcers I couldn't stand. (Hey, as a way to get some language practice, it actually works pretty well, but I digress).

The astute fans out there took that immortal Dewey-defeats-Truman photo and replaced Truman's face with Caray's, and the paper's headline morphed to "line drive, base hits!".

The pity here is that Caray has been paired with Ron Darling, who by many counts, is one of the best that national-level broadcasting has to offer. Darling deserves better.



Next, we have the issue of Off-center vs dead center cameras. Click on the link to RAB and watch the video clip--it's enlightening.

TBS can't be held accountable for using off-center cameras when there are no dead-center cameras available, but as the video states, the network is using only off center cameras even though dead center options exist in Boston and St. Louis--two cities with playoff teams.

This is perhaps an issue that should be addressed at greater length in the off-season. I'm not sure that every stadium can fit in a dead-center camera, but I would imagine that it's a possibility for most.

We're so concerned about getting the best viewing experience possible, it'd be nice if we could actually see pitches the way that they really are, and not at a tilted angle that can obscure whether they are inside or outside of the strike zone.


Speaking of an enjoyable viewing experience, TBS has got to do something about their 'technical difficulties' with the feed.

On numerous occasions--and this isn't just me--the feed has frozen, both audio and visual, and sometimes for long enough periods of time that game action is missed--such as last night when catcher's interference was called in the Boston/LA Angels game, and none of us got to see it. Instead the broadcast went blank, to commercials, back to blank and only then picked up the action at the top of the next inning.

TBS here isn't some regional start-up network; it's a major national station which is
broadcasting playoff baseball--you know, games that actually really matter.

I'm not looking for Hall of Fame broadcasting quality here, I'm looking for basic competency, and so far TBS has not impressed.

I don't know when TBS' broadcast rights are up, but at this moment it's hard to imagine another station would be that much worse.

Ghosts? What ghosts?

The common refrain going around the Yankee fan base right now is that while nothing is guaranteed, and that the Yankees are not guaranteed to win their series against the Twins, there is a different feel around this year's squad than there has been in many years. This team is likable, fun to root for and really, really damned good.

So nevermind CC Sabathia's less than stellar postseason ERA or Alex Rodriguez's absence of a decent postseason since the ALCS of 2004.

This is a team where expectations are not just high for the free agents signees who make more in a year than some entire countries, but for those who have played only for the Yankees and those who came to the Yankees in unheralded trades. The team won 103 games in the regular season, and one or two players can't win 103 games all on their own. Though, God knows Albert Pujols tried.


As with any beginning, there are opening ceremonies of a sort. With the ALDS it's nothing too spectacular--full line ups and guys in uniform, but it's somewhat muted. It's good to be here, but there's still a while to go before the grand prize.



When the players are introduced, some receive particularly loud accolades--like Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter--while others receive, well, lots of non-accolades. Like Carl Pavano.



Because of the odd start time, the Stadium was still fairly empty as the lineups were being announced.



By the time the first pitch was thrown, however, almost every seat was filled.

The National Anthem always seems to add a sense of "this is it, this is what we live for."





As the Yankees take the field, there is a rush of excitement. As stated earlier, if you're a fan at that Stadium at that time, you're either way amped up, or you're dead.



With no other game going on at the present moment, the scoreboard instead displays the line up of both teams, highlighting the next batter to come to bat.



The blazing lights against the sunset make for an auspicious early game atmosphere.



The Twins took an early 2-0 lead that could have never have been: had a close pitch been called a strike three, CC Sabathia would have gotten out of the inning. Instead, a couple hits and a passed ball, and the Twins had a 2-0 lead.

That lead was, however, short lived.

Reason A: Derek Jeter



Jeter has done a lot of great things in his career and is something of an immortal among Yankee fans. Hitting a left field home run to tie a game? Awesome. And in the postseason? Well, there's only one Derek Jeter.



Hit a home run like that, then hear the entire Stadium erupt in chants of M-V-P! M-V-P! (Yes, we know it's going to Mauer. No, we don't care.)


Meanwhile, Sabathia must have been somewhat mindful of his rapidly escalating pitch count: he settled down and started to deal.



Despite having over 70 pitches after the fourth inning, Sabathia pitched into the seventh inning and did not walk a single batter.

The Twins were the first to go to their bullpen--by this time the Yankees had already taken the lead.



Who did the Twins call upon?



I swear I'm not making this up.

Not too long afterwards, Hideki Matsui hit a home run--the type that screams HEY YAY INSURANCE RUNS! My friend Brent summed up our reactions pretty well.





With two outs in the seventh inning and the Yankees with a four run lead, Joe Girardi did the prudent thing and went to the bullpen before Sabathia's pitch count approached abusive levels. He left to a raucous ovation.



In came Young Master Hughes.



There was a massive Orlando Cabrera at bat just to end the seventh inning, but Hughes got the job done, and instead of having to face Joe Mauer with the bases loaded, Joe Mauer came up in the 8th with no one on.

This is the only game I've ever been to where I've actually heard people sing "God Bless America".



It was a stirring rendition courtesy of the NY Pops



This is just a really awesome late-game shot:




Out went Phil Hughes, and in came Joba Chamberlain. Phil Coke also made an appearance and had the best possible appearance for a reliever: one pitch, one out. It was nearly a double play, but Mauer was just a shade too nimble for Teixeira.




With a five run lead--and here it should be noted that two of these runs, yes two are the direct responsibility of Alex Rodriguez, something you haven't seen in an October write up for a while--it perhaps seems strange that the Yankees bring in their closer, but this is October. You don't take chances.

Enter Sandman. Exit Twins.










Magic number, that real magic number that all Yankee fans really care about, is now down to ten.

And we'll see you Friday night!

You Yankee fan, you're either amped up or dead

You wait all season for this: October baseball. It is the promised land.

Today, as one tweeter put so well, is like Christmas except you don't have to buy anyone presents or go to Church (unless you count Yankee Stadium as Church, in which case you want to go).

This is where the Yankees belong on game one of the 2009 postseason: In front of a raucous crowd of 45,000(+) fans, on a cool October night, with CC Sabathia on the mound and every single person living and breathing baseball.

Some will call us spoiled, we only had to wait one year, but even one year without baseball in the Bronx in October is one year too many. So tonight, we celebrate the return, however shortly-awaited it may have been.

You might be cheering from the stands, from the bleachers, from a bar or from your living room, but you will be cheering, because this is what it means to be a Yankee fan.

You'll be cheering every Sabathia strike, yelling epithets after every first pitch swing by a Yankee batter and still confused that Jose Molina will be starting playoff games in a five game series.

You've actually looked at plane tickets from JFK to Minnesota, even if they cost more than all you currently have in your bank account.

You're ducking out of work or class early because you just can't fathom missing the first pitch.

You can't think about anything but baseball.

You're a Yankee fan, and you're either amped up, or you're dead.


****

Some deity out there has smiled unnaturally on me, and I'll be at games one and two. If you're going and would like to say hi, send me a tweet or an email and I'll do my best. I can't provide live coverage of the games, but I will come back bearing photos, I promise!