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.


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

Screw Baseball Logic. Rivera Should Have Been Pitching (postgame notes 31 May 2009)

Conventional baseball wisdom is a funny thing.

Conventional baseball wisdom states that in a tie game, on the road, you don't pitch your closer beccause there's always the chance that your team will take the lead and you will need someone to pitch the bottom of that inning.

Conventional baseball wisdom, however, also assumes a few things.

It assumes that the rest of your pitching staff is functional and that your other relievers won't have an issue throwing strikes.

It makes the assumption that everything is playing exactly as it should play.

As you might imagine, the problem with this is that this scenario rarely occurs.

Case in point: today's Yankees' game.

Going into the bottom of the ninth in a tie game, the best pitcher the Yankees had left in their bullpen was their closer, Mariano Rivera.

Now, if the Yankees didn't want to pitch Rivera to start the inning, that's one thing, but once Phil Coke gave up the lead off walk and that runner reached scoring position, the move to go to the unreliably wild David Robertson over Mariano Rivera is baffling once you disregard conventional wisdom.

Even if the Yankees take the lead the next inning, it's not as though Rivera's never pitched two innings before...and while it's understandable that you might not want Mo to pitch two innings, surely then you're more comfortable throwing Robertson or Aceves or whomever out there with the lead than in a tie game while Rivera sits unused.

Having worked exactly once since last Sunday, it's hardly like Rivera's been overtaxed.

Sometimes the best managers are the ones who take conventional logic, and then precede to say, "screw it".

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Otherwise, the game was nothing to get too upset about--Carl Pavano pitched well, but the Yankees struck when Wedge took him out of the game. Teixeira had all four Yankee RBI; Hughes had one bad inning in the third and it kept him from pitching more than five, though he wasn't awful and the game never got out of hand.

Yankees will have a chance to take the series tomorrow evening.

Carl Pavano: Yanks Didn't Pick Me Up

[This was too good to pass up]

When you’re down, you expect your organization to pick you up, not kick you when you’re down. I’ve had to pick myself up quite a few times the last four years.

--Carl Pavano, here.

Now, I know my memory can be pretty bad on occasion, but didn't Cashman and co. pay him $40 million over four seasons?

Didn't they let him pitch last summer even after Pavano had received Tommy John surgery that many believed was unnecessary at the time?

No one denies that injuries happen, but with the garish frequency they occur to Pavano, one has to consider the notion that maybe Pavano simply can't handle the workload of a major league pitcher.


Mark Shapiro has to going "head, meet desk" right about now...

The Price Is Right (Postgame Notes 14 September 08)

The Yankees won the game, but today belonged to Derek Jeter.

Jeter needed just three hits today to tie Lou Gehrig's record for career hits at Yankee Stadium, and...wow, the Jets need a kicker...I mean, Jeter did just that, going 3-4.

His Gehrig-tying hit came on a solo home run, perhaps not in true Jeterian up-the-middle fashion, but it did make you remember, if just for a moment, that watching Derek Jeter is watching greatness.

The other story of the game, and no, I don't mean Carl Pavano getting hurt (again), was the major league debut of David Price.

He came in early for an ineffective Edwin Jackson and motored through the Yankee lineup as though it was an AAA line up.

Okay, so given the offensive struggles, that might not be saying much, but even so...



Right. Going to moan about the lack of defense from the Jets. Pulling my hair out now...

Giants fans, enjoy your win.

Instant Replay, Instant Home Run (Postgame Notes 3 September 2008)

Alex Rodriguez is always at the center of everything.

Therefore, it's not much of a surprise that Alex was involved in the very first use of instant replay.

Lucky for him, the call went his way and he passed Michael Schmidt for 12th on the all time home run list, and broke open a 6-3 ball game.

For the first time since then end of July, the Yankees have won a series against a team with a record better than .500, and in doing so against Tampa, they may very possibly set some interesting things in motion, and Boston is now just three games behind Tampa.

Carl Pavano was not great, but the Yankees won the game and there is not much more one can ask for at this point.

As for the bullpen, Edwar Ramirez got lucky, Phil Coke apparently should have been called up earlier, Brian Bruney was excellent and Jose Veras was shaky, but they got the job done.

Of late the Yankee offense seems to have finally woken up a little bit, having scored 8, 7, 13 and 6 in four of their last five, but they will have to keep this up pretty much the entire month if they are going to have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.

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Today marks the one year anniversary of PBP. Thank you to everyone that's kept reading over the year--this has become so much more than I ever thought it would.