There’s only one game tonight–Dodgers v. Cardinals, back in St. Louis. The late game in Colorado was called on the count of winter and rescheduled for tomorrow night when it will presumably be less wintery. How, maybe you can figure that out and get back to me.
In the meantime, here’s an open thread for the Cards game, as the Dodgers look to sweep.
And here’s one of the most vibey, sultry-sounding records Duke Ellington ever made:
My father is close by whenever I see Reggie Jackson. Mr. October was my first sports hero and one of the few athletes that my father could stomach. In fact, the old man admired Reggie more than somewhat. Last night, I smiled when I saw Reggie throw out the first pitch. Not because he couldn’t reach plate–the ball reached the catcher on a hop–but because Reggie looked like a bad ass in his black hat. It was the kind of hat my father fancied in his later years. Reggie has to cover up the bald spot, but still, the hat looked good.
From Reggie to Alex. I have enjoyed rooting for Alex Rodriguez because he reminds me of the feeling I had watching Reggie when I was a kid, the tension, the drama, the sense that something special is going to happen, the disappointment when it doesn’t. It’s pure sensation, expectation and hope, pre-adolescent hero worship. It has almost nothing to do with Rodriguez the man–although I love what most people dislike about him, his neediness his neurosis–it is about my childhood fantasy to have the best player come through when it matters. Like Reggie did.
Rodriguez’s RBI single in the sixth inning, which tied the game at one, was satisfying, but his two-run home run in the ninth, tying the game again, was the hit we’ve been waiting from him since 2004. It is the dinger that stops the A Rod is a choker storyline dead in its tracks.
What I loved about the at bat against Minnesota’s closer Joe Nathan was how Rodriguez laid off the first three pitches, all breaking balls. The 2-0 slider was just off the outside corner and was a pitch that Rodriguez would have offered at in the 2005 or ’06 playoffs. He didn’t swing at any of that slop this time, took a fastball low and inside for a strike and then squared up the next pitch, another fastball, right over the plate. It was a classic Rodriguez homer–to right center field.
My body was still humming hours later.
The Twins needed to steal a game in New York, but thanks to Rodriguez–and a little help from his friends–the Yankees were ones who stole this game from the Twins. The Bombers also had some luck with a Jeffery Maier style blown call from the umps. Still, Minnesota put runners on base in every inning and left seventeen men on. They had a ton of chances and…take it away Mr. D:
AJ Burnett showed up, Mark Teixeira showed up. And how. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game-winning home run take such an odd bounce. When his line drive hit off the top of the left field wall and shot into the air, I had no idea if it was coming back in play or over the wall.
Now, Pavano for Sunday gravy.
Today, life is good.
I don’t even know where to start. The Yankees beat the Twins 4-3 in 11 innings in Game Two of the ALDS on Friday night in the Bronx in what might have been the most exciting Yankee postseason win since the Aaron Boone game in 2003.
Starting pitchers A.J. Burnett and Nick Blackburn matched zeros for five innings. Blackburn allowed only a walk to Hideki Matsui before Robinson Cano, who along with Mark Teixeira was one of just two Yankee starters who went hitless in Game One, singled with two outs in the fifth. Burnett put runners on in every inning, but stranded them in the first five.
The first big play of the game came in the top of the fourth. After getting two quick outs, Burnett hit Delmon Young in the back and Carlos Gomez in the hand to put runners on first and second. Matt Tolbert then lined a clean single to shallow right center for what looked like the first RBI hit of the game, but Gomez took a wide turn around second then slipped. With Derek Jeter standing on second screaming for the ball, Nick Swisher fired to second to catch Gomez off the bag just moments before Young was able to cross home, ending the inning without a run scoring.
The Twins finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the sixth after Young drew a one-out walk and stole second as Gomez struck out. Tolbert was due up, but had come down with a strained oblique, forcing Twins manager Ron Gardenhire to pinch-hit with Brendan Harris. Harris, who hit .238/.289/.340 against right-handers on the season, took to 3-1, then launched a bomb to the left-field gap. Johnny Damon did his jump-and-fall-down routine in a hopeless attempt to catch the ball, and the ball ricocheted off the wall and got past Melky Cabrera giving Harris an RBI triple. Burnett stranded Harris by getting Nick Punto to ground out on what proved to be his last pitch of the night. Then the Yankees answered back.
With Burnett out of the game, Joe Girardi sent Jorge Posada up to hit for Jose Molina. Posada flew out, but Derek Jeter crushed a ground-rule double to right center, and two batters later the new Alex Rodriguez delivered yet another two-out RBI single to tie the game.
Joba Chamberlain and Phil Coke split a scoreless seventh. John Rauch answered with a 1-2-3 inning of his own. That passed the ball to Phil Hughes in the eighth. Taking his cue from Burnett, Hughes got two quick outs and had the crowd roaring “Huuuughes” with the count 1-2 on Gomez, but then issued three straight balls to put Gomez on base. That man Harris followed with a single that sent Gomez to third (and nearly to home). That brought up Nick Punto, the Twins gritty, gutty, scrappy, crappy ninth hitter. Punto took to 2-2, fouled off a pitch, then singled through the middle scoring Gomez with the go-ahead run.
Crap.
Joe Girardi then brought in Mariano Rivera who, as the TBS announcers reported, had allowed just 3 hits in 50 at-bats with men in scoring position in his postseason career. That became 4-for-51 as Denard Span singled Harris home to give the Twinks a 3-1 lead. Watching Rivera give up an insurance run, the Yankee Stadium crowd fell dead silent.
Twins set-up ace Matt Guerrier and Rivera exchanged scoreless innings, handing that 3-1 lead to Joe Nathan in the ninth. The first time these two teams met this season, the Yankees opened the series with a trio of walk-off wins at Yankee Stadium. In the first of those, Joe Nathan was handed a two-run lead in the ninth only to cough up both the lead and the game, one of just two losses Nathan suffered on the season.
Perhaps I had that game in the back of my mind, because looking at the Yankee batters due up–Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, and Hideki Matsui–I was convinced the Yankees would get a bloop from Teixeira and a blast from Rodriguez to tie the game.
Guess what?
Teixeira hit a 1-1 rope into right field for a lead-off single, and Alex Rodriguez, after taking to 3-1, crushed a fastball to the back wall of the Yankee bullpen in right for a game-tying home run.
