Aw, hell. It’s never fun once the season is over, though in some ways it is a relief.
Here are some final thoughts via the intrepid Chad Jennings.
Over at Grantland, Jonah Keri has a thoughtful take on what happened and what’s next for the Bombers.
And here’s our man Cliff.
Thank you guys for hanging around for our 10th season here at the Banter. Don’t go away, we’ll be here, as usual, all day, every day.
[Photo Credit: Hiki]
It was already 1-0 when I got on the train to come home this evening. It was 2-0 when I went out of cell service deep beneath Harlem. I held my breath as the train climbed up from 191st St to Dyckman, 6-0 and the season was over before I even got to my stop.
The Yankees completed their crash out of the ALCS with a loss to the Tigers, 8-1. Swept for the first time since 1980. They had only two hits to finish the series batting .157 as a team. If justice prevails, this will not be remembered as Arod’s Waterloo but rather as lineup-wide systemic failure.
The roots of this sweep are buried in Game 4 of the ALDS when the Yankees failed to finish the Orioles. They could have started CC Sabathia in Game 1 of the ALCS and then who knows? Some will say it doesn’t matter, that the Yankees didn’t hit enough this series to bother entertaining “What If” scenarios, but for three games out of four, they were one hit, or one call from an umpire, away from winning.
CC Sabathia pitched a whale of a game in Game 5 of the ALDS, but he didn’t have anything left for this one. For the first time in nine games, the Yankee starter didn’t give the lineup a chance to win. CC came up small, no way to sugarcoat that. I think his two games against the Orioles probably speak louder than this stinkifesto, but we’ll see how the fans react.
I know Alex Rodriguez was bad in this postseason. He looked incapable of hitting a right handed pitcher and I don’t fault Joe Girardi for seeking other options. Eric Chavez pinch hit for Alex Rodriguez in Game 4 of the ALDS. He replaced Alex for 12 at bats in total in the Postseason and went 0 for 12 with six strikeouts.
As disappointing as this series was, from Jeter’s injury to the Alex-drama to today’s drubbing, I refuse to be crushed about this outcome. The Yankees played a very gutsy series with Orioles, and won even while hitting like shit. They played three tough games with the Tigers and lost, while hitting even worse. They have been playing playoff-tension-level baseball since early September and have answered every must-win game with a win until the ALCS. They have earned a lot of respect.
I refuse to be crushed because I am part of a household that is just learning about baseball and if you can’t take losing, you can’t enjoy this game. I am part of a household, that for reasons that will never be entirely clear, cares as much about the Pittsburgh Pirates as the New York Yankees. In this environment, disappointment is allowed but rending of garments is exposed as self-centered silliness.
I rarely felt like I was watching a World Champion when the Yankees played this year, but they were the best team in the American League for 162 games and they own as much claim to the “best team in baseball” as anybody. Admittedly, 2012 didn’t feature a truly great team, but hey, maybe that means 2013 is wide open, too. The Yanks don’t have that much to do to be right back in it again next year.
Photo via Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images
Game Four, Take Two:
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Never mind holding back: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Jeremy Geddes via This Isn’t Happiness]
Tonight’s game will be played tomorrow afternoon.
Some brighter news, as I mentioned in the previous thread, The Banter was singled out in this week’s “Best of NYC” issue of The Village Voice:
Sportswriting, whether in print or online, has become awfully balkanized to name a single writer as above the rest. That said, Alex Belth is good both in his long free-association pieces on his website, Bronx Banter, and reviewing books for Sports Illustrated. But as a website host, he truly excels. Bronx Banter goes far beyond the Bronx and baseball with all kinds of terrific interviews (Pat Jordan, Pete Dexter, the late George Kimball) and a terrific array of great reprints from writers of the past like W.C. Heinz, Murray Kempton, Roger Kahn, etc. No one cares more about the history of New York sportswriting or does more to preserve it. In an age when past memories are fading without new ones coming along to replace them, Bronx Banter offers a wonderful mix of past and present with an eye on the future. It’s a New York treasure.
Happy to share this with all of you guys. Y’all keep the Banter fresh. I love doing this, man. We’re coming up on our 10th anniversary and I enjoy this joint as much now as I did when I started. Nah, scratch that, I like it even more.
Ya heard?
[Photo Via: Chillwalker]
Season on the line.
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Nick Swisher RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Never mind the mishegoss: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Thomas Prior]
Here goes:
Brett Gardner LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Raul Ibanez DH
Russell Martin C
Eric Chavez 3B
Curtis Granderson CF
Eduardo Nunez SS
Last Chance Saloon tonight.
Never mind the Odds: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Steven Siegel]
Tonight…Justin Verlander aka Doom.
“It’s a fun challenge,” Mark Teixeira said. “People think we’re crazy to say that, but it is a fun challenge, because if you’re going to win a World Series, you got to beat the best, and he is the best right now. So we’re going to Detroit, their crowd’s going to be rocking, they’re going to be cheering for their own team, so we have an opportunity to do something special and win a few games out there.”
[Photo Credit: Damian Strohmeyer/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images]
Yeah, there’s life beyond the Yankees. I guess. So I’ve heard.
NLCS Game Two.
Have at it.
[Photo Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images North America via It’s a Long Season]
The Yankees are using Jeff Nelson’s blown call–and perhaps Derek Jeter’s injury–to avoid the fact that have all but laid down and played dead when they are up to bat. It’s not the ump’s fault, fellas, it’s your own.
The Yankee offense continued its run of futility today and it cost them another game as they were shutout, 3-0. That’s the main story though there are a few subplots worth mentioning. First, Hiroki Kuroda was terrific, giving up three runs (should have been just one) in 7.2 innings, five hits, no walks and 11 strikeouts. Working on three days rest for the first time in his major league career, he was a stud. Second, is that there were so many empty seats at the Stadium today you’d think this was Atlanta in the late ’90’s. It’s as if Yankee fans showed their displeasure by staying away or that since Derek Jeter wasn’t going to be there, neither were they.
The other, more enraging part of the game was a blown call buy Jeff Nelson in the eighth inning that would have kept the score 1-0. Omar Infante overran second base on a base hit to right field, Nick Swisher threw the ball to Robinson Cano who applied the tag.
Instead of ending the inning, the Tigers took advantage of the umpire’s gaffe and tacked on two runs. Joe Girardi got himself run arguing the call and spent most of his post-game press conference talking about instant replay (while Nick Swisher bellyached about the Bleacher Creatures). Nelson told reporters, “The hand did not get in before the tag.The call was incorrect…I had the tag late and the hand going into the bag before the tag on the chest.”
“I think the umpire got confused ’cause he saw my hand, something with my hand made him think I was safe,” Infante said.
When asked if he he out, Infante said, “Of course.”
Two critical calls go against the Yankees in the first two games and yet while they give us something to pin our anger on, it’s not what cost them either game. The Yankees didn’t win today because they couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a fucking boat. Four hits all game and none for Robinson Cano, their best player who is in a horrid drought-0-for-his-last 26. ‘
Shit, even if they could hit that doesn’t mean it’d result into runs crossing the plate.
“We’ve been through stretches like this all year,” Alex Rodriguez said. “It has been a very volatile stock market for us this year. You just hope you take a day off and come back with a lot of energy and turn it around…It may start with a change of scenery. I think getting a day of rest tomorrow, take a deep breath, everybody come out and not try to do too much, let the river flow a little bit. We’ve been used to this type of hostile environment and having our backs against the wall, but I’ll tell you what, our heads are not going to go down.”
The fair weather, front running dilettantes have already bailed on this team as evidenced by all the empty seats today.
As irritated as we may be, however, round these parts we stick with our team through it all. And yeah, Verlander vs. Hughes in Game Three seems like Doom on a Platter. But stranger things have happened. Like the 1996 Whirled Serious, as Matt B pointed out last night in a text last night.
Regardless of the slumps and the loss of Jeter and the overall mishegoss we love our boys. And if we don’t always love ’em, we won’t stop rooting them on. They aren’t done yet, no matter how poorly they are hitting, and they are still one of the the final four teams playing.
Could be worse. Could be raining.
Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America; Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Sports]
Yeah, things look grim. But you know what? The Yanks are winning today. Hiroki will be good enough, they’ll score a mess of runs, win one for the Jeppier, and leave New York with the series tied.
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Russell Martin C
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Curtis Granderson CF
Nick Swisher RF
Jayson Nix SS
Never mind last night: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
For the Yankees, Game One of the ALCS, went from regrettable, to unbelievable, to unforgettable in the worst way.
In the first inning the Yankees loaded the bases against Doug Fister and Alex Rodriguez hit a hard ground ball that was speared by Jhonny Peralta who threw to second just in time to get the force out to end the inning. For Rodriguez, it was more bad luck. Then in the second, Robinson Cano came to bat with two outs and the bases loaded. He hit a line drive up the middle that knocked off Fister’s hand and went high in the air. Peralta fielded it with one hand, threw to first and Cano was called out though the replays showed that he was safe. Right, bad luck.
The Tigers scored a couple of runs against Andy Pettitte in the top of the sixth and in the bottom of the inning Mark Teixeira reached on a single and moved to third on a double by Raul Ibanez. Rodriguez took a curve for a strike, fouled off a fastball that was his pitch to hit and then hacked at a curve ball out of the strike zone for the first out. Nick Swisher laid off a tough curve on a 2-2 pitch and eventually walked. But Curtis Granderson whiffed on three pitches and so did Russell Martin.
No bad luck this time, just the brand of offensive offense we’ve gotten used to around these parts. All three outs were made on undisciplined at bats.
And so we Yankee fans spent the next few innings cursing and muttering and what difference did it make when Delmon Young hit a seed for a line drive home run or when the Tigers added another one to make it 4-0?
Emily and I watched this misery in the living room of our friends’ apartment in midtown. They’ve got kids and were fading fast in the eighth so we excused ourselves and got in the car by the time the Yanks came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. As we made our way from the east side to the west side–no, taking the FDR uptown when there is a game on–I just hoped the game could continue for as long as possible.
So it was John Sterling that guided us west and I gave a solemn fist pump when he told us that Ichiro hit a two run home run. Cano was next and he worked the count full–please, get on base, Robbie–but struck out. One last out and Teixeira came up as we crossed over Sixth Avenue. He quickly fell behind 0-2 but worked the count full and then drew a walk.
Ibanez. Sterling asked if we could possibly demand more from him? “Sure, we can,” I said. And on the 0-1 pitch, I turned off 9th Ave onto 43rd Street when Sterling went into his “It is high…” call. We held our breath and waited to see if Ibanez hit a pop up to the right fielder or if he in fact hit one out. Sterling’s call was just apprehensive enough to make those few seconds feel like hours. But when it was done, and the home run was verified, I couldn’t even scream. I held my breath and clutched the wheel.
But he’d done it again. And the score was tied.
Rafael Soriano got the Tigers out in the tenth and we watched the rest from home. Saw the Yankees fail to bring home a runner on second with one out in the bottom of the inning, Russell Martin swinging for Jupiter on a 2-0 pitch and every ensuing pitch after that before he flew out. Derek Jeter unable to do the job after him. Ichiro led off with a single one inning later but Cano–0-6–couldn’t do dick and neither could Teixeira or Ibanez.
The trouble here was that Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder loomed in the twelfth. Sure enough, Dave Phelps walked Cabrera who advanced to second on a ground out by Fielder. And then Young lined a ball to right and Nick Swisher, who has specialized in rolling around the ground like a stuck pig for two games–except maybe in the sixth on Young’s blooper–missed the ball. He rolled and tumbled but he whiffed on the ball, a play that must be made. Cabrera grinned all the way home and the Tigers had a lead that they would not relinquish. Maybe Swisher lost the ball in the lights or maybe he made a horrible mistake.
Then things got worse. A ground ball up the middle by Peralta and Derek Jeter stumbled after it. He gloved it but fell over and flipped the ball to Cano. Then Jeter yelled and then he didn’t get up. That doesn’t happen to Jeter. It was hard to see what happened on the replays but his left leg got caught underneath him and he appeared to roll his left ankle. Next thing you know, he’s being helped off the field by Joe Girardi and the trainer, applying no pressure to his left leg.
The Stadium was silent.
Didn’t matter that Phelps botched a ground ball that led to another run or that the Yanks went meekly in the bottom of the inning and lost the game. Here’s the news: Jeter’s ankle is fractured and he’s done for the series. The early word says he’ll recover in three months.
A frustrating night turned thrilling ended with a dispiriting conclusion.
Oy Veh.
[Photo Credit: Touchn2btouched]
It will be cold tonight in the Bronx. I’ll be out most of the evening and won’t be around the game thread but hope to be back before the end of the game.
Here’s the lineup:
Derek Jeter SS
Ichiro Sukuki LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Nick Swisher RF
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Never mind 2006, never mind 2011: Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Bryan Sargent]
From Chad Jennings here’s the roster (Eppley added, Nunez dropped):
PITCHERS
CC Sabathia
Andy Pettitte
Hiroki Kuroda
Phil Hughes
Rafael Soriano
Dave Robertson
Boone Logan
Joba Chamberlain
Clay Rapada
Cody Eppley
David Phelps
Derek Lowe
CATCHERS
Russell Martin
Chris Stewart
INFIELDERS
Mark Teixeira
Robinson Cano
Derek Jeter
Alex Rodriguez
Eric Chavez
Jayson Nix
OUTFIELDERS
Curtis Granderson
Nick Swisher
Ichiro Suzuki
Raul Ibanez
Brett Gardner
And the schedule:
Tonight
ALCS Game 1
Tigers at Yankees
8:07 p.m., TBS
Sunday
ALCS Game 2
Tigers at Yankees
4:07 p.m., TBS
NLCS Game 1
Cardinals at Giants
8:15 p.m., FOX
Monday
NLCS Game 2
Cardinals at Giants
8:07 p.m., FOX
Tuesday
ALCS Game 3
Yankees at Tigers
8:07 p.m., TBS
Wednesday
NLCS Game 3
Giants at Cardinals
4:07 p.m., FOX
ALCS Game 4
Yankees at Tigers
8:07 p.m., TBS
Thursday
ALCS Game 5
Yankees at Tigers
4:07 p.m., TBS
NLCS Game 4
Giants at Cardinals
8:07 p.m., FOX
Friday
NLCS Game 5
Giants at Cardinals
8:07 p.m., FOX
Saturday
ALCS Game 6
Tigers at Yankees
8:07 p.m., TBS
Sunday
NLCS Game 6
Cardinals at Giants
4:45 p.m., FOX *
ALCS Game 7
Tigers at Yankees
8:15 p.m., TBS
Monday
NLCS Game 7
SF @ WSH or STL @ SF
8:07 p.m., FOX
* If ALCS is complete, then NLCS Game 6 will shift to 7:45 p.m. (ET).
[Photo Credit: David Rachman]
The Orioles are dead. The reason I know this is I saw them lose with my own eyes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have believed it.
They pursued the Yankees all summer long, took the ALDS to five games and in the eighth inning had the bases loaded with one out, down by a couple of runs. Right there biting at the Yankees’ heels because where else would they be? But tonight, CC Sabathia delivered arguably his finest performance as a Yankee. He not only got out of the jam in the eighth but he returned in the ninth and finished the game as the Yanks beat the Orioles 3-1 to advance to the ALCS.
The game began essentially where it left off last night and for the first four-and-a-half innings it was like watching Groundhog’s Day. No hits, no runs.
Then Mark Teixeira led off the bottom of the fifth with a single over the shift into right field. With first baseman Mark Reynolds playing behind him, Teixeira took a walking lead and then sprinted to second and made it safely. Raul Ibanez fouled off a few pitches and then singled Teixeira home. The next inning, Derek Jeter walked with one out and scored all the way from first on a double off the bottom of the right center field wall by Ichiro. And then in the seventh, Curtis Granderson finally got a pitch in the strike zone that he could handle, pounding it into the seats in right field for a home run.
That gave Sabathia a healthy 3-0 lead and he cruised through the Orioles lineup. The only bad moment–and it was a hold-your-breath-tight spot–came in the sixth when Nate McClouth launched a 3-2 pitch high into the right field seats. It went over the foul pole and was ruled foul. The Orioles protested, the umps huddled, and the replays showed that the ball was in fact foul. However, one replay, with an extreme close up of the pole, showed that the ball could have scraped the pole. You can see the ball slightly change directions as it passed the yellow stick. But it wasn’t clear enough to overturn the call and the umps upheld their original call. McClouth whiffed on the next pitch and before you knew it, Ichiro had given the Yanks a two-run cushion.
Sabathia worked easily through the seventh and then came his bend-but-don’t-break eighth. Matt Wieters singled to start the inning and Manny Machado followed with a walk. Mark Reynolds worked the count even, missed a fastball that got too much of the plate (fouling it off), and then whiffed on a breaking ball. Had a pitch, missed the pitch.
But Lew Ford hit a ground ball through the left side for a base hit–watching the replay it was as if someone yelled “Timber” as Jeter dove after it. I thought Brett Gardner, who’d just entered the game as a defensive replacement, had a play at the plate on the slow-footed Wieters but instead threw to third base in order to prevent the runners from advancing.
Robert Andino, another scrapper, hit a slow chopper toward third. Sabathia hopped after it, fielded and then hesitated for a moment, looking at third base. But Chavez had gone after the ball too and wasn’t near the bag. The play was to first, but Sabathia threw to second instead. Too late. His mistake loaded the bases.
He summoned up a mess of courage, struck out McClouth and then got JJ Hardy to hit a slow ground ball to short. Jeter charged in, fielded the ball, and then made an off balanced throw to first. It reached Teixeira in plenty of time for the third out. Jeter may not have much range but he didn’t botch the one right at him–and one he had to make a play on, it was no gimme–when the chips were down.
Sabathia came back out in the ninth, got Adam Jones to sky out to Gardner, struck out Chris Davis, and ended the game by getting Wieters to hit a harmless ground ball to the mound. Sabathia tossed the ball to Teixeira like he was tossing an egg at the county fair.
Final Score: Yanks 3, O’s 1.
CC is a Stud.
The Orioles were resilient and relentless. The Yankees, as fate had it, were a touch better, or luckier.
However you want to call it, the Bronx be happy.
Tomorrow gives the Tigers. Tonight gives relief, hugs, and love.
[Photo Credit: Alex Trautwig/Getty Images North America; Elsa/Getty Images North America]
It is cold in New York today and probably just as well that Game 5 of the ALDS begins in the late afternoon instead of tonight.
It’s down to CC and the bats, minus Alex Rodriguez:
Derek Jeter SS
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Raul Ibanez DH
Nick Swisher RF
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Eric Chavez 3B
Never mind nuthin’ but today. Once more–with feeling:
Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Via: Running Amuck]
I don’t feel much better this morning, you? Maybe some optimism will creep in as the day goes on–there’s CC to look forward to after all–but right now I’m cranky.
What you guys got?
[Picture by Bags]
When we talk about 1968 in baseball we think of Bob Gibson and all those low earned run averages and what is called “The Year of the Pitcher.” But when he wrote about it at the time, Roger Angell dubbed that season “the Year of the Infield Pop Up” which just goes to show how perception changes.
The Yankees and Orioles have been at each all year long, splitting the regular season series, 9-9. The O’s chased the Yanks down in the second half, tied them for first but couldn’t get passed them. They beat the Rangers in the Wildcard game and then split the first two games of the ALDS in Baltimore with the Yanks before getting hosed out of a win in Game 3. All the games have been close and apart from a mirage of scoring by the Yanks at the end of the first game, nobody has hit much.
So you could say that both offenses have been terrible—Alex Rodriguez has been hung in effigy in New York but he’s had company in futility, namely Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderon, and Nick Swisher. Baltimore has its own goats–Jones, Weiters, Thome. Or, you could say the pitching’s been sensational. Year of the pitcher or the infield pop-up? You decide.
More than anything we know the Yanks and O’s won’t let this thing go and so they played a game of reduction in Game 4, and brought horrible offense and stellar pitching into the 13th inning, tied at 1-1.
Despite some rocky moments from Phil Hughes and Joe Saunders, who looks like the barfly from Sex, Lies and Videotape…
…nobody scored. Oh, there were some horseshit pitches, and hard hit balls foul. Nick Swisher hit two balls off the end of his bat that otherwise would have been dingers, Jayson Nix hit a few balls well, and the Orioles left a ton of runners on base, but no, there were no runs.
Alex Rodriguez walked in his first at bat, singled in his second, and then continued to look like crap–old, slow, beaten. The most painful moment came when the Yankees had runners on first and second in the eighth and nobody out. Robinson Cano grounded out weakly to second moving the runners over. Rodriguez whiffed and Swisher popped out.
The bullpens were both terrific and score remained tied 1-1 until the O’s manufactured a run in the top of the 13th. J. J. Hardy drove in the go-ahead run with a double to left of Dave Phelps. This, after Joba Chamberlain left the game an inning early when he was hit in his pitching elbow with the a broken bat (x-rays were negative).
That brought on the closer Jim Johnson to face Mark Teixeira, Cano, and, of course, looming as the potential final out, Rodriguez. He quickly got ahead of Teixeira, then the count evened at 2-2, Teixeira fouled off an outside fastball, a high fastball, and looked at a curve ball for a called strike three. Shades of Carlos Beltran in 2006.
Cano lined the first pitch he saw to the left fielder and most Yankee fans were ready to throw in the towel. For a second straight night, Joe Girardi didn’t let Rodriguez hit against Johnson. This time, Eric Chavez took his place. Joe Girardi hoping–desperately–for some more magic. Chavez, looked a curve for strike, took a fastball high for a ball, fouled off a 95 mph heater, fouled off another fastball, took a curve outside, and lined a fastball to third base to end the game. No magic tonight.
What else could it have come down to for these two but Game 5? The season series is 11-11 and the winner will move on.
This is what it had to be.
Final Score: O’s 2, Yanks 1.
The Good News for Game 5? The Yanks have CC Sabathia on the hill. The bad news? Somebody in pinstripes is going to have to score some runs.
[Featured Image Via Stable]
It’s Phil Hughes vs. Joe Saunders. Someone is getting their tits lit tonight. Let’s hope it’s not Hughes. And if he falters early, Dave Phelps, and perhaps even Derek Lowe, could play big roles for the Yanks.
Derek Jeter DH
Ichiro Suzuki LF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Nick Swisher RF
Russell Martin C
Curtis Granderson CF
Jayson Nix SS
Never mind the emotion (the Win is the Thing): Let’s Go Yank-ees!
[Photo Credit: Staton Rabin/ National Geographic]
Joe Girardi’s father, Jerry, died today. He was 81. Giardi is expected to manage tonight.
Joel Sherman first reported the news on Twitter.
[Photo Credit: Bob Luckey / Greenwich Time]
