Some laughs.

sss

At least the Yanks made them earn it.  Okay, that’s the good spin. Of course, I’ve been mulling over the various failures–AJ Burnett, an unfortunate fastball right down the pipe to Vlad Guerrero, Nick Swisher’s final at bat, Joe Girardi’s drive to become tighter than Gene Mauch’s ass–but in a game the Angels had to win, the Yanks didn’t roll over.

Today is one of those challenging days…is the glass half-full or half-empty? Did the Yankees blow their chance or will they pick themselves off the mat and roll come Saturday night–if the weather holds up, that is. (I believe they will come out strong in Game Six.) Got too much time on our hands, either way.

Fug it, Dude, let’s go bowling.

Oh, I got the day off from work. But I live on the seventh floor of my building and they are doing work on the roof. So guess who was up early?

Oy and veh. Fug it, I’m going to the movies:

Today’s news is powered by ELO, circa 1975:

• There is going to be a shake-up in the umpiring crew for the World Series:

Stung by a rash of blown calls in the playoffs, Major League Baseball is breaking tradition and sticking with only experienced umpires for the World Series.

Longtime crew chiefs Joe West, Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson and Mike Everitt will handle the games, three people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press this week.

. . . In 24 of the last 25 World Series, the six-man crew has included at least one umpire working the event for the first time — baseball likes to reward newer umpires, plus replenish the supply of umps with Series experience.

In each of the last two years, there were three new umps working the World Series.

CB Bucknor was in line to work the World Series for the first time this year. But he missed two calls in Game 1 of the division series between the Red Sox and Angels, damaging his chance to get picked, one of the three people said.

(more…)

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…

Well, at least nobody got guillotined at the end of Game 5.

First it looked like the Yankees were going to go down quietly, after a first-inning blowup by AJ Burnett; then they made a dramatic late-inning rally and took the lead in the blink of Darren Oliver’s eye; then the bullpen faltered, and New York trailed again by just one; and then they loaded the bases in the 9th inning against skittish closer Brian Fuentes with two outs and a full count, and Nick Swisher popped up. The Angels won 7-6. Now that‘s the Angels-Yankees baseball we all know and love and discuss at length with our therapists.

A.J. Burnett looked just awful in the first, and the Angels took him apart: Figgins walked, Abreu doubled, Hunter singled,  Guerrero doubled, Morales singled, and when the smoke cleared, it was 4-0. The next few innings featured plenty of hard-hit balls, but Burnett – via a combination of unpredictable stuff and luck – got through them without allowing another run, and by the 4th or 5th he was in a groove and pitching well. Meanwhile, John Lackey turned in a impressive performance, and his breaking stuff was tying the Yankees in knots.

In the seventh inning, though, he finally faltered, and loaded the bases with two outs, at which point Mike Scioscia – in a move that would have been second-guessed endlessly had the Angels lost – yanked him for Darren Oliver. Lackey was furious – you could see him saying “This is mine! This is mine!’ when Scioscia came to the mound – and presumably got more so when Darren Oliver immediately gave up a three-run double to Mark Teixeira, who came out of his ALCS slump with a bang. The Angels, having seen enough of Alex Rodriguez, intentionally walked him; but Matsui singled, and then Robinson Cano whacked a triple that traveled so far, Matsui actually scored from first. The Yankees were up 6-4, and while it wasn’t the biggest comeback I’ve ever seen, it was probably one of the most sudden: boom, just like that.

But Burnett struggled when he came back out for the seventh, as Mathis singled and Aybar walked. Girardi then turned to Damaso “Gulp” Marte, who fielded a bunt and then got Abreu to ground out, but a run scored in the process. Next in was Phil Hughes, who walked Torii Hunter and then gave up singles to Guerrero and Morales. The Angels were back on top, 7-6. Mariano Rivera cleaned up Joba Chamberlain’s mess in the eighth, but although the Yankees came tantalizingly close to a two-out, ninth-inning rally (following a second intentional walk to A-Rod), they fell just short.

I’m sure people will spend much of the off-day arguing over who to blame, and that is the fan’s prerogative. But to me, while there were certainly plenty of managerial moves you could disagree with, the basic truth is that when AJ Burnett and Phil Hughes allow 7 runs to score on the road, that’s gonna be a tough game to win.

The Yankees are still up three games to two in the series, and they’re heading home to the Bronx – where, ridiculously priced half-empty oligarch seats aside, at least the fans don’t need any ThunderStix to make some noise – and so all is far from lost. With the NLCS already over, Game 6 has been moved from 4 PM Saturday afternoon to 8 at night. Andy Pettitte will be on the mound for the Yankees, and I will be at a dinner party, trying to decide exactly how rude I’m willing to be in order to check the score during the meal.

Yanks are close. But close doesn’t count, do she?

People get ready. G’wan be lots of cheering tonight as the pennant is on the line for the New Yorkers.

Give ’em hell, boys:

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

Tonight’s starter, Big John Lackey on how to deal with Alex Rodriguez:

“You’ve got to pick your spots, obviously,’’ said John Lackey, the pitcher tasked with keeping Rodriguez off the bases in tonight’s elimination game for the Angels. “It’s tough to pitch around one guy in this lineup because they’re so deep. But if I pitch up to my capabilities, I think I’ll be OK. I’ve had a little bit of success against him [9 for 51 lifetime, 4 homers].

“It would be nice to get the guys out in front of him. That kind of limits the damage right there. You’ve got to try to get those guys out in front of him, and hopefully he’s hitting with nobody on base.’’
(Amalie Benjamin, Boston Globe)

Speaking of Lackey, Joseph Pawlikowski over at River Avenue Blues (the blog for the city that never sleeps), weighs in with his take on the man.

And then there is AJ Burnett.

When I think about Burnett, I can’t help but think of Todd Drew. Been thinking about Todd all day, really. Todd liked AJ, loved his stuff, was a fan. After two good outings so far this October I feel that Burnett is due for a clunker. But another part of me–the part that is touched by the Todd Drew Angel from Above–wonders if he won’t be onions, hunches be damned.

Which one of these?

“This is why I signed,” Burnett said before yesterday’s off-day workout. “The opportunity to pitch in the postseason, you know. …The first year over here I have an opportunity, so I’m taking full advantage of it. I cannot wait.”
(Pete Botte, New York Daily News)

Neither can we, Meat. Neither can we.

There is a show of Robert Frank’s most famous photographs at the MET. I haven’t been yet but plan of getting there soon as I’m a great fan of those pictures.  In the Times review, Holland Cotter writes:

I’m reading feelings in here, but I think Mr. Frank was reading them into his subjects, which is why his pictures, separately and together, feel so personally laden. At this point, in 1955, he was on the first leg of a transcontinental car trip that would last 10 months and take him 10,000 miles. He was still learning the American language, the language of race and class, a stranger in a strange land that was getting more baffling.

How did he come to be there? Born in a German Jewish family in Zurich in 1924, he was interested in picture making early on. He apprenticed with several leading local photographers in his teens; in his early 20s he was doing promising work, examples of which are in the Met show. But he was temperamentally restless and impulsive. He needed to leave home, so he headed for New York.

Years after he took these career-making pictures, Frank directed an infamous (and officially un-released) documentary about the Rolling Stones.

Today’s news is powered by Jethro Tull, circa 1978:

• The Captain is indeed under the weather:

Television cameras caught Jeter coughing numerous times during the Yankees’ 10-1 victory over the Angels in Game 4, when he went 2-for-5 with a walk.

The New York Times reported that Jeter left Angel Stadium clutching a bottle of NyQuil, and manager Joe Girardi confirmed the shortstop’s illness in a news conference on Wednesday.

“I noticed it on Monday, and he was pretty sick,” Girardi said. “He was still pretty sick yesterday. I’m hoping that he feels better, but it didn’t seem to affect him Monday his first at-bat. That’s just the type of player that Derek is. He’s tough.”

• What’s not eating A-Rod?

Rodriguez said his transformation to a more comfortable and more focused player started in spring training. After acknowledging in February that he had used steroids, then having hip surgery, Rodriguez decided not to have great expectations and to eliminate distractions. That approach has worked.

It has worked so well that Rodriguez would not dare change after getting three hits and driving in two runs in a 10-1 win over the Angels in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series on Tuesday night. When Rodriguez was asked if the toughest part of his day was explaining how he was doing what he is doing, he laughed and said it was not.

“I don’t talk much anymore,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t have to explain myself. That’s a good thing.”

(more…)

The Dodgers turn to one V. Padilla tonight as they hope to bring the series back to L.A.

Man, oh man, it is going to be tough to beat the Phillies though.

Skillz.

Mark Lamster’s second book was released this week. It is called Master of Shadows: The Secret Diplomatic Career of the Painter Peter Paul Rubens.  Dig this essay from the Wall Street Journal:

Today, Peter Paul Rubens is best remembered as the Old Master with a penchant for fleshy, pink nudes and baroque grandiosity. These perceptions suggest a man of unchecked libertinism, but Rubens was in fact a man of controlled appetites, with a modest disposition and a reputation for tact and discretion. Almost inevitably, given his proximity to monarchs and statesmen across Europe, he was conscripted into political service as a covert diplomat and spy; his artistic work could always provide cover for his clandestine activities.

Because we think of Rubens primarily as an artist, and because the political affairs of the 17th century are so remote, Rubens’s diplomatic career is neglected when it is not altogether forgotten. But a review of Rubens’s correspondence, along with other archival sources, suggests he played a central and active role in European statecraft. Indeed, many of his contemporaries considered him as skilled a diplomat as he was an artist, and he was then almost universally revered as a painter without rival.

Rubens worked primarily as an operative for the Spanish crown, which was engaged in a prolonged war with the nascent Dutch republic, an intractable conflict that had engulfed all of Europe’s powers and that extended fully around the globe. Rubens believed he could resolve this perpetual war, and he devoted several years of his life to this effort, risking all that he had achieved. His plan was triangular: he would arrange for a peace between Spain and England, with the expectation that England would then force its Dutch ally to compromise with Spain. It was a savvy bit of strategic thinking, but it would not work unless Rubens could convince England and Spain, traditional enemies, to come to terms.

Mark, known around these parts as the co-founder of YFSF, is nothing if not versatile and wildly talented.

I received my copy of the book this morning and it is stunningly handsome. Once the baseball season is over it’s at the top of my reading list. Congrats to Mark on the publication of what looks to be a terrific book. What an accomplishment, man. We’re proud to know him, count him as a friend, and wish him nothing but success.

Maybe one day he’ll post a picture of the 1975 Yankees bumper sticker he once showed me.

CC Sabathia’s performance in the fifth and sixth inning last night–bend don’t break, son–was the season for me. That was an ace out there. And Alex Rodriguez’s home run was about as satisfying as it gets. I knew they didn’t want Scott Kazmir to face Rodriguez again, not after Rodriguez had a good hack in his first at bat, and hit a line drive up the middle the next time up. So they bring in a reliever who threw a good pitch, down and in, and Rodriguez jacked it over the fence in left.

Mmmmm.

Oh yeah, and Johnny Damon’s home run in the eighth was none too shabby either.

Still one very big win left. So I ain’t countin’ no chickens. And, dag, for such a compelling win, there sure was some ugliness–Mr. Posada and Mr. Cano, I’m looking at you. But in the end, yeah, that was the way to respond to a tough loss, wasn’t it?

Today’s news is powered by “Chicago Transit Authority”, circa 1970:

• Mariano Rivera did NOT load up a baseball:

A video clip spreading all over the Web on Tuesday shows Mariano Rivera holding the ball in his hand in the 10th inning of Game 3 on Monday, and — gasp — spitting downward. . . .

As first reported by Joel Sherman, Major League Baseball acted quickly on this one, investigating the incident and exonerating Rivera. They found photos that showed the spit passing his hand well past the ball.

“From the available video and still photography we have, there is no evidence that Rivera spit on the ball,” said Patrick Courtney, M.L.B.’s vice president for public relations.

(more…)

In some ways, and all the most important ones, this game went according to plan: C.C. Sabathia dominated, because he eats three-day rests for breakfast; A-Rod bashed the hell out of the ball again; and this time his teammates even decided to join him. The Yankees won emphatically, 10-1, and are now up three games to one in the ALCS.

In other ways, though, it was a bit of a mess; as I wrote earlier, if this game were an interwar German Expressionist film, it would be “The 1,000 Mental Errors of Dr. Mabuse”. Yankees and umpires alike made some baffling decisions this evening, though in the end the New York boomsticks made them pretty much irrelevant.

Sabathia started out strong, and got stronger. He went eight innings on only 101 pitches, allowed one run, struck out five and walked two. He was still touching 96 mph on FOX’s radar gun when Girardi pulled him and and, with a then-six-run lead, let Chad Gaudin (the bullpen’s Lonely Man) finish the game. It’s really impossible to overstate just how terrific Sabathia has been this October, and how valuable; the Yankees piled on the hits today, but even if their woes with runners in scoring position had continued, it might not have mattered.

Angels starter Scott Kazmir kept the Yankees off the board for three innings, but he looked plenty shaky in the process, with leadoff hits and walks and a metric ton of pitches thrown. (This might be some minor comfort to Mets fans after their painful season, if only it had been another team doing the damage). Finally, in the fourth, the rains came: A-Rod singled, moved to third on a Posada double, and scored with a close play at the plate on Cano’s fielder’s choice; then Nick Swisher walked to load the bases, and with the Yankees on an 0-for-26 skid with RISP, Melky Cabrera knocked a refreshing two-RBI single into left-field to put the Yanks up 3-zip.

The fourth inning also brought us the first of many blown calls, when Nick Swisher was caught too far off second base and tagged out by a foot, but was nonetheless called safe. Third base ump Tim McClelland then evened the blown-call score by calling Swisher out for supposedly tagging up from third too soon on Johnny Damon’s fly ball… even though replays showed he did not. (If a runner is wrongly called out when he should have been out on a previous play anyway, does it make a sound?) These shenanigans were only prelude to an incredibly odd series of events in the fifth, wherein both Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada were tagged out at third base during the same play, but only Posada was called out, and I’d like to explain it in more detail but frankly it still makes my head hurt, so just watch for yourself.

Anyway, before the ump oddness, the Yankees tacked on two more runs in the fifth with a Mark Teixeira single (nice, but his only hit of the night, so it’s too soon to say if he’s out of his slump) and then… you’ll never guess… yes, an Alex Rodriguez home run. Seriously. Another one. He is now slugging 1.000 in the ALCS, which is just stupid. In the bottom of that inning, Sabathia faced his only major threat of the night – a Kendry Morales solo shot and two singles – but he recovered and pretty much cruised from there on out. Three postseason starts, three earned runs.

The later innings were pretty low-stress for a change – and a good thing too, as Yankee fans have been, let’s just say, a mite on edge these last few days. Johnny Damon hit a two-run shot, Melky knocked in another couple of runs, and there were no terrifying extra-inning contortions to endure. This is the Angels we’re talking about, so I will not be lulled into a false sense of security, but I’m glad my stomach lining got a chance to recover before Thurday’s Game 5. Enjoy the off-day, Banterers.

From Roy Ayers to Teix, Cano (all the hitters, really) and the Big Fella.

It’s on you.

Go git ’em BOYS!

Okay, maybe a ‘lil bit.

I thought I’d find more Yankee fans in a state of fury today. But the ones I’ve spoken to have been reasonable.

One thing is for sure, everyone is placing the blame for yesterday’s loss squarely on Joe Girardi’s shoulders. As Cliff mentioned earlier it was a dispiriting loss. Tit for tit, as Dwight Schrute would say. Yanks won a tough one on Saturday, lost a tough one on Monday.

Still, the Bombers have Sabathia on the hill tonight in a game that feels like Game 4 of the ALCS in 1998–the El Duque game. I was dating a girl in Brooklyn at the time and I was sick that night, my stomach killing me. So I begged out of going to a party with her–she was not pleased or understanding, and the relationship didn’t last too long after that–and went back to her apartment and watched that game in bed, hiding under the covers for most of it.

I have faith in CC though and am eager to see how the Yanks bounce back after a tough loss. Let’s see what kind of onions these dudes really have, eh?

Today’s news is powered by . . . cellos and Metallica:

• CC on 3 days rest? No problem:

. . . And in four career regular-season starts made on three days’ rest, he (Sabathia) has posted a 3-1 record and a 1.01 ERA, averaging nearly a strikeout per inning.

“You know that going on certain rest that you’re not going to have your best fastball,” Sabathia said. “So you’ve just got to stay under control and make sure your delivery is good, and make sure you go out there and throw strikes.”

. . . the Yankees also knew that the benefits would last more than one game. Starting Sabathia on short rest would also allow them to use A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte on regular rest in Games 5 and 6, before bringing Sabathia back on regular rest, if necessary, for a potential Game 7 at Yankee Stadium.

. . . Amassing 230 innings in the regular season, Sabathia fell short of his 2008 regular-season total by 23 innings. And so he entered the postseason fresh.

“You look at everything,” Girardi said. “The thing about CC is he doesn’t have the amount of innings that he had the last two years in the regular season. We slowed him down. He’s been able to have extra rest, and that’s why we feel good about it. We wouldn’t ask him to do something that we didn’t think he was capable of, or that he didn’t have a chance to be successful at.”

• 20 post-season homers for the Captain.
• MLB.com heaps praise on Mo:

Rivera’s 36 saves in postseason play are the most in Major League history. The most remarkable aspect of those saves is that 12 of them have been two innings or more. Rivera’s 0.72 postseason ERA — spread over 81 appearances — is also tops for anyone with at least 30 innings.

Girardi got three rings as a player, largely because of Rivera. Now, he hopes to ride his closer to another as manager.

“I think the Yankees have been very blessed to have Mo over this long run that he has had,” Girardi said. “Obviously, if you blow a save during the regular season, you have a lot of time to make up for that. But if you blow a save during the postseason, in a short series, there’s not quite so much time. He has meant so much to this organization and to the success of this organization in the playoffs.”

(more…)

Let’s cut to the chase here. After a 13-inning Game Two, the Yankees and Angels were tied in extra inning again in Game Three, this time 4-4 in the bottom of the 11th. In relief of starter Andy Pettitte–who allowed three runs in 6 1/3 innings on a solo homer by Howie Kendrick in the fifth and a two-out, two-run, game-tying shot by Vladimir Guerrero in the sixth–Joe Girardi had already used Joba Chamberlain (who allowed what was then the go-ahead run following a Kendrick triple in the seventh), Damaso Marte, Phil Coke, Phil Hughes, and Mariano Rivera.

Rivera came on in the bottom of the tenth following a lead-off double by backup catcher Jeff Mathis off Hughes. Erick Aybar greeted Rivera with a sac bunt that Rivera, attempting to get Mathis at third, bounced past Alex Rodriguez in a play that eerily recalled Rivera’s error in Game Seven of the 2001 World Series. Rivera’s throw hit the dirt because he made it while spinning and falling to the grass on the third-base side of the mound. The error would have won the game for the Angels had Johnny Damon not backed up the throw perfectly, holding Mathis at third. With the infield playing in, Chone Figgins hit a hard shot down the first base line that Mark Teixeira smothered, holding Mathis and forcing Figgins out at first for the first out. With runners on second and third and one out, Girardi had Rivera walk Bobby Abreu to set up a force at every base and sent Jerry Hairston Jr. out to left field to replace the weak-armed Damon in case he needed to make a potentially game-saving throw to the plate. Rivera got Torii Hunter to ground into a 3-2 force to Teixeira that erased Mathis at home, then got Vlad Guerrero to ground out to Teixeira’s right to end the inning.

The catch was that, when Girardi sent Hairston into the field, Hairston was already in the game as the designated hitter having pinch-hit for Brett Gardner, who pinch-ran for original DH Hideki Matsui, who walked to put the tying run on base in the eighth. Gardner was caught stealing two pitches before Jorge Posada hit a game-tying solo homer. Hairston hit for Gardner because Gardner’s spot in the order came due when the Angels’ lefty closer Brian Fuentes was on the mound (never mind that Hairston hit .242/.319/.422 against lefties during the regular season while Gardner hit .291/.381/.400 against them and had a reverse split in Triple-A in 2008 as well).

Moving Hairston into the field put Rivera in the batting order in Damon’s place, which was due up third in the following inning. Rivera used 17 pitches to get into and out of that jam in the tenth, and his spot came due with two outs and none on in the top of the 11th. Still, Girardi sent up third-catcher Francisco Cervelli to hit for Rivera, leaving just Jose Molina and Freddy Guzman on the bench (I assume Guzman can’t throw either, or he’d have been a much simpler defensive replacement for Damon). Facing Ervin Santana, Cervelli struck out, and Girardi went to David Robertson in the bottom of the 11th, leaving just Alfredo Aceves and Chad Gaudin in his bullpen.

Robertson, who pitched out of a jam in Game Two of the ALDS against the Twins in almost exactly the same manner that Rivera did in the tenth inning of this game, got Juan Rivera to ground out to short and Kendry Morales to fly out to left to start the 11th. Then Girardi popped out of the dugout to bring in Aceves to face Howie Kendrick.

Why?

That will be a question Joe Girardi will be asked until the Yankees win this series, and throughout the winter and possibly beyond if they don’t. Robertson looked good against his two batters, getting ahead 1-2 on Rivera and throwing strike one to Morales before running the count full and getting him to fly out. His postseason mettle had been tested in that jam against the Twins, and the Yankees had just two pitchers left in the pen in part because Chamberlain, Marte, and Coke each threw just one-third of a frame, and Rivera had been taken out after one due to loss of the DH.

Pressed for an answers after the game, pitching coach Dave Eiland said, “We just liked the matchup better.” I understand that to a certain degree. Robertson and Aceves are both right-handers, but Robertson is a power pitcher who challenges hitters with his low- to mid-90s fastball that seems faster due to his delivery and a hard-breaking curve, while Aceves is a kitchen-sink junkballer who changes speeds and keeps hitters off balance. Matchups aren’t always just about handedness or even the raw quality of a pitchers stuff. Sometimes they’re about style, and Girardi and Eiland clearly preferred Aceves’s junkballing against Kendrick, who is something of a right-handed Robinson Cano type, rather than Robertson’s power combo.

What I don’t get is why they felt they had to make a move with two out and none on. Yes, Kendrick had homered earlier in the game, but that was off the lefty Pettitte. Kendrick has just 12 homers in 963 plate appearances against right-handed pitchers in his major league career. If Kendrick got a hit, Girardi and Eiland could concern themselves about the best matchup against the typically weak-hitting Mathis (which very well may have been Aceves as well, but I suspect would have been Robertson).

As it was, Aceves fell behind Kendrick 2-0, then 3-1, and Kendrick hit the 3-1 pitch back up through the middle for a single. Aceves then threw ball one to Mathis after which Mathis crushed a shot to the left-field gap that scored Kendrick with the winning run, handing the Yankees their first loss of the postseason, 5-4 in 11 innings.

The loss is a bitter one given the many questionable decisions that led to it, but it may ultimately proove moot. The Yankees still hold a 2-1 lead in the series and have CC Sabathia going Tuesday night in Game Four, giving them a good chance to go up 3-1. Of course, the Yankee offense will have to contribute as well. The Yankees’ four runs in this game came on a quartet of solo homers (by Derek Jeter leading off the game, Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, and Jorge Posada), but they left ten other men on base, not counting Gardner, who was erased by a well-timed pitchout. The Yankees are 5-1 thus far this postseason, but they’ve scored exactly four runs in all but the first of those games and needed extra innings in two of them to get to that underwhelming total.

The Yankees need to turn the page quickly from this exhausting and dispiriting loss. They’re still in great shape in this series, but given their history in Anaheim, it’s easy to see how this loss could get into their heads. Yankee fans should be glad it’s not Chad Gaudin or Joba Chamberlain starting Game Four.

In every postseason series there are certain games that, based on the starting pitchers, teams consider built-in wins. These are the games that a team believes it has to win in order to, if you’ll pardon the mixed-sports metaphor, hold serve in the series. For the Yankees, those games are the ones started by CC Sabathia (they’re 2-for-2 thus far). For the Phillies, they’re the games started by Cliff Lee (3-for-3). For the Dodgers, they’re the games started by Clayton Kershaw (their loss in his Game One start is why they’re trailing in the NLCS).

The Angels’ must-win games are those started by this afternoon’s starting pitcher, Jered Weaver. The Angels won Weaver’s Game Two start in the ALDS against the Red Sox, taking commanding 2-0 lead in the series on their way to a three-game sweep. Coming into this series, they rejiggered their rotation so that Weaver could make his first start at Angel Stadium, where his ERA this season was nearly two runs better than it was on the road (and is nearly a run better on his career) and where he made his strong ALDS start. Weaver was the Angels’ best starter during the regular season and tonight matches up against Andy Pettitte, the Yankees’ number-three. That’s as close to a favorable pitching matchup as the Angels are going to get prior to John Lackey taking on A.J. Burnett in Game Five. This is a game the Halos have to have.

That would be true even if the Angels didn’t come home down 0-2 in the series, but given that predicament, this game goes from a must-have to perhaps their last chance to save their season. Because both of the games in New York were played as scheduled (despite foreboding forecasts of rain), CC Sabathia remains on schedule to start Game Four on short rest against Scott Kazmir, who struggled in his ALDS start against the Red Sox. If the Angels lose again tonight, Sabathia, who dominated the Halos in Game One, will take the mound with a chance to complete an unexpected Yankee sweep. (I’d quote the unfavorable stats about teams down 0-3 in best-of-seven series, but the lone exception to the rule just happens be the last team to face the Yankees in the ALCS.)

However, if the Angels win tonight behind Weaver, it makes Game Four a must-win for the Yankees, not only because Sabathia is starting, but because another loss there would let the Angels all the way back into the series, tying it up 2-2 and giving Anaheim all of the momentum heading into that Lackey-Burnett matchup in Game Five.

Weaver made three starts against the Yankees this season, the best of which was the one he made at home, when he struck out nine Yankees in six innings on July 11. Still, even in that game, Weaver allowed four runs (three earned), in part due to the two home runs he allowed. One of those homers was hit by Eric Hinske, who was left off the Yankees’ ALCS roster, but the other was hit by Mr. Clutch himself, Alex Rodriguez.

The loser in that game, incidentally, was Andy Pettitte, who gave up six runs on seven hits in just 4 1/3 innings. Pettitte was similarly kicked around in an earlier start against the Angels in the Bronx, but a return trip to Anaheim resulted in a quality-start win on September 21. The difference was the overall improvement in Pettitte’s pitching in the second half, which he maintained with a solid start against the Twins in the clinching game in the ALDS.

In his two postseason starts since returning to the Yankees, Pettitte, who tied John Smoltz for the most postseason wins ever with that win in the Metrodome’s final game, has allowed just one run in 12 2/3 innings, striking out 12 against three walks and no homers. Weaver has a 2.19 ERA in two career postseason starts, both of them coming at home against the Red Sox in the ALDS. He’ll face the usual Yankee lineup this afternoon.

‘Nuff said.

With two wins in their first two tries against the Angels, the Yankees once again have me feeling good. Just like last week, when I profiled Walt “No Neck” Williams, I’m in the mood to talk about one of my favorite ex-Yankees, one who reminds me of Game Two hero Jerry Hairston, Jr. This time the happy spotlight falls upon Cesar Tovar, who was even more versatile than the Yankees’ current utility infielder.

Tovar’s Yankee career didn’t amount to much. He batted a mere .154 in a handful of games in 1976, brought back by an appreciative Billy Martin, who had managed him with the Minnesota Twins in 1969. I wish Tovar had played longer with the Yankees, if only because he was a damned interesting character, a fun player on the field who lived to the fullest—sometimes a bit too full—off the field.

Originally signed by the Cincinnati Reds’ organization, Tovar never actually played for the Red Legs. In 1964, they traded him to the Twins, where he would make his major league debut the following year. Foreshadowing the careers of players like Randy Velarde, Tony Phillips and Mark DeRosa, the undersized Tovar eventually moved into a kind of “super utility” role, playing almost every day, but usually at different positions. Tovar didn’t seem to care where he played, just so long as he did get in the game. His boundless enthusiasm, determination, and hard-nosed approach all gained him favor with the Twins.

The native Venezuelan also impressed the Twins’ brass with his speed and willingness to sacrifice his five-foot, nine-inch, 155-pound body. Aggressive on the basepaths, he tried to steal bases at every opportunity. Tovar weighed relatively little, but he had a strong, muscular build, with little body fat. He particularly seemed to enjoy getting hit by pitches, which provided him with another way to reach first base. As former Twins beat writer Bob Fowler once explained to me, Tovar never flinched, instead taking pride with each hit-by-pitch.

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