All that - We saw a ridiculously good AJ Burnett, the kind that all Yanks fans hoped and dreamed would show up after last night‘s embarrassment. Seven innings, one ER, 9 strikeouts, just 2 walks.
- We saw a very impressive Pedro Martinez, doing his best Eddie Harris imitation, throwing junk all over the place and being crazy effective with it… Six innings, 3 ER (a 4.50 ERA for those scoring at home)
- We saw Teix and Matsui hit home runs.
- Until Charlie Manuel went all Grady Little and let him start the 7th inning. My first note when seeing this: “Stunned to see Pedro still out there, actually“
We saw the two hottest hitters from the LDS’s continue to struggle horribly, with Howard wearing the Golden Sombrero and ARod striking out 3 more times. These two are about as ice cold as you can get. ARod has six K’s in the first two games.- We saw the worst play Jeter has ever made in the post-season: Trying to bunt with runners on first and second, no outs, with two strikes. And striking out. Absurdly bad decision. It’s just so rare to see Jeter make a mental error.
- We saw two more umpiring mistakes. Calling Frank Drebin! First was the short hop that Howard turned into a double play after Jeter’s brainlock. The very next inning, the Yanks get out of a threat with a double play, though Utley was clearly safe. Who said there’s no such thing as a make-up call. Remember too, just because the umps are experienced, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best. It just means their the oldest. [Spare me the conspiracy theories, will ya? The calls worked both ways. And they were both wrong.]
- We saw Girardi resist the temptation to overmanage, for the most part. I wanted to stay with Burnett to start the 8th but the move worked. Doesn’t make it right, but it worked. Ditto the Molina/Hairston decisions. Of course, Posada pinch hit for Molina and delivered a key RBI. So there.
- We saw the Yanks quote Led Zeppelin’s The Crunge and say “Has anyone seen the bridge?” because Girardi went from Burnett right to Mo. Who needs a bridge to Mo anyways?
- We saw yet another example of what makes Mo Rivera simply the best ever. Two innings, no damage. Another multi-inning post-season save. Rivera now has 14 six-out postseason saves. All other closers combined have 11 saves like that since 1996. (Thanks to Rob Neyer/Jayson Stark for that factoid)
We’ll have a bunch more in the morning, but wanted to get these up and out.
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