Big Game Tonight For Yanks But Not Necessarily A Must Win

Wow. I can't believe how many people, Yankee fans included, that are writing off the series after just 1 game. Like I do everyday, I've been listening to a lot of MLB on XM. The Yankees certainly didn't play well yesterday but the loss doesn't mean the sky is falling. Sure losing the 1st game of the series isn't the start we/they wanted but it's not that big of a deal. Not to me anyway. The Yankees are the best team in baseball and they can easily bounce back from one loss. It's not the end of the world so step away from the ledge.

Even if the Yankees lose tonight I wouldn't right them off. Being down 2-0 with the next 3 in Philly would be a huge hole but it's a hole the Yankees could easily climb out of. Andy Pettitte, the winningest postseason pitcher ever, starts game 3. CC Sabathia, one of the best pitchers in the game, starts game 4. Those games can easily be won by the Yanks. Next thing you know it's 2-2 and then it turns into a best of 3. You can't count this team out. Ever. If you've followed the Yankees all year you know they have an uncanny ability to come from behind and pull out the victory. There's no quit in this team.

To win though the team has to score some runs. A.J., Andy and CC can pitch their butts off but if the team score it won't do any good. CC pitched a great game yesterday. If you knew before the game that he'd pitch 7 innings and would give up only 2 runs you'd say, "sign me up." His outing though was wasted by the Yankees' inability to score, and I think that had more to do with Cliff Lee than with the Yankees. I definitely thought the Yankees would do a little more off Lee, but they didn't. It's always hard to pinpoint exactly what the problem is when an offense struggles. Is it an uninspired performance by the lineup or is it a dominant performance by the pitcher? Hard to say. I originally thought that the lineup kind of phoned it in. As I thought more about it, I had to give more credit to Lee. Lee was in the zone last night. He couldn't do anything wrong. Dude made a behind the back catch for crying out loud. All you can do is tip your cap to Lee and move on.

The Yanks now move on to face their ol' friend Pedro Martinez. Petey is not the same guy he once was but he's still not a slouch. The team should be able to muster some runs, enough hopefully to support Burnett. Right now I only advocate one lineup change and that's getting Nick Swisher out of the lineup. Nick just looks lost out there. I think his problem is that he's too anxious to come up with a big hit and it's causing him to fail. He's trying too hard. He's pressing and has been for a while. It's time for a change. I hope Girardi is wise enough to realize that change is good. But it is Joe Girardi we're talking about so I'm sure Swisher is in the lineup. the lineup hasn't been released so we'll see. I wouldn't mind seeing Brett Gardner's name penciled in. Slot him 9th and move Melky up to 8th. That's the move I want to see. edit @ 4pm- I just got the text alert that Jerry Hairston, Jr. is in the lineup instead of Swisher. Works for me.

3 hours until first pitch. It's a big game but not a must-win in my opinion. But it's as close to one as you can possibly get.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie