Joe Girardi Is Still A Big Fat Idiot

I've slept on it. I've thought about it all night. I still draw the same conclusion. Joe Girardi is a big fat idiot. I've been listening to baseball talk on MLB on XM all morning. I've check out a few sites on breaks and such. I haven't come across anyone who is on Girardi's side here. Everyone is in agreement. The moves he made yesterday were ridiculous. I've received a lot of visitors today from various web searches. Here's a sample of the search queries directing people here: "girardi is an idiot," "why did girardi pull robertson," "joe girardi stupid," "girardi horrible," and I could go on and on. They were stupid moves yesterday. They are stupid moves today.

The loss though can't be totally pinned on Girardi. The Yanks came up empty with RISP. If they could have mustered one timely hit they probably win that game in 9. With the exception of Jeter, A-Rod, and Posada, the team really isn't hitting the ball. That's where Girardi needs to shine. The team didn't hit the ball when they needed to. Girardi needs to pull the right strings to ensure the team gets another chance to knock in that run. He failed miserably at that yesterday. A major problem was also exploited when Matsui was lifted for a pinch-runner. With Matsui out of the lineup, A-Rod had no protection. The Angels wisely issued him 4 free ones when he came up. The Yankees might want to consider swapping Posada and Matsui in the lineup to avoid that from happening. If not, maybe bench Swisher and use him in that role. I know Swisher sucks with RISP but he's a better source of protection for A-Rod. The bench is very weak with no power. The only guys that can fill in as DH are all weak-hitting players. I bet they wish they had Hinske on the roster over Freddy Guzman. I know I do.

Girardi also needs to throw away his books. I'm not a fan of playing lefty/righty matchups. I get the theory behind it and I know why teams do it, but it doesn't mean they always should. Case in point: Brett Gardner is a lefty who hits lefties pretty well (.291 with .781 OPS). Jerry Hairston is a righty who doesn't hit lefties terribly well (.242 with .714 OPS). There was a game last year where Girardi lifted Pudge Rodriguez against a RHP and put Melky into the lineup. Since 1987, Pudge is a .295 hitter against RHPs. Melky is a career hitter .277 hitter vs. RHPs. My point is that the books don't always have the answers. If a guy can demonstrate that he can perform in the situation, put him in and let him do his thing. Jerry Hairston did not need to hit for Brett Gardner. Throw the books away Joe. Throw 'em away.

CC tonight on short rest. Works for me. Hope the offense shows up.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Joe Girardi Is A Big Fat Idiot

Tonight's loss to the Angels has me so frustrated. I had to go to the store to pick up a few things right after the game and the whole time I was there I kept uttering some not so nice things under my breath while shaking my head in disbelief. Tonight's loss was purely on Joe Girardi and his over-managing of the Yankees' bullpen. What he did in the 11th, pulling Robertson for Aceves, made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Even if it worked out it was a horrible move. I think there was only one person out there who thought it made sense and that was Joe Girardi. As soon as the move was made the entire Yankee "Twitterverse" was questioning the move. I got several text messages questioning the move. It made sense to no one. I'm still ticked about it. The guys over at Nomaas had the perfect tweet. It read, "When Tim McCarver actually makes sense, you know you made an idiotic move." If you're familiar with McCarver, you know he's often wrong and makes no sense. Even he questioned the move as soon as it happened. Un-friggin-believable. It was stupid, stupid, stupid.

Girardi said he made the move because he liked the matchup better with Aceves facing Kendrick. Robertson in his career had faced Kendrick twice. Aceves had never faced him. How can you think an Aceves/Kendrick matchup is more favorable than a Robertson/Kendrick matchup when Acevss has never faced him? It doesn't make any sense. Aceves and Robertson are both righties so it's not like there was an advantage of having one over the other. I can see it if Robertson was struggling and had thrown a lot of pitches but he was pitching well and retired the first 2 batters on only 11 pitches. He certainly had some gas left in the tank. It was a very short-sighted move. It was a tie game. The Yankees had lost the DH. If Aceves happens to get out of the inning and then the Yankees don't score, then what? The only RP left was Chad Gaudin. In a situation like that you have to prepare for the long haul. You can't pull RPs like that and leave yourself short-handed. It was stupid, stupid, stupid.

But that wasn't Girardi's only boneheaded move. He brought in Damaso Marte, a lefty, to pitch to one hitter. Marte threw one pitch for the 3rd out of the inning. The Yankees didn't score in their half of the inning and Girardi brought in Phil Coke, a lefty, to start the inning. Why wouldn't they just keep Marte out there since they were both lefties? Instead they burned through a reliever that could have helped them out later. It was stupid, stupid, stupid.

Girardi definitely over-managed this game. If the Angels come back and win the series those boneheaded moves are going to seve as the turning point. Girardi's idiotic moves though weren't the only reasons why the Yankees lost. The offense, despite their 4 solo HRs, was horrible. Mark Teixeira went 0-3 and lowered his postseason average to .077. He's a had a few big hits but he needs to step it up.

The worst though is without a doubt, Nick "The Rally Killer" Swisher. Is there anyone worse than Swisher when it comes to hitting with guys on base? I don't think so. He was horrible in the regular season. He's horrible in the postseason. Here are his regular season numbers in different situations:

• With runners on: .246.
• With RISP: .227.
• With RISP and 2 outs: .163.
• With the bases loaded: .158.

That's pitiful. Here's how he's done in the postseason (I pulled these from the game logs)

• With runners on: 1-7, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
• With RISP: 0-4, 3 K
• With RISP and 2 outs: 0-1, 1 K
• With the bases loaded: 0-2, 2 K

That's why I call him "The Rally Killer." He's the last guy I want up with runners on base. I'd almost rather see Brett Gardner get a start over Swisher. I'm about 50/50 on that one. I have no faith in Swisher whatsoever.

It would have been nice to steal this game and take a 3-0 lead in the series. It would have been all but over. Now it's 2-1 Yankees and they're still in a good position. CC Sabathia pitches tomorrow on short rest. I'm expecting him to continue with the good pitching. The team is pitching very well and CC's the ace of the staff. He can handle the short rest. CC needs to pitch deep into the game. The longer he pitches the better. It's really the only way to ensure Joe Girardi doesn't make any more stupid moves. He's already cost the team one game. We don't need him to cost them another one. A little offense wouldn't hurt either.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Win A Wet And Wild One With Another Walkoff

Oh my God! What a way for me to pop my cherry at the New Yankee Stadium. Last night's game against the Angels was absolutely incredible. I could not have asked for anything more. As the game went to extra innings I said to my wife, "This will either be the best game I've ever been to or the worst." I think you all know how it turned out.

Man, where to start? I don't even know. I guess I'll start with the trip. If you want to jump ahead to my thoughts on the game, keep scrolling. I thought the new Stadium was awe-inspiring. It definitely reminded me a lot of the old ballpark. It looked and felt the same except much more up-to-date. We got there right after the gates opened and we just spent some time strolling around the place, checking things out. I like the fact that they open the park 3 hours before game time. There weren't crowds to fight like there were at the old place. We went and visited Monument Park and we pretty much had the run of the place. There were others down there but it wasn't close to crowded. Every time I went to MP at the old place, the lines were huge and it was really hard to take it all in because of how crowded it was. It was nice to be there without that many people. As expected, it gave me the chills. I love remembering the old greats.

I really wanted to check out the museum and while we had more than enough time to check it out, I couldn't find it. It's my own fault. I didn't look that hard and I didn't ask anyone where it was. Oh well, I'll have to save that for my next visit, which hopefully we'll be in a few weeks if you know what I mean. I'm not sure why I didn't ask anyone. The Stadium staff was extremely nice and courteous. We were a little surprised by that. I didn't run in to too many nice staff members at the old place. Everyone we encountered was extremely nice. Kudos to the Yanks for making the staff more friendly. It definitely made the visit more enjoyable.

We spent a lot of time before the game sitting in our seats. We had seats in the 2nd row of section 323. The view was awesome. The only drawback was that with people in front of me I occasionally had to invade my wife's space to see the full pitch. The seats were on the 3B side and my seat was pretty much aligned with home plate. The guy that sat in front of me had a pretty big melon and his dome blocked the grass from the mound to the batter's box. I could see the pitcher. I could see the hitter. I couldn't see the ball though, unless as I said, I leaned over on my wife. She didn't mind and it wasn't too bad. The section, much like all upper level sections, had a piece of glass at the front that acted like a mini-wall to prevent people from falling over the edge. My only beef with that was the metal "bar" that fused them all together. Would it be so much to ask to make that clear? It's not that big of a deal, but it would be nicer. Anyway, the seats were nice. Next time though I'm going for the front row.

The atmosphere at the game was awesome. The crowd was very into the game and it got loud. The weather was not bad either considering the forecast was calling for showers all night. There was a light drizzle when we first got there. It was more of a mist and wasn't too bad. It stopped before first pitch and it didn't start again until the 8th inning. So much for that forecast, eh? Stupid meteorologists. My wife would disagree but I thought even when it started raining in the 8th it wasn't that bad. They weren't really rain drops but more of a heavy mist. Not sure how it looked on TV but I didn't think it was bad at all. I did though wear a poncho. I'm so glad the weather wasn't as bad as predicted. The last thing we wanted was for the game to get delayed or postponed. Based on the forecast I thought there was no way the game was getting played. I really thought the game was going to get pushed to Monday. Thankfully, as I said, meteorologists are stupid.

Now onto the game itself. On the ride down there, I was doing my best to educate the wife on the Yankees. She's a fan, but not a die-hard. She watches most games and knows who's who, but doesn't really follow it super-closely. She asked me what to expect from A.J. Burnett. I told her he can be very dominant but he's very wild. I said he'd probably pitch 6-7 innings, would allows 3-5 hits, would walk 3-6 guys, throw a few wild pitches, hit a batter or two and would give up only 1-2 runs. I pretty much nailed it. I thought A.J. pitched pretty well. I thought for the most part he had dominant stuff. He only allowed 3 hits in his 6.1 IPs, with 2 of the hits coming in the 5th inning. From my vantage point it looked like A.J. was having trouble with Jose Molina. It was hard to tell thought what the issues were. It looked like Molina was having trouble catching the ball but I couldn't really tell without watching it on TV. We couldn't tell what was really going on up in my section. I would love to see some of the replays. There was one point where, I'm assuming, the ball bounced off Molina's glove and went right into the stands. How'd that happen? It was odd, and again, it was hard to figure out what was really happening up in my section.

What was up with the Yankees defense? Robbie Cano had a rough night. He made 2 brutal errors. Jeter also botched what looked like a routine DP. Lucky for the Yanks it didn't cost them. Jeter I'm not worried about. But Cano looked lazy on his 2 miscues. I hope he's not regressing back into a lazy fielder. I think Cano is one of the slickest fielders in the game and has a shot at winning the Gold Glove award. But he's been lazy in the past. This isn't the time to get lazy again. I'm hoping it's a one-off.

The Yankees had many opportunities to win last night. They came up empty with RISP, going 0-8. Lucky for them the Angels weren't much better at 3-15. The Yanks had chances to win the game in every inning from the 9th on. It would have made for a very tough loss.

A-Rod. 'Nuff said. I could leave it at that but why? I couldn't believe it when he went yard in the 11th. Talk about clutch. A-Rod, like I said he would, is having a monster postseason. He may have only gone 1-6 but the one hit was huge.

The bullpen was again stellar. Sure, Alfredo Aceves got knocked a little bit but on the whole, the pen was great. They did make for some tense moments though. Joba's K of Vladimir Guerrero with the bases loaded in the 7th was huge. Phil Hughes' K of Gary Matthews, Jr. with 2 on and 1 out in the 8th was big. That K got Jeter off the hook. Ace getting Torii Hunter to GIDP with 2 on in the 11th was another big spot. D-Rob got himself into and out of trouble when he whiffed Gary Matthews with 2 on and 2 out to end the 12th. Robertson came up big again in the 13th when he got Hunter and Guerrero to both ground out in the 13th. Those outs got Cano off the hook. The bullpen has to get a lot of credit for getting the big outs whenever they were needed. Job well done.

The Yankees half of the 13th inning has been replaying non-stop since the game ended last night. I can see it playing out so clearly in my head. Jerry Hariston, Jr. starts it off with a single to center. Brett Gardner lays down a successful sacrifice. The Angels intentionally walk Melky to set up the DP. Robbie Cano grounds it to 2nd, Izturis spins and throws to Aybar and the throw gets away. Here comes Hariston.....Figgins fields the ball.....here comes the throw.....Jerry June beats it and slides in with the winning run and the place goes absolutely bonkers!! Cue Frank Sinatra. Awesome. Totally awesome. And then BOOM! Ladies and gents, we have pie! I was loving it. I thought for sure Burnett was going for Melky but much to my surprise he planted it right upside Jerry June's face. Hariston was definitely the deserving recipient. Can you think of a better way to end one's first trip to the new stadium then with a walkoff win and some pie? I couldn't have asked for anything better. What a way to end the day!

Last night's win was huge! The Yanks are firmly seated in the driver's seat with a 2-0 lead on the Angels. I think if they can win 1 in LA they've got it locked up. It's going to be tough for the Angels to take 3 straight from Pettitte, Sabathia and Burnett. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself but I'm liking their chances. Pettitte has been great on the road this year. He pitched a great game in the ALDS and I'm looking for him to duplicate that tomorrow. First pitch is scheduled for 4:13pm. I don't know about you, but I'm really excited. 4:13 can't get here soon enough.

5 down, 6 to go.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Getting Off On The Good Foot: Yanks Win Game 1 Of ALCS 4-1

What a game! The Yanks got off on the good foot with a 4-1 win over the Angels in game 1 of the ALCS. I've got a 7 hour drive ahead of me tomorrow morning so I want to make this post as brief as possible. Thankfully, there was really only story tonight and that's the outstanding pitching by CC Sabathia. The big man continues to impress.

CC came up huge tonight. He was sharp right out of the box. The Angels didn't really stand a chance against him. 8 innings, 4 hits, 1 walk and 7 Ks. That's dominant right there. He for the most part was unhittable. In his final 4 innings he allowed 1 walk. 1 walk. That's it. He had great control too. 76 of his 113 pitches were strikes (67%) and he threw 1st pitch strikes to 17 of the 29 hitters he faced. CC has been awesome for some time now. Counting his 2 postseason starts, CC is 11-1 in his last 14 starts. He's lost once since July 28th. Wow. He's been nothing short of dominant in those starts. 96.2 IP, 76 hits, 25 walks, 25 ER, 103 K. A 2.33 ERA and a 1.05 WHIP. Like I said, dominant. He's having a heck of an October too. 2-0, 14 .2 IP, 12 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 1 walk, 15 K, 1.23 ERA, 0.89 WHIP. Awesome. Totally awesome. The best thing about tonight is that the game didn't get rained out. That pretty much means CC is in line to pitch game 4 on 3 days rest. A rainout today would have killed that. Barring any other rainouts, the Yankees can probably get through 7 games of the ALCS with 3 SPs, with only CC pitching on short rest and it should only happen once. Sign me up.

The minor story tonight was the Angels' defense, or should I say, lack thereof. The Halos committed 3 errors which accounted for 2 unearned runs. The infield popup that fell between Aybar and Figgins in the 1st was horrible. It could have been a whole different game had that ball not hit the ground. Oh well. Sucks to be you.

I'm headed to the Bronx tomorrow for game 2. It's about a 7 hour drive and we're leaving around 8:30am. The weather report for tomorrow is not favorable. The forecast is calling for a 90% chance of rain with accumulation of up to an inch. I have the feeling that they won't be playing tomorrow. I'm really excited and looking forward to it but at the same time, I'm not. I'm really looking forward to seeing Yankee Stadium for the first time. I'm not looking forward to watching it in freezing temperatures with constant rain. I'm planning on wearing a lot of layers (all Yankees gear of course). I can deal with the cold. It's the rain I'm not a fan of. With any luck, Mother Nature will cooperate and the rain will hold off or at least be light. Doubtful, but one can dream.

4 down, 7 to go.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Rain Rain Go Away

It looks like it's going to be raining in the Bronx all weekend. As a ticket holder for Saturday's game, this does not make me a happy camper.

The last thing I want to happen is to have the game pushed back to Sunday or even Monday. That wouldn't work well for me. If I only had to travel an hour that would be one thing, but we're talking a 6-7 hour 1-way drive. I'd definitely have to stay in the area which means more money out of my pocket. Then there's work. If the game gets pushed back to Sunday, I'd have to take Monday off. God forbid it gets pushed back to Monday. I'm definitely going to the game come hell or high water. With all the rain in the forecast, it could be the high water I have to deal with.

Secondly, watching baseball in chilly temperatures is one thing. Chill temperatures and freezing rain for 2.5+ hours? Not ideal.

Rain rain go away. Come again another day.

J-Boogie

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J-Boogie

Mariano Rivera Is The Delivery Man Of The Year

Just got a text alert that the GOAT, Mariano Rivera, was named the 2009 MLB Delivery Man of the Year. This shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone. Mo had a downright awesome year. His final regular season pitching line: 66 games, 66.1 IP, 48 hits, 14 runs, 13 earned, 7 HR, 12 BB, and 72 K. He was 3-3 with 44 saves in 46 opportunities. His ERA was 1.76. His WHIP was 0.90 and opponents only hit .197 off of Mo. Not too shabby.

Mo, like a fine wine, is getting better with age. His 1.76 ERA was 0.49 lower than his career ERA of 2.25. His 0.90 WHIP was .11 lower than his career WHIP of 1.01. His .197 opponents' batting average against was .014 lower that his career OBA of .211. His 9.77 K/9 was above his career K/9 of 8.31. It's really hard to believe that at the age of 39, Mo is getting better. His last 2 seasons are arguably two of his best. They're definitely up there. He's the GOAT. There's nothing more to say but congrats to Mo on another stellar year and for winning another well-deserved award.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankee Stadium Here I Come

Got tickets for game 2 on Saturday! It'll be my first trip to the new ballpark so needless to say I am super psyched! My wonderful wife originally got me a ticket for game 5 of the ALDS for my birthday. That game was cancelled due to the Yankees sweep so I got to roll it into a ticket for the ALCS. Since the game is on a Saturday it meant the wife could come also. She's a big Yankees fan too!

I got the the tickets off StubHub so they cost me a pretty penny. The wife doesn't like to sit far away so that pretty much ruled out sitting in half the stadium. The seats are in section 323 which is part of the Jim Beam suite, whatever that is. The view looked pretty sweet when I checked it out on the 3-D seat viewer on Yankees.com.

So anybody got any tips for me? Anything that's a must see? We'll be there plenty early so there will be time to check stuff out. Anybody know what the parking situation is like? Whenever I've gone before I would park in the garage that was pretty much a stones throw from the stadium. It was the garage right near "the Bat." I thought it was extremely convenient. That still there/open?

Is it Saturday yet?

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yankees/Twins ALDS Recap/Breakdown

This post is about a day and a half overdue. I meant to write this around lunchtime Monday, but one thing lead to another and here we are. Since we're now 2 days removed from sweeping the Twins, I won't go into as much analysis as I originally planned. I'll hit up a few bullet points and then call it a night. Let's dive in, shall we?

The Yankees starting pitching in the ALDS was nothing short of awesome. CC, A.J., and Andy combined for 19 innings, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) on 14 hits and 6 walks, while striking out 21. That's an ERA of 1.42 and for you WHIP fans out there that works out to a WHIP of 1.05. Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say? The only negative I saw from those 3 was A.J.'s lack of control. A.J. walked 5 and hit 2. Lucky for him (and us) he has shutdown type stuff so the walks didn't hurt him as much as they could have. As long as the runs don't score we're good.

The Yankee bullpen as a whole was very impressive, with the exceptions of Damaso Marte and Phil Hughes. Let's face it, nobody cares about Marte. Hughes on the other hand, didn't look too sharp. Phil appeared in all 3 games, pitching 2 innings and allowing 2 runs, both earned, on 5 hits and a walk. It could have been worse if not for Nick Punto's baserunning blunder in game 3, but more on that later. The hero of the bullpen was probably David Robertson. D-Rob entered the game in a pretty tough spot (2 on w/no out), made it a little tougher for himself (bases loaded w/no outs) and got the team out of it unscathed. That was big right there. But as I said, the pen as a whole, wasn't too shabby. In 3 games, they combined for 10 innings, allowing 2 runs (both earned) on 15 hits and 3 walks, while whiffing 13. The WHIP and ERA came in at the same total, 1.80. That's great for an ERA but lousy for a WHIP. As long as the runs don't score, we're good.

The defense played error-free baseball for the 3 games and as I illustrated in the 2 paragraphs above, the pitching was very solid. The Yankees collective pitching line was 29 IP, 29 hits, 6 runs, 5 earned runs, 9 walks, and 34 Ks. That's an ERA of 1.55 and a WHIP of 1.31. Perhaps the best stat is that the Yankees didn't allow a single HR in the 3 games. As I said, impressive. As the saying goes, pitching and defense wins championships.

The offensive heroes were without a doubt Derek Jeter and A-Rod. Alex had a monster ALDS. I asked my magic 8-ball if A-Rod's October woes were behind him and it said all signs point to yes. For the series, A-Rod hit .455 (5-11) with 2 HR and 6 RBI. Alex went a combined 0-6 in his first 2 ABs of each game. If you do the math, that means he went 5-5 in his final ABs. That's clutch right there. I said it after each game. I'll say it again. Alex is going to have a monster postseason. I think his head is finally in the right place and I don't think he feels much pressure. His October will be huge. Jeter's hot-hitting spilled right over from the regular season. Jeter went 4-10 with 2 walks and 3 extra-base hits. The Captain is always on base, which is exactly what you want from your leadoff hitter.

The rest of the offense with the exception of Jorge Posada, who hit .364 and had the big HR off Pavano, and to a lesser degree, Mark Teixeira, because he had the 2 clutch hits in game 2, was rather unimpressive. Outside of Jeter, Posada, and A-Rod, the only hitter who topped .200 was Hideki Matsui, who hit .222. Johnny Damon and Nick Swisher were absolutely awful. Both hit .083 for the series and both struck out 4 times. The bats need to wake up.

The Yankees also got a little help. The Twins are supposed to be a very sound baseball team. They committed 2 huge baserunning blunders that very well could have changed things. Nick Swisher made a heads up play to nail Carlos Gomez when he slipped rounding 2nd. That blunder cost the Twins a run as Delmon Young was about to score. And as I mentioned above, Nick Punto made a critical mistake in game 3 when he rounded 3rd to far and couldn't get back to the bag in time. Jeter made a nice play right there to read the situation and get the ball to 3rd before Punto got back. Both of those plays could have changed the course of the series. As could have umpire Phil Cuzzi's horrible call in game 2. Cuzzi called a Joe Mauer fly ball foul when it was clearly fair. Mauer would have been on 2nd with no outs. Instead he ended up with a single and he didn't score, thanks to David Robertson. One can't assume though that if the correct call was made that the outcome would have been different. There's no way of knowing and it's pointless to even discuss.

Add all that up my friends and you've got a 3 game sweep and the Yankees are off to the ALCS for the first time since 2004. It should be a very good series. The Angels have always been a thorn in the Yankees' side but I think the tide is turning. The teams split the season series with the Yankees winning 3 of the last 4, including 2 of 3 in Anaheim. The Yanks also won 3 of 4 against the Angels at home. The Yankees have the best home record in all of MLB. The Angels have the best road record in MLB with the Yankees only 2 games worse. It should be fun. I hope to write a little preview of it on Thursday sometime, assuming my schedule allows. So check back for that.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

Yanks Sweep Twins To Advance To ALCS

Awesome win tonight for the Yanks. It was a little hairy there for a while. I hate to say this but Carl Pavano dominated the Yanks for most of the game. For a second there I didn't think the Yanks were going to pull it out. But then Carl Pavano remembered who he was and that was pretty much all she wrote. The Yanks are headed back to the ALCS! 3 down, 8 to go.

Andy Pettitte gets my game ball tonight. Andy once again showed that he is a huge postseason pitcher. He picked up the win tonight which ties him with John Smoltz (I think) for the most postseason wins ever. Andy pretty much matched Pavano pitch for pitch. He looked flat out nasty tonight. It's hard to believe a lot of us Yankee fans weren't overly thrilled about the team bringing him back. Right now, I really hope they bring him back next year. It was definitely smart of the Yankees to save AP for game 3. He's been so much more better on the road this year. Look for him to start game 3 in Anaheim. If the ALCS happens to go 7 games, Pettitte will probably start that game. Andy is big time. I'll take him as my game 7 starter any day of the week.

The bullpen came up big tonight. I like the trio of Joba, Hughes, and Mariano. I thought Girardi went to the pen a little early but that's just me. Joba scares me a little. I don't know why he just doesn't bring the heat. He reminds me a little of Kyle Farnsworth. He likes to throw the slider when he should bring the heat. Lucky for Joba his slider is pretty damn good. Well, most of the time it is. Hughes hasn't been as dominant lately. I don't think it's anything to worry about, but it's worth keeping an eye on. Phil caught a huge break tonight when Jeter made a sweet read and nailed Punto scurrying back to third. That was a huge out. Not as huge though as when Mo shattered Joe Mauer's bat to end the 8th. That was one of the game's highlights if you ask me. Watching Mo close out games never gets old. I wouldn't mind seeing, I don't know, 8 more times before the season is over.

A-Rod was definitely the offensive hero of the series. He hit .455 with 2 HR and 6 RBI. He always came through late too. He was a combined 0-6 in his first 2 ABs of each game and 5-5 in ABs 3 and on. Big hits in big spots. His postseason slump is definitely over. He needs to keep it going though. I think he will. He seems locked in.

The win tonight means no game 5 for me and I have no problem with that. I'd much rather see the Yankees win then to attend an elimination game. I'm going to try my damnedest to get down there for game 1 or 2 of the ALCS. The game 5 ticket was a birthday present and since the game didn't get played I can roll it into an ALCS game. I've got some shopping to do tomorrow. Hope work doesn't expect me to be do productive.

the plan now is to go to sleep and write some kind of ALDS recap tomorrow or Tuesday, and then an ALCS preview on Wednesday or Thursday, with maybe a blog or two sprinkled in here and there. Man, I just realized that we have to wait until Friday for the next Yankee game. It could be worse I guess. I could be a Red Sox fan.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie