World Series Game 2: Phillies at Yankees

Before I get into the game, I feel the urge to mention another addition to Derek Jeter's success, as he won the 2009 Roberto Clemente award. This is an award given for outstanding dedication to their community as well as on the field, and who better to give it to than the longtime captain of the Yankees? Congratulations to Derek Jeter for a great accomplishment.
Now on to game two...

This is more like the type of game I was expecting to see in game one. Another fabulous pitching duel down to the last out, but this time it wasn't a red-capper doing all the dirty work.
It was the Yankees' turn to dominate the mound, and A.J. Burnett did just that. He was almost as dominant as Cliff Lee was in game one, pounding both sides of the plate and changing his speeds effectively. Lee punched out ten batters in nine full innings, while Burnett took out nine in just seven innings. There was no doubt that Burnett was on his A game.

What appeared to be another key start to the Phillies' game plan, Pedro Martinez looked like he was going to finish off where Cliff started. Then when it was their turn to bat again, the offense jumped on the run wagon early on as they did in game one. It had already seemed as though the Yankees were headed down the same road. A-Rod struck out and Ibanez made a great dive to steal a base hit away from Cano. Then Jeter struck out and what can you do? Pay it forward.

With Raul Ibanez at the plate, Jason Werth fell asleep on first base as Jose Molina took it upon himself to pick him off. Then Burnett finished it off by striking out Ibanez. That seemed to be the eye-opener for the Yankees. They knew they caught the Phillies off guard and it was time to capitalize on it. Mark Teixeira went long off or Martinez and that tied the game at 1-1.

Then comes Matsui. This poor guy seems to be caught in little jams here and there, but this time his blunder paid off. He gets a tricky pitch at his shoe-tops, which WAS meant to make him swing... and he did. Goodbye, baseball. That was a homer to right field. 2-1 Yanks.

Then along comes Posada. Pinch hitting for Molina, Posada hammered a base hit back up the middle to add an insurance run to the board. They didn't even need it. A.J. Burnett took care of the remaining batters in the seventh inning to allow Mariano Rivera the opportunity to take over for the last two innings.

Just like I mentioned before, if either team has to rely on their closer to take the mound, it all depends on what the score is at that time, because that's probably how it's going to stay. Rivera did get himself in trouble, but was able to get out of the jam. It wasn't the RIGHT call, as it shouldn't have been a double play (the throw to first was not in time) but hey, it was a payback for the double play the Phillies were able to attain, even though Rollins didn't actually catch the line drive (it was a short hop into his glove). What comes around goes around. At least for the first base umpire who made both wrong calls, they were honest mistakes. The plays were very close and deceptive. With Rivera on the mound, I don't think it would have made much of a difference whether or not they got the double play. What WOULD have made a difference is if the Phillies would have started running on the pitch, which they SHOULD have done. They would have had a runner in scoring position with the only play being at first base. This would have put considerable pressure on Rivera. It was a costly mistake leaving Howard on deck, the price being a lost game.

The Yankees did what they do best. They came from behind and kept the lead to even the series at a game apiece. I can't wait to see what happens in Philadelphia. Maybe A-Rod won't strike out.

Game 1: Phillies at Yankees

More like Cliff Lee and Chase Utley at Yankees.

Cliff was on fire with his performance as he fanned ten Yanks down, nine of them out swinging. The Yankees were able to tack on one run, with each base runner very difficult to come by. This doesn't include his "Ho Hum" pop fly that basically just decided it would casually plop into his glove. This doesn't include the behind-the-back base hit stealer just a few pitches afterwards, which you will probably never see a duplicate in your lifetime (or our kids' lifetimes). He was purely lights out. But he wasn't lights out for everybody. Derek Jeter didn't seem to have a problem against him, as he was able to string together a couple of solid hits. The problem with that, is Lee, for the most part, wouldn't allow any more production after a hit was developed. And of the run that was made, it wasn't much off of Lee's skin, as he knew they were just a couple of seeing-eye bloopers that found their way to safe territory.

But let's not give all the gusto to Lee. Other than the two solo homers from Utley, Sabathia kept the rest of the team 2 for 23. Any time a pitcher walks out of the ballgame ahead 4 for 25 (only 16% were hits), he's pitched a fantastic game. Good pitching beats good batting. Utley was the only player who really had Sabathia figured out, and he was the only runs they would actually need. The main problem for Sabathia was the 3-2 counts that he continuously had to face. The Phillies are fastball hitters and they were able to foul off tough pitches until a fastball came.
One particular play was a great lesson for any ball player who watched it: Rollins had caught a ball very low to the ground in a double play attempt. Instead of making the obvious move straight to first for the double play, Rollins acted as if the play was a short hop into his glove. He then stepped on second knowing that Matsui would think he was forced out, and insuring the double play as Matsui would then stop and dwindle on back to the dugout instead of trying to turn around and tag first base. It worked beautifully. It seems as though only Rollins and the second base umpire knew what happened. Had Matsui payed attention to the second base umpire, he would have seen him call the play out before Rollins stepped on the bag.
To my surprise, this game was one-sided, as Cliff Lee dominated the opposition. As mentioned before, Sabathia was still well above satisfactory and made some key pitches. It's unfortunate when one pitcher does as well as Sabathia did, but it is just a vapor compared to the hype brought on by the opposing pitcher. I didn't expect much more than three or four total runs in the whole game with one team beating the other by one run. I surely didn't expect a 6-1 complete game.

So what does game two have in store for us? That will be in my next entry.