STILL ON TOP, BUT…
Accentuating the positive and it’s a really big positive: Andy Pettitte returned from his 2-month stint on the DL and pitching the Trenton Thunder through the first round of the AA Playoffs and looked like the very same, on top of his game hurler he was when he went down with an 11-2 mark and throwing as well as he ever has.
Pettitte shook off some rust and gave the Yankees exactly what they had hoped for: 6ip, 3h, 1r all in the allotted 79 pitches. He left with a 3-1 lead that should have been bigger; again, the Yanks left far too many men on base, failed in numerous attempts to widen that gap.
But can’t blame my MVP candidate, Robinson Cano who knocked in the first run in the opening frame with a two out single for his 102nd rbi. Wish I could say something similar about Lance Berkman. Yes, I wanted him since June, but unlike Swisher (who I campaigned for) the Puma, or should I say Fat Elvis, has about as much clutch in him as a Dodge Vegematic. Showalter is obviously aware of his failures too: he walked Jeter & Tex intentionally to face the switch-hitter with the bases loaded in the 11th. Fat Elvis obliged by bouncing into a tailor-made DP.
And yes, Wood gave up one, but was able to strand the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position. But Mo has been less-than-lights-out on this road-trip and gave up the tying homerun leading off the bottom of the 9th to Luke Scott.
The failure to get Nunez in from 3rd with nobody out was a ball-crusher leading to another walk-off, extra inning loss for the Yanks. Feh.
Of course, the Yanks loss meant the Giants would win and even score a week’s worth of runs after another of my scoldings. Thank me, Giants fans…
Of course, Joe Morgan couldn’t come out and say it, but at least Orel Hershiser said that he thought both the AL MVP and Cy Young award winners could both be NY Yankees this year.
Speaking of Yankee/Dodger connections, Mr. Torre steps down and Donnie Baseball slides into the manager’s chair in Los Angeles. Hard to root against either of them and glad it’s not in Boston, but seeing either of them in Dodger-blue is just plain wrong.
What’s not wrong is that both of them are supposed to be at the new Yankee Stadium this evening for a ceremony honoring George M. Steinbrenner III and for the unveiling of the monument to “The Boss.” But, if Yogi and even Dave Winfield could accept George’s apologies, Misters Torre and Mattingly should as well, and seemingly have. If he was still alive, and not managing those Redsox, I’d bet good money that even Billy Martin would have accepted apologies from Steinbrenner, too and that would have been sweet to witness. Not quite up there as the top secret Old Timer’s Day announcement of Billy’s eventual return, but these are calmer days than those.
Yanks/Rays four game series starts tonight in the Bronx and could very well help determine the AL East winner. Then again, they’ll probably split, each game decided by a run, a few of them in extra innings as the beat goes on…