Saturday, October 24, 2009

AFTER ALL, IT IS THE CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND

***GAME SIX TODAY...MAYBE***
Sometime this evening, Andy Pettitte will take the mound for the Yankees. Chances are (80%, by the latest weather report), he'll be carrying an umbrella instead of his glove. Not unexpected for football weather.

Another do or die game for the Angels, and another chance for both managers to make pitching decisions that fail. You try to put the players on the mound, at bat and in the field that give your team the best chance to win. It's hard to argue with the pitcher decisions on both sides, since both managers went the "dance with who brung you" theory. Fuentes has been beat up, outpitching Chamberlain & Hughes, which is saying nothing. Leaving in Burnett after a lengthy stay on the bench? Well, he had a low pitch count, a 2 run lead and had settled in after a bad 1st inning. Worth a shot and it would have worked had not the 'Gasoline Alley' gang showed up out of the bullpen. The way it's going, maybe Girardi should give Mariano the start in game 6.
Should Scioscia have left Lackey in? He obviously had the competitive fire, but Oliver had done the job all year. It amounts to the same thing: if players perform, the manager looks like a genius, if not, they look like Vod and Picasner.

There are two moves I don't understand. Why not pinch hit for Swisher with the game on the line? Loyalty to a regular, Swisher's potential or just a weak bench? Either way, I sure wish Girardi had given it more thought. Speaking of thoughts, there couldn't have been any thinking involved with replacing A-Rod with a pinch runner in the ninth. As fast as Guzman is, A-Rod is still an excellent baserunner and was just as likely to score as some speed demon without good baserunning instincts. And if you tie the game, sometime in the 11th inning, your cleanup hitter is Guzman? Hairston? Sabathia? Let's not overthink, Joe.

When I heard that cracks had shown up in Yankee Stadium, I thought they were talking about the bullpen.

Sorry, Vod. There's McCarver, Phillips and Morgan. I won't 'give it a rest' until I don't have to listen to them anymore. One down, two to go.

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