Quickly now, because it’s going on 1 AM and I want to sleep:
1) AJ Burnett outpitched Felix Hernandez. Hernandez actually pitched a complete game, but still gave up more runs (unearned though at least one of them was) than Burnett.
2) Phil Hughes was great.
3) Mariano looked unhittable for the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth, even notching his 1,000 strike out (career), before allowing a double and a home run. It’s baseball. Stuff happens. Mentioning that the Yankees had only lost one game in nearly a full season when leading after eight probably didn’t help regarding the whole jinxing thing, but that’s just my opinion.
At any rate, Texas lost, so the Yankees’ magic number to make the playoffs is down to three. Make the playoffs first, then worry about the division–and the Yankees do still have a sizeable lead there.
More importantly, Burnett really did pitch well. It’s gonna get lost amidst the whole “OHMIG-DHOLYCRAPMOBLEWASAVE”, but he really did pitch well.
Related posts:
Girardi really managed a bad game. You have to walk Ichiro in that spot. And letting Molina hit in the 7th was criminal.
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I dont agree with the walking of Ichiro, you trust Mo to get that out, now Molina had no business batting in that situation
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The other Chris H Reply:
September 19th, 2009 at 6:00 am
I agree you don’t walk Ichiro, he has power but isn’t known as a power pitcher and he only ever had one walk off hit in his career before and that occurred yesterday with a single in the 14th. Not to mention the fact Mo is a competitor and doesn’t want to walk him in that situation anyway, plus you have a huge embarrassment factor if you walk Ichiro after the double because it shows lack of faith in someone who logged 37 consecutive saves until tonight. Suzuki came into last nights game 2 for 10 against Mo with 2 singles no manager in the world would have walked Ichiro in that position, we aren’t two games back of the wild card here we have the best record in baseball, you can’t afford to manage scared now that isn’t what got you here. You can second guess every move Girardi makes if you want but no matter the outcome he made the right choice here and Mariano made a good pitch on the inner half, it was just destined for him to get that hit and that’s baseball for you.
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Burnett pitched a hell of a game and did better than even I thought and I figured the Ms were a good team for him, he was looking close before and it looks like he is getting the fact you have to limit damage in a playoff race, lets just hope this Burnett goes on a roll and doesn’t slide back because of the blown save.
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