Tonight’s nerve-wracking and heart-attack-inducing game can be summed up by a description of the ninth inning, shamelessly stolen from my other blog:

After blowing a one-run lead in the eighth, the Yankees came to bat in the ninth inning against the Phillies’ enigmatic Brad Lidge. It went something like this:

Matsui: out
Jeter: out
Yankee fans on Twitter: GROAN. After all, Phil Coke is warming in the bullpen. As much as we might like Coke, it still makes us nervous…but then….

Johnny Damon: single.
Johnny Damon: Steals second, then goes to third when he sees no one covering–he simply outruns Feliz.
Mark Teixeira: Hit by pitch.
Alex “centaur” Rodriguez: Double to the gap. In the postgame, Rodriguez says, “well, I mean, Brad Lidge is a great competitor.” What he means is: “Brad Lidge threw me a freaking meatball”.
Yankee fans on Twitter: WOOOHOOO ALEX FREAKIN’ CENTAUR RODRIGUEZ.

Jorge Posada: Doubles off of Lidge, scores Teixeira and Rodriguez, and then, being Jorge Posada, runs himself into an out.

The Yankees go to the bottom of the ninth with a three run lead, and with the Sandman on the mound, the result was a win that has the Yankees up three games to one.

We keep talking about how important a bullpen is, and in tonight’s game, Philadelphia got burned by theirs.

Although Joba Chamberlain made one mistake pitch, the Yankees never trailed.

With every additional game this postseason, we realize a little more how important Mariano Rivera is to the team.

One would have to think that Jimmy Rollins is realizing it, too.

To have beaten Cliff Lee tonight, the Yankees would have had to pitch perfectly.

Sabathia didn’t even pitch poorly–he’s been so dominant lately that a little bit of rust looked akin to a collapse–but he wasn’t a match for Lee tonight.

Lee’s performance tonight sparked memories of Koufax and Ford–that’s how good it was.

Until the ninth inning, the Yankees had just one batter reach second base, and none reach third.

There’s not much else to day–it wasn’t a bad managerial move that cost the Yankees the game; the other team simply pitched better.

Okay, so perhaps Brian Bruney should not be anywhere near a postseason roster, but this isn’t really the point here.

You can debate how you would have pitched the top of the eighth–my faith in Robertson didn’t work out the way I’d hope, but it happens–but it wasn’t a bullpen that blew the game.

With the way that Lee pitched, even if the score had remained 2-0, the Yankees’ chances were still slim–he was that good.

The first six innings, at least–before the Yankees went to the bullpen–were everything that a neutral fan would want to see in a World Series game: good pitching, good fielding, and played in a crisp manner.

Alas for us, we have a rooting interest that was on the wrong end of that game.

It is only fitting that Andy Pettitte was on the mound tonight.

He was there in 1996, he should be there again this season, when comparisons to the late nineties Yankees have been so apparent.

It was fitting, and Pettitte was vintage.

He only pitched into the seventh inning, but he kept the Angels to just one run, and you get the feeling that once the Yankees scored, the Angels never really had much of a chance.

There was Pettitte, and then there was Joba, where we held our breath, and then there was Rivera.

****

I’ve gone back and forth on Rivera in the eighth, but ultimately it was the right decision. As a proponent of the leverage argument, tonight’s use of Rivera is exactly what should have been done, with him facing Figgins, Abreu, Hunter, Guerrerro and Morales in the the eighth inning, in a two run game.

You knew Rivera would be on the mound for the final out, regardless of the score.

It just wouldn’t be right without it.

****

The Yankees didn’t have an awesome game offensively, but they knocked Saunders out early and took advantage of Kazmir’s poor fielding late.

As the saying is, they don’t have to be pretty, they have to be wins.

So, that was the case tonight. The Yankees out-pitched and out-fundamentaled the Angels.

***

The work isn’t done.

Philadelphia’s not just a good team, they’re the defending World Champions and with good reason.

Yet, you get the feeling, if anyone can beat the Phillies, these Yankees can.

The Cliff Lee/CC Sabathia matchup slated for game one should be a doozy.

It’s tempting to blame.

You can attach blame wherever you’d like, though only assigning blame does not do much. As my father has told me, some are in love with assigning blame and others prefer to fix problems.

So, here we go:

Some will blame AJ Burnett, some Joe Girardi, and some Phil Hughes.

I am no baseball manager and I’ve never played in an organized baseball game, but this is what I would have done:

In the seventh inning, I let Burnett come out to start the inning. He’s at 80 pitches and has more or less been doing all right since that let’s-not-talk-about-it first inning.

Once Mathis reaches, that’s when I replace Burnett, instead of giving him the chance to put the tying run on base.

The reliever I bring in is not Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain, but David Robertson. I know, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but both Hughes and Chamberlain have been hit this postseason and Robertson has more or less worked some miracles.

At this rate, Robertson right now is the most valuable reliever not named Mariano Rivera.

This isn’t to detract from what Hughes or Chamberlain have done this season–and without Hughes, especially, the Yankees aren’t even playing tonight–but both have had issues this postseason.

If I leave AJ in to face the first two batters and they both reach, I consider bringing in Mariano Rivera. It’s undoubtedly the highest leverage situation at that point, but my issue arises if the Yankees don’t add any more insurance runs and the game goes to the ninth still a two run game and your team on the road.

***

Unlike most of you, I suspect, I’m not all that bothered by Girardi’s decision to pinch run for Alex Rodriguez in the ninth.

With two outs, and down by one, you do anything you can to tie the score, and while Rodriguez isn’t a Molina, Guzman is much more likely to score from first. Again, your team is down two outs, so you don’t have any more outs with which to work.

Nick Swisher, of course, killed us all with the 3-2 pop up. I don’t know if he was swinging at ball four or not, but the Yankees lost the game in the seventh, after coming so close to winning.

****

So what about it? How would you have managed the situations as they presented themselves?

Remember, it’s easy to say that you would have taken AJ out after the fact–going into the inning he was only at 80 pitches, etc.

What would you have done? It’s not as easy a thing as you think.

For mere humans, starting a Major League baseball game on three days’ rest is asking for disaster.

For one Carsten Charles Sabathia, starting on three days’ rest is just another way to earn his paycheck.

We, lesser men and women, can only marvel as Sabathia is pictured in the dugout, yawning during the Yankees’ at-bats.

This, of course, would be the best spot to mention how Scott Kazmir took forever between pitches, never looked quite comfortable and flirted with disaster the entire night. We’ll get to the Yankee offense in a moment.

For now, Sabathia.

The Yankees’ ace–and if he has not yet earned that moniker, he never will–was so good that he was still throwing mid nineties when his pitch count was roughly equal to that.

Sabathia was so good that his line is deceptive. He struck out five, but this has more to do with the fact that Sabathia was consistently getting outs early in the count–he walked just two through eight innings.

The last time the Yankees asked a starter to go on three days’ rest in the postseason was Chien Ming Wang in 2007 and it didn’t work out so well–the Yankees were eliminated that game.

That, in my mind, is all you need to know. In 2007, pre-foot-that-led-to-shoulder injury, Wang was a very good pitcher.

Sabathia, however, is an ace.

Aces do heroic things.

In the grand scheme of things, pitching a baseball game is hardly worthy of comment, but for us Yankee fans, tonight was heroism. Pure and simple.

Of course, if one starts talking heroes, one will have to bring Alex Rodriguez into the discussion.

Rodriguez hasn’t just shattered the notion of postseason demons; he’s gone way past obliterating them into ridiculous, other-worldly, and now…well, profound.

Rodriguez keeps asserting that nothing profound has happened, and that he’s just in a good place, but, really, what he’s done this October is, itself, profound.

There’s no other way to describe it than that. Profound.

If the ALCS was over today, and you had a vote for the MVP, do you give it to Sabathia or Rodriguez, who has not only exceeded this round, but is perhaps the reason the Yankees made it this far in the first place?

It’s a tough call.

While you’re busy oggling Sabathia’s and Rodriguez’s performances (and oggle you should), don’t forget the production the Yankees received tonight from one Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera had two RBI early that put the Yankees up 3-0, and then two more late, after the game had reached the ‘pouring-it-on’ stage.

Many have remarked that the Yankees’ bottom of the order is not producing, but Cabrera is batting .353 in the postseason.

If we expect an all star, Cabrera will disappoint, but if we expect a number nine hitter who stands a reasonable shot of getting on base as anyone, we ought to be well satisfied.

There are rumors that Cabrera repeated a certain phrase that he uttered after hitting for the cycle, but these are thus far unsubstantiated and I do not have DVR.

This game can not be remarked upon, alas, without a comment about the absolutely horrid job by the umpires–bad calls that went both in favor and against the Yankees. The most egregious of these was after a baserunning blunder by Posada, when Mike Napoli tagged Posada and Canó out at third, as neither was touching the base, but Canó was ruled safe.

The Yankees ended that inning without scoring another run, but there is utterly no excuse for that missed call. There were others, but this was the easiest one to get right.

The Yankees now have a 3-1 series lead and will have their chance to close it out on Thursday. They needed to take at least one game in Anaheim and they’ve done that; now they’re out for Angel blood.

The breakdown:

1) The Yankees’ biggest issue in this game–and, it’s looking like their biggest issue this series–is a lack of hitting with runners on base. Every Yankee run today was via a solo home run, and while the Yankees have had decent enough pitching to win when they score four runs much of the time, much is not all. The Yankees had golden opportunities to add to their lead, and they did not. Andy Pettitte made one bad pitch, and well, boom. A 3-1 cushion is not a big cushion, at all.

2) I don’t have an issue with leaving Pettitte in to face Guerrerro although I admit that, since I did not have a computer handy, I don’t know what his pitch count was at the time. My issue is with the pitch Pettitte threw: there was no reason, in that situation, to give Guerrerro anything to hit. Guerrerro swings at, well, everything. Sabathia and Burnett can blow it by the former Expo; Pettitte cannot.

3) Chamberlain looked awful. Girardi was quick with his hook, but, alas, not quick enough. Someone–and I can’t remember where I read this, so apologies to whomever I should be citing–said that this postseason, Joba’s fastball has been there but his slider has not, which may explain why he’s been hooked quickly.

The great thing about going to games with well-informed fans is that you get excellent analysis as well, and I thus agree with the commenter known as TSJC: Joba tends to overthrow, as though he is too amped and trying to do too much. It’s been an issue with him as long as he’s been with the Yankees.

4) I did not agree with Girardi’s decision to leave Hughes in to start a third inning. Hughes hasn’t pitched more than two since what, June? May? And against the heart of the Angels’ order, as well, it just didn’t make sense to me. Girardi thus made the right call to bring in Rivera, and, well, Mo is simply not mortal.

First and third, no one out, and Rivera got out of the jam. At the time, the Stadium exploded and we thought it was perhaps destiny that we’d win.

5) The biggest issue I had with Girardi’s overmanaging was bringing in Aceves to face Kendrick. Robertson had already had two outs, had little history vs Kendrick (if any at all) and is a strike out pitcher. Aceves, on the other hand, has a propensity for giving up fly balls, and as we all saw, the ball certainly carried today. At home, if the other team hits a home run, you still get a chance to get the run back the next day, but on the road, you do not.

As it were, Kendrick singled and Mathis drove him in with a long fly off the wall, but it is my belief that Robertson could have gotten the third out.

6) TSJC had an issue with Girardi replacing Damon with Hairston, not that he did it but when he did it. With the bases loaded and less than two outs, anything hit to left field is likely going to score the winning run, anyway. It makes little sense.

7) If Gardner is inserted into the game to pinch run, he has to run. He has to go on the first pitch–where there’s pretty much no chance of a pitch out. Gardner’s not in there to hit home runs, and the only reason to remove Matsui’s bat is because you are going for the win right then, and need the RISP. If Gardner steals successfully, Posada’s home run is a game winning, and not game tying (fallacy of the predetermined and all).
GOOD: Jeter’s third pitch home run, holy crap what is A-Rod smoking and where can I get some, that Melky-Jeter-Teixeira play in the 8th to nab Abreu (where the heck was Canó on that? We were trying to figure it out!) Mariano is not mortal, and Teixeira is (again) worth it for his defense alone.

Fundamentals. Fun-duh-MEN-tuls. Noun. 1) Something that is part of the foundation of another thing. 2) In sports, the key concepts that must be mastered before attempting advanced work.

Example: A fundamental concept of baseball is the ability to correctly catch and throw a baseball.

Example 2: Another fundamental concept of baseball is that when one’s team takes the lead, that team is supposed to keep the other team from scoring.

Were the New York Yankees fundamentally sound tonight? No, not really–they had three errors in the game.

The difference, however, is that while the Yankees worked around their fundamental mishaps, the Angels did not.

Sure, AJ Burnett’s wild pitch that led to the Angels tying the game at 2 could be considered an error if you’d like, but that was more typical bad-inning-AJ than it was poor fundamental play on the part of the Yankees.

On the other hand, the Angels’ second error of the game directly caused the Yankees to score the winning run, a ground ball that should have gone for the sure out that went instead sailing past the target and allowing Jerry Hairston Jr. to score.

It won’t be cast as an error, but attention should also be paid to the game tying home run Alex Rodriguez had in the eleventh inning.

From the Yankees’ point of view, their third baseman has been the unequivocal MVP of the postseason thus far (though there is obviously a lot of way left to go). Rodriguez has hit three home runs this postseason, and every single one of those home runs has been a late-inning, game-tying shot; the two at Yankee Stadium coming in what, to that point, would have been the Yankees’ last at bat.

From the Angels’ point of view, it was a failure of their closer, Brian Fuentes, as the Angels now join the ranks of the teams that have blown a save or late-inning lead this postseason–Red Sox, Twins, Rockies, Phillies and Cardinals are all guilty here.

The Yankees?

Well, the legend of Mariano Rivera still grows.

He pitched two innings tonight, did not reach 30 pitches, and was simply outstanding.

According to the folks at Baseball Prospectus, teams that win championships need good defense, strike out pitchers and lock-down closers.

Is it any wonder, then, that the Yankees are the only team in 2009 to have not lost a postseason game?

*****

Another fundamental issue that should not go unnoticed is that both the Angels and Yankees were completely incompetent with runners in scoring position tonight. Since the Angels’ had more men on base, including multiple innings with the bases loaded, their failure is all that more glaring.

Vladimir Guerrerro five years ago, by the way, does not come up short in that spot.

When you can get 45,000+ fans all chanting your name in a LCS in your first year in New York, you’re obviously doing something right.

CC’s something?

8 innings,
4 hits
1 run
1 walk
7 strikeouts.

Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I’d say that new guy did pretty well for himself.

Sabathia and the Yankees were also helped by some pretty poor fundamental play by the Angels–the one play we’ll remember years from now was a Luis Castillo-esque dropped pop up (well, not so much dropped as no one bothered to try to catch it) by Eric Aybar that directly led to the Yankees 2nd run in the first.

The two runs were all that the Yankees–and Sabathia–would need.

Sabathia was helped by solid fundamental play and good defense on the part of his team, and the Yankees simply outplayed the Angels.

The Yankees did not get a ton of offense, but they had enough to take advantage of the Angels’ misplay. Tonight was only the second time ever there had been a game at the new Yankee Stadium without a home run, but the Yankees were able to tack on the two insurance runs to provide the extra cushion everyone likes so much.

The best moment of levity came late in the game, when FOX aired a conversation between Joe Girardi and Tim McClelland, the home plate umpire, as Girardi went to bring in Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who has more postseason saves than anyone else in history. You may have heard of him. It went something like this:

Girardi: We’re bringing Rivera.
McClelland: Who?
Girardi: This new guy we got.
McClelland: Up from AAA?

Well, for what it’s worth, that real new guy, CC, was worth every single cent tonight.

The Yankees have now taken a 1-0 series lead against Los Angeles, and did not have to worry about wasting a CC start because of the weather.

On that note, the forecast for tomorrow is very murky indeed and via the FOX broadcast, a makeup game, if needed would be played Sunday afternoon, about 4.30 (no way Fox is not broadcasting the Saints-Giants early game).

This would throw a wrench in the pitch-CC-on-3-days-rest plan, but since the Yankees will now not be on the verge of elimination in game four, there is a little more leeway.

In the year of the Walk-Off, why not add Juan Miranda to the mix?

In an utterly insignificant game, Yankee fans could still enjoy a good outing from Burnett and the fifteenth walk-off win of the year–against the immortal Kyle Farnsworth.

To put the Yankees’ walk off wins in perspective, in the entirety of the 2009 season, the Yankees had exactly one homestand–just one in an eighty-two home game season–in which they did not walk off. That’s pretty incredible.

The game ultimately played out like a spring-training game, with the latter innings including such things as Robinson Canó playing first base, but with everything clinched that it is possible to clinch before October, the Yankees had that luxury.

The one concern would be Phil Coke’s poor fielding. He didn’t even pitch all that poorly–but was instead inefficient at fielding his position, making an errant throw to 2nd on one play and then throwing to first despite there being an out at home, instead.

At any rate, the Yankees go for the sweep of Kansas City–and the homestand–tomorrow.

The Yankees swept the Boston Red Sox this weekend, and in doing so clinched the AL East title for the first time since 2006. After settling for the Wild Card in 2007 and missing out entirely in 2008, the Yankees are back where many believe they rightfully belong.

It was not an easy win–Andy Pettitte struggled early, even having the bases loaded with no one out in the early innings–but as has so often been the case this season, the Yankees grew stronger as the game went on.

The Yankees received their offense today from a Melky Cabrera home run, a 2-run Hideki Matsui single and a Mark Teixeira home run–and this is quite fitting: Cabrera, Matsui and Teixeira have been clutch for the Yankees all season.

Also worth noting is Brian Bruney’s strong performance–getting all five batters he faced–easily his best performance in a long time. Whether or not it’s enough to warrant him a spot on the postseason roster is up for debate, but it certainly helped today.

The Yankees still have the hardest work ahead of them–winning eleven games in October before losing four–but for the moment, let the boys celebrate.

Joe Girardi got the Yankees back to October.