If the Yankees never get into a brawl last night and Jorge Posada never gets suspended, Francisco Cervelli never gets his bottom-of-the-ninth at bat with Brett Gardner on third base.
True, maybe the Yankees don’t need some ninth inning magic to win the game, but that ruins the fun of this post.
As it were, Chad Gaudin did the whole Chad Gaudin thing: he pitched well enough for five innings and then necessitated the bullpen coming in during the sixth inning.
Toronto soon took a 4-2 lead thanks to the ineffectiveness of Brian Bruney (who, at this rate, must have Pebble Beach reservations come October 1st…). It should be mentioned that both Phils, Coke and Hughes, Damaso Marte and Mariano Rivera all pitched well, and at this rate, it’s those guys, much more than Bruney, that will be relied upon come the postseason.
It looked like it might be another depressing loss–not devastating, just not the way you want to end a homestand before a trip to Seattle and Anaheim–until Hideki Matsui hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to tie the game.
Once that happened, it was as though the Yankees had new life.
Joe Girardi here deserves credit for a double-switch in which he hit Gardner in the nine spot in the line up and Cervelli in the second spot–because at the time, the ninth spot came up before the second, which ended up playing out in a perfect manner.
Brett Gardner singled to get on base, stole second, went to third on Jeter’s out and then scored on Cervelli’s single.
The magic number for a playoff spot of any sort right now is now four, and the division is eleven–and could well be ten by the end of the night.
Fourteen walk-off wins–including two on this homestand–and even the rookies are getting in on the action.
It’s not the worst way to head to the West Coast.
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4 Responses to Posada suspenion nets Yanks 14th walk off win of the season
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TIQ IQ
How can you not try to sign Matsui to a cheap one year deal? He has been sensational all year.
He also has no knees and could be on the DL tomorrow, not to mention he takes up a DH spot that he can never give up because he will never play the field again… He is useless to the team next year because you can sign that much production with someone who can actually play outfield or something.
Damon, Matsui, Abreu…if I’m cashman I’d love to bring 2 of 3 in on a one year deal if possible. Matsui is probably most likely to take a one year deal since he has no defensive value and his knees are major question marks, but Abreu could seek that decent sized payday he missed out on last year and Damon…well his history as a FA makes him a question mark. All depends on how badly he wants to stay in NY.
So you want two of 3 players who can’t play defense, all should be permanent DHs and all of them are old… What is the incentive to bring in any of them going forward?
With the economy look for all of them to get no more than one year contracts and all for smaller amounts, Abreu won’t be getting the pay gay he didn’t deserve last year.