Cliff Lee, making it look easy
-What can you say about last night’s game? Cliff Lee was unhittable and made the Yanks look like little leaguers for most of the night. CC was fine, I’ll take 7 IP and 2 R every time he goes out there. One thing about Lee, the Yanks are going to kick themselves when they watch tape of their ABs. They had a few pitches they could have done damage with on just about every AB, but Lee mixed up his pitches so well and kept them off balance that they were betwixt and between all night. Expect them to take a different approach next time they face him.
-Phil Hughes has faced 27 batters in the playoffs and retired just 14 of them. The pressure of the playoffs has clearly gotten Hughes off his game. When he was taken out by Girardi last night, he was screaming into his glove in a tirade that was apparently directed at Home Plate Umpire Gerry Davis. Was he getting squeezed a bit? Sure, so was every pitcher here and there. But Phil’s acting like he has no margin for error, and his stuff is fine. It’s in his head. I always thought the reason Hughes struggled as a starter was he was simply trying too hard, and now I’m seeing the same tendencies with him as a reliever, after not seeing it since he moved to the bullpen.
-I liked Girardi getting a bunch of relievers into last nights game. The game was pretty much settled by the 8th, and it gave them a chance to get their feet wet in some World Series action. Most of them were bad, but I expect the opening night jitters. Get that out of the way, and now we can go play ball. Good move by Joe, should pay off later in the series. I hate to have these guys experience World Series jitters in a game we should win.
-Even in a snoozer like last night, the 2nd guessers found something to seize on. This time, it was leaving in Robertson (oh, the irony!) instead of going to Phil Coke to face Ibanez in the 8th inning. As usual, Girardi knows something his critics don’t. Dave Robertson has a reverse platoon split, meaning he’s more effective against Lefties than he is facing Righties. He’s been like that since he was in the minors, so its not just some statistical anomaly, it’s part of his profile as a pitcher. Try again, folks.
-Kudos to the umps for getting together and getting the Rollins DP correct last night. It took a little too long, but it shows we don’t need to turn the game upside down to get a few calls right.
-I wouldn’t get too upset over last nights loss. Going into the Series, I thought the Phillies HAD to have that game, or they could be facing a quick exit. Tonight’s pitching match up is Burnett vs Pedro Martinez (edge Yanks) and Saturday’s is Hamels (who’s been awful) facing Pettitte. I still think were in good shape, and still expect a long series.
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15 Responses to Random Thoughts-World Series Game 1
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Phillies have now won 3 of 4 games at Yankee Stadium this year…Yanks have never played with a lead vs. the Phillies this year…Cliff Lee reminds me of Orel Hershiser in 1988, or more recently Schilling/Johnson/Beckett(w/Marlins) vs Yanks…Lee will pitch up to 3 games if needed in this series, not good for Yanks…over/under on Burnett BB total tonight is 7…I wish Robbie Cano would dive for all ball once in awhile…Buck and MacCarver were very happy last night.
Who would have thought that Marte would become our best option in the pen not named Rivera?
My co-worker: “Cliff Lee Drank Your Milkshake”
Game 5: Revenge.
Thanks for this piece Steve. After reading it, it calms me down from last night where I was just pissed off. Whenever the yanks have lost in this postseason, I ignore all the papers and sport sites bc they all say something along the lines of “are yanks going to give away this series or do the yanks need to press the panic button?”. I just go here and read articles where I can look at the series in its entirety and w reason.
BTW, I dont believe lee will do that to us again. The yanks will pick up on him, and go to work as usual.
Yanks lose game one and the whole world flip-flops (or atleast 68% according to ESPN poll are now picking Phillies to win)… I’m not worried, we’ll see what happens when we get to play with their bullpen
I have been a critic of Girardi on the site. I thought he managed the 8th inning perfectly. The players didn’t perform. I wouldn’t get all crazy on Robertson’s reverse split, but check out Ibanez’s split. He hits lefties way better than righties. Both pitcher and catcher stats – as well as recent performance screamed leave him in. Plus it was a weak groud ball to the right side. Off the bat I thought the Yanks were out of the inning.
In the useless statistic department it is worth noting that since 1996 the Yankees are 8-3 in series which they lose game 1 (They won the 96 ALDS and WS, 2000 ALDS and CS, 01 ALDS, ’03 ALDS and CS, ’04 ALDS and lost the ’01 WS “03 WS and “07 ALDS). Also remember in 1996 they lost both games 1 and 2 at home and won in 6 and they lost 1 and 2 on the road in ’01 and had a lead with Mo on the mound in the 9th inning of game 7 (which I think every Yankee fan would sign up for today). It is certainly not time to freak out.
RE: Not using Coke to face Ibanez
Even if Robertson has had more success getting lefties out than righties, isn’t it more important to look at Ibanez statistics against facing lefties vs. righties?
Who cares if Robertson could get lefties 99.99% of the time he faces them??? This is Raul Ibanez, he hit 37 home runs this year and is a veteran hitter. Coke should have been in the game, and it should have been 2-0 in the ninth inning.
Ibanez has killed lefties this season, hit them more than righties. Considering that Coke and Robertson were about equal against lefties and that Robertson has been much better lately, this was the right move.
The only problem I had with Girardi last night was bringing in Bruney. The game was already out of reach given the way Cliff Lee was pitching, but Girardi definitely threw in the towel early with that decision.
If you do not want to use Bruney in that situation your real complaint is that he is on the roster. If he is going to be on the roster Girardi needed a low leverage situation to see if he could help. Now we know, its doubtful he can help.
I think you need to weigh probabilities there. With the bottom of the order coming up, do you want to use Robertson for another 3 outs when you might need him tomorrow on the off chance that they come back against Lee, or do you want to save D-Rob and try to get through 7-9 with Bruney? I go with option #2.
This is the last series of the year. Robertson has barely worked during the ALCS. The team has a day off tomorrow, I believe. He’d be rested enough for the series if you used him for 3 more outs (and if it’s the bottom of the order, he should have no problem) and ended up using him tomorrow (Girardi rarely uses him anyway, so there’s no point in thinking he’ll be in tomorrow). This entire “we need to conserve the bullpen” idea is crazy when you only have 7 games left, at the most.
Steve, I’m with you about Lee. It looked to me like he threw a lot of first pitch fastballs straight down the middle that were taken. Then a straight fastball on the black, taken, then a nasty curve, swing and miss. If we have a working video machine, we should not see a repeat of last nights performance.
[...] when all the second guessers were screaming for Phil Coke to face Raul Ibanez instead of leaving in Dave Robertson after Game 1? I [...]