The 2009 post-season run by the Yankees was obviously fantastic. They swept the Twins ALDS, beat the Angels 4-2 in the ALCS, and then beat the Phillies 4-2 in the World Series. Somehow, it didn’t hit me until last night while watching Game One of the ALDS versus the Twins (moving to the bottom of the seventh as I type this): each Game Two in the playoffs last year had something special.
We all remember this one. The David Robertson escape act. The A-Rod homer against Nathan to tie the game in the ninth. Mark Teixeira’s walk off homer. This was a perfect back and forth playoff game and the Yankees came out on top.
Another back and forth game, and another game with David Robertson getting the win, and another big homer from Alex Rodriguez. I’ll never forget that homer–down 0-2, to the opposite field, in the rain. I still don’t know why Brian Fuentes put the ball where he did, but I’m not going to complain. The same sentiment goes for Macier Izturis throwing the ball to second on a Melky Cabrera ground ball when he had no shot, which allowed Jerry Hairston to score the winning run.
The previous Game Two’s were big, but the Yankees had the luxury of being up one game to zero in those games. There was no such luxury for Game Two of the World Series. The Yankees had just been dominated by Cliff Lee and were in danger of going to Philadelphia down two games to none. They fell behind after an RBI single from Matt Stairs. Teixeira tied the game with a homer off of Pedro Martinez in the sixth inning and Hideki Matsui gave the bombers the lead in the sixth with a dinger of his own. That’s all A.J. Burnett would need as he was brilliant, tossing 7 innings, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9.
Tonight, the Yankees will look to their lineup and Andy Pettitte to give them yet another memorable Game Two.
The current Twins have hit relatively well off of Pettitte with a .284 average and a .325 on base percentage, but they haven’t hit for much power against him (.405 SLG, .121 IsoP). Pettitte pitched two games against the Twins this season, winning both times.
In this game, Andy attacked the Twins with mostly fastballs, mixing his four seamer, two seamer, and cutter well. He threw in the occasional curve and dropped two changeups as well. Andy only had two strikeouts in the game, and did walk three hitters, but he allowed just two hits so it’s clear he was keeping Minnesota off balance.
Just 11 days later, Pettitte faced the Twins again, this time in Minnesota. Again, Andy didn’t have the strikeout pitch working with just four strikeouts in eight innings while allowing eight hits, but he didn’t walk a batter. In his second time out, he used his changeup more (ten times as opposed to two) and his cutter less. This makes sense as he was facing the team for the second time in less than two weeks. Andy made adjustments and was able to beat the Twins twice in a short amount of time. He hasn’t faced the Twins since then and he’s had a few days to prepare now. I’m very confident in Andy Pettitte to make even more adjustments to prepare himself to beat the Twins.
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