Photo Captions: Not exactly tipping his hat at Josh Hamilton or Nelson Cruz, but we tip our hats to Cano for his great year (Photo Bill Menzel)
First appeared at www.latinosports.com on Tuesday, 26 October 2010
El Barrio, New York – This has been called the ‘year of the pitcher ‘in MLB and the American League Championship Series showed that it may have been the combination of the old truisms of good pitching stopping good hitting, as in the case of Texas vs. the Yankees, and good hitting preying on poor Yankees pitching. These following observations are not meant to be profound and may have passed by most fans’ minds and anyone who has something to say in baseball; so, this writer regurgitates.
What about the Yankee hitting? Except for two games in the ALCS and the performance of Robinson Cano overall and as was expected against Cliff Lee, the team’s offense did not run on all its cylinders to get past the Rangers. True that just before they did their first folding act out of first place during the regular season and settled as the Wild Card, the Yankees were about to end the season with the best won-lost record in MLB; the Yankees had one of the best come from behind record in ML baseball.
The team scored the most runs in the American League during the regular season and was a respectable 7th in team batting (.267) and 9 points behind League leading Texas (.276); Alex Rodriguez was second in all of MLB with 125 RBI and Robinson Cano had an MVP year. In other words, the Yankees were not offensively deficient – until they had to play the best of 7 against Texas. One can add that if Mark Teixeira had been healthy there could have been some additional punch in the Yankees lineup (this is a Justin Morneau-less line of thinking).
What got them out of first place was mostly poor end-of-season pitching and this too was their undoing in the ALCS. During the season they had lost their third starter to the DL for most of the second half; their second starter lost it, and their fifth starter showed once again that if you cannot make it in New York not only once but twice you may make it elsewhere.
The Yankees team pitching for the regular season showed an 4.06 ERA – 7th place in the AL. Texas was ahead in 3rd place with an ERA of 3.93 and Tampa, in second place with .378, could not get passed Cliff Lee’s remarkable performance twice (in a five game series format that was lethal).
When the dust settled, Texas team ERA in the postseason as a whole was 2.76; Tampa 3.80 and the Yankees 5.01and Minnesota, at 5.88. Some people had speculated if the Yankees had given up on a first place finish on purpose and buy some time until they could recapture the moment. Well, as it turns out what you see is what you get and the Yankees could go but so far; not all the way.
So after steam rolling over Minnesota in the Divisional Series, the Yankee pitching showed its true essence in the Championship Series.
When the Yankees and the Rangers were to begin their contest, a good number of people had the Yankees winning in 6 (let’s not mention names here). This writer had premonitions that the Yankees would not even get pass the Twin on the basis that your patsy victims shall someday rise from the death and be meek no more. Wrong. The Twins minus Justin Morneu for the second year were victimized by the Yankees once more.
This writer had premonitions again, on meeting the Texas Rangers, not so much because of Mr. Lee, because as in the above scenario where “you can’t win ‘em all, or you got to lose sometime” applied to Cliff Lee as well. In fact if the Yankees had brought the series to a 7th game, that is what a lot of commentators were saying of a pitcher who had lost 9 games during the regular season. No such thing. The premonition was manifested as a result of the Game 6 loss.
The defending Champions were apprehended and arrested by the Rangers. Phil Hughes who had pitched so well against the weak hitting Twins (minus Morneau whose season was cut short due to a concussion, finishing his 2010 campaign with a .345 batting average, 18 home runs and 56 RBIs in 81 games) was smacked around silly in Game 2 of the LCS and did not reach the 5dth inning in neither of his two starts.
As it turned out the only respectably pitched game by a Yankee was by Andy Pettitte, but he was put between a rock and a hard place with the fantastic performance of Mr. Lee. The Texas Ranger good hitting showed up against mediocre Yankee pitching.
Miraculously, the 11 hits the Yankees Ace CC Sabathia gave up in Game4 only plated 2 runs for Texas while the Yankees offense showed up for the second time in the series to snatch their second and last victory of the series. Latino Sports Yankees beat writer and Associate Editor Ray Monell sums it up:
“Starting pitching doomed New York in the playoffs; outside of Andy Pettitte, the only starter the Yankees thought they could rely on going into the postseason was CC Sabathia. Statistically, however, the Yankee ace only had one quality outing (Game 5 vs. Texas) in three playoff starts. Phil Hughes did a fantastic job in his first career playoff start vs. the Minnesota Twins (7 IP, 0R) in Game 3 of the ALDS, but he practically folded against the Rangers in Games 2 and 6 of the ALCS, going 0-2 with an 11.42 ERA after giving up a combined 11 runs on 14 hits in 8 2/3 innings.”
The Yankees offense that showed up in Game 1 – typical during the regular season comebacks failed to turn the trick again in the encapsulated confines of a 7 game series. Out of the six games played in the series, Texas jumped ahead 4 times and won 3 of those games.
Yes, it seemed to be a replica of how they played in September. The turning it on did not take place past the Divisional Series.
In conclusion as Ray Monell said, “The New York Yankees go into this offseason with a lengthy list of problems they will need to address before opening the 2011 campaign.” All those who agree say something.
See http://latinosports.com/featured/yanks-pack-bags-for-offseason-full-of-questions.html
wgr339@yahoo.com
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