Bottom 3rd, 1st and 2nd, 2 outs – Robinson Cano flies out to center field.
Bottom 4th, Bases loaded, 1 out – Russell Martin pops out to first base.
Bottom 4th, Bases loaded, 2 out – Brett Gardner fouled out to third base.
Bottom 7th, Bases loaded, 1 out – Alex Rodriguez struck out.
Bottom 7th, Bases loaded, 2 out – Nick Swisher struck out.
You can talk about whether Joe Girardi should have pinch hit for Martin all you want, but the Yankees had six opportunities to drive in a bunch of runs in a hurry, and all they got was a bases loaded walk. A-Rod is going to be fitted for goat horns again, but half the team made huge outs when the Yankees needed a hit.
You also have to give some serious credit to Doug Fister and Joaquin Benoit, who both threw some really good pitches when they had to. Benoit’s seventh inning change-ups, in particular, were just ridiculously nasty, and he threw some of his best pitches of the year when they counted most.
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What a game!
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
/Yankee fan
As a Tigs fan all I have to say is…..WHEW!!!
Going to go take some horse tranquilizer so I can relax.
I think horse tranquilizer (or ‘Hoss’ as we call it) is the prefect prescription for fans of both teams.
AmIrightguys?!?
Props are in order for Jose Valverde tonight. He’s obviously overrated because of his save numbers, but those were some big boy outs he recorded tonight.
I cannot remember the last time he had a save that looked that easy.
i like how the announcers said that he should be the MVP this year for the saves lol
I love TBS
They’re still better than Joe Buck.
You could see it in Valverde’s face that he was not blowing this one.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen that look on a closer been replaced by a shocked look over the shoulder.
I’m pretty sure Lidge had that expression on his face during the 2005 NLCS.. At least, at one point.
that’s what they said about papelbon in baltimore 2 weeks ago…
this guy’s right, it was Rick Sutcliffe who said he could see it in Papelbon’s eyes that he wasn’t going to let his team lose.
Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!
/Tigers fan for 25 years
Roy Halladay and the Phillies better hope this same thing doesn’t happen to them tomorrow night.
Its gonna….
It Did
If Yankees doesn’t sign Swisher, the only reason will be his (non)performance during playoffs. What a shame. I love how he plays, but he seems to get too amped up in October, and that’s a cardinal sin for a team like the Yankees..
He also has a .198babip in the post season going (over 120 ab’s) He does seem to get a bit unglued in his approach vs good pitching though as he’s normally very patient but when pitchers just attack him he seems to get very jumpy at the plate. That being said I’d still like to see his option picked up and brought back for another year.
Rangers or Tigers?
Worst strike zone ever.
Bad both ways.
Bad both ways = bad
The impact on the 2 teams was not the same (more so when CC was pitching and there was only 1 lefty in the Tigers starting lineup that he could exploit with a 24″ homeplate). Credit to the Tigers pitchers for being able to exploit it better and more consistently.
The zone was clearly not the reason the Yankees lost but the consistent delta between the lefthanded hitter and righthanded hitter was ridiculous and something MLB needs to seriously do something about. I realize this is common among many umpires but the box the batter stands in should not determine whether a specific location is a strike or a ball.
The zone sucked but the Yankees had plenty of opportunities, good zone or bad.
It was like that the whole series. Both teams suffered from it but I think the Yankees got the worse end of it. Still not an excuse, they had plenty of chances to win the games they lost.
I hope you are judging the strikezone on that TBS box, that thing was clearly shifted about 6 inches to the left
The box wasn’t shifted to the left, the view from the camera is off dead-center so it just looks like it is. If anything the box was too low. There were many pitches that looked obviously low to me (and called low by the umpire), but hit the bottom of the blue box.
I say get rid of that thing.
that box was off the plate
If you are trying to judge where the ball crosses the plate from the centerfield camera, your perspective is going to be off.
I don’t know if the pitch f/x data matches the TBS box thingie though.
The TBS strike zone box was laughable and clearly not representative of where the zone was. I’m fairly confident it would not sync with pitch fx at all.
Vernon Wells is the overpaid player right now, but A-Rod says “hi, let me claim that spot in a year or two, thanks”.
I meant to say most overpaid.
Barry Zito says thanks AROD
future HOF does not care
I”m a Yankees fan, but there’s nothing better than seeing a playoff series go the distance and to make it better, seeing the decisive game have a 1 run difference.
To Tiger fans if they’re here, great game, great series, good luck in the LCS
Agreed 100%…as a Yankee fan I was disappointed but at they had chance after chance tonight and quite frankly nobody even put a good AB together in a big spot all night. This is probably the least disappointed I’ve been to see a series end. Tigers have Verlander locked and loaded for game 1 it should be a good series!
As a Tigers fan, I gotta say that is a wonderful comment. I was pissing myself every time you all got a man on base (or had a lefty up in that little league park lol).
If by little league park you mean not-in-the-top-five most hitter friendly ballpark than…nevermind you are just being an asshole.
Pretty sure he was referring to Yankee Stadium’s 143 HR park factor for LHB… I guess that makes you the asshole?
Your team made me ruin a perfectly good pair of pants, if it makes you feel better.
Verlander avg 116.5 pitches per start his first 7 games of the season…I sure hope Leyland throws him games 1-4-7 as he doesn’t seem all that concerned with protecting him in May.
I think that Leyland is concerned with keeping Verlander doing what he’s conditioned himself to do since 2005 or so, that is pitch every fifth day. The pitch count is beside the point. Verlander has built himself to throw 120 pitches every fifth day. Leyland, right or wrong, doesn’t want to risk Verlander doing something he’s never done.
As a Rangers fan… I sure hope Verlander gets stuck on a desert island for the next two weeks.
What was Girardi’s problem with the band-aid?
Might of been more what they did to Garcia game 3 than anything…making him take off his little wrist band he was wearing…kinda funny b/c CC had one on tonight and nothing was said.
He was curious what was under there. I was too. Only he had the power to find out, so I am glad he did it.
My guess his complaint was a big white-ish spot at the same general height as Benoit’s release point. That’s probably a bit distracting to the batter.
The Tigers complained about an arm band Freddy Garcia was wearing. This was payback for that.
Besides that, it makes Benoit pause and think about something that he should not be thinking about in Game Five of an ALDS. If Benoit melts down there, there’d be 30 articles about how Girardi’s gamesmanship bested Benoit by now.
How much was Joaquin Benoit overpaid at the beginning of the season ?
Not so much anymore, huh ?
Granted it’s a 3 year deal but he earned the first year of his contract and then some before the postseason.
Benoit =/= Lyon
Gutsy pitching but he didn’t exactly looked stellar.
Tremendous series…every Tigers win was incredibly stressful, and the Yankees never gave up, ever. Team is stacked. Tigers will give the Rangers a great run for their money – have performed quite well v. Texas the past few seasons. Should be a fun series…tough not to admire what the Rangers have assembled. Now I just have to hope that Porcello isn’t going game 2 in Texas, because that means he’ll go in game 6 too (assuming), and he’ll end up with something approaching infinity as his ERA for the round.
Grammar police: Infinity is spelled: L-a-c-k-e-y.
In my professional capacity as a Red Sox fan; sobsobsobsobsobsob.
Scherzer hasn’t started since Sunday. You gotta think they’re going with him for game 2.
Huge Yankees fan, and I’m disappointed, yet again.
This team was built for regular season, and when the rain screwed up the rotation, they had to rely on a rookie in a pivotal game 5. (Where’s #46 when you need him) Swisher needs to go to DH.
The yankees were built for everything. The reason they didn’t win it all is because true team talent isn’t shown over 5 games
You’re right. Do away with the playoffs.
The Yankees only scored 2 runs and blew multiple opportunities to put up crooked numbers. That, as Dave wrote, is the reason they lost. When a playoff team allows 3 runs over 9 and still loses, pitching isn’t the culprit.
Calling it, Swisher out, Beltran in
Yeah let’s sign a guy 4 years older, hasn’t been healthy in 2 of the last 3 years and likely due for a larger paycheck.
The Yanks got a lot more long term problems then Nick Swisher, who has been more than worth his money anyway. you could make marginal upgrades but the money would be better spent on figuring out more long lasting solutions to the rotation instead of hoping for another miraculous Colon / Garcia type salvation.
I think a few years ago they might have made a move like this to bring in the big name even if he is only a marginal upgrade over your current player. Cashman has gotten smarter. I don’t think he will do this again.
People have been talking about the Yankees’ “long term problems” since they lost the ’95 ALDS; but let’s face it–in baseball, there are no problems that can’t be solved w/unlimited cash.
The pitching was obviously not the problem. Nova didn’t pitch poorly, he just made two bad pitches. The bullpen (apart from CC, who probably shouldn’t have even pitched) locked the game down. The issue is with the offense. A team that averaged over 5 runs/game in the regular season should win a game in which its pitchers give up only 3 runs. The Yankees outscored the Tigers in this series 28-17. It’s all about situational hitting, which is basically pure luck. That being said, striking out with the bases loaded is not a recipe for scoring runs. If Martin puts the ball in play in the 4th or A-Rod does so in the 7th, the Yankees tie the game.
Is there some crucial distinction between pitching poorly and making bad pitches that I’m missing. He serves up two homers in two innings of work and that’s not shitty pitching?
He struck out 3 and walked none in 2 innings. Yes, he gave up 3 hits, two of which left the park, but the smacks of shitty luck on fly balls. If those were fly outs to the warning track and the Yankees won everyone would be talking about how clutch Nova is. He was getting ahead in the count, striking hitters out, and had good control. That’s the recipe for good pitching. If you thought he was pitching badly you didn’t watch the game.
nova had an FIP of 13.20 in those two innings. pitchers don’t get mulligans.
He hung two terrible pitches and they got hit for HRs. That’s not bad luck on fly balls.
Why even bring up FIP, a stat which is homer-dependent? What was his xFIP? If it wasn’t bad luck, then the results should have been the same with a league average HR/FB rate.
One glance a Burnett’s line tells me that the Tigers were the team with situational hitting problems.
The Tigers did fail to deliver a damaging blow to Burnett, but the Yankees outscored the Tigers by a solid margin in the series. They lost two games by a single run and another by two runs. They stranded 11 runners last night and left the bases loaded multiple times. If you’re looking for the reason they lost, you don’t need to go any further than that.
it’s like 900 times more fun to blame choke-rod and miss october though
Man, if I weren’t a Tigers fan, the biggest story would be laughing at the MSM absolutely mourning over the Yankees’ exit.
Baseball Tonight started out with the highlights and then went into talking about the Yankees for at least 15 minutes.
Direct ESPN quote: “Bigger story: Tigers win or Yankees lose?”
I wonder if they realize that the Tigers had the most wins vs. AL teams this season and aren’t a complete cupcake team of traveling clowns with wooden legs.
I’d be disappointed if I wasn’t used to this happening every time a team from Detroit eliminates a bigger-market team.
@JG
Tigers: 38-34 against AL opponents outside of the central and break even if you include interleague, so . . .
The Yankees were the best team in the AL however you slice it (scored more runs than Detroit, gave up less and did so in a much tougher division). The Tigers definitely won the series, and congrats to them. But as far as ESPN goes, New York losing is just as big of a story as Detroit winning — the same way it handled Boston’s collapse/Rays’ comeback.
Bruce: So…. what’s your point? The Tigers clearly weren’t some joke team that could only beat up on Central opponents (which, if you want to bring in divisional records, they did MUCH better than the Yankees) and folded when playing “real” playoff teams. Tigers starting pitching was much better from top to bottom and the Yankees lineup wasn’t really that much better (use wRC+, not runs scored – Yankees play in a Little League ballpark), it shouldn’t have been that surprising.
Another thing to consider: Since the trade deadline, when Fister replaced a black hole in the rotation, no team won more games than the Tigers.
RE: JG. If Yankee stadium is a little league park what is Arlington? Coors? Fenway? Rogers Stadium? All are more hitter friendly ballparks than Yankee Stadium. And even using wRC+ the Yankees were still better than the Tigers offensively. Congrats on the series win but don’t be an asshole.
yankee stadium has ranked #1, #3, and #4 in HR park effects the last 3 years from the espn ones i’ve seen. while there seems to be some variation in how those rankings desribe the run environments, the year-over-year HR effects seem less volatile. no idea if that makes them more valid or precise, but it’s worth noting nonetheless.
“aren’t a complete cupcake team of traveling clowns with wooden legs.” come on, don’t bring the Twins into this.
Detroit is a gritty tough town with few frills… kinda like Delmon Young. I’m glad to see him doing well there. Young actually faded a bit when traded from the Twins after a good run after coming off the DL in July, but he has found a power stroke and hopefully a home where they will just play him, despite his faults.
He gave a very good post-game interview and was complimentary to his teammates. He seems like a hard worker, I wish him success.
Delmon Young had a sub 300 OBP with Detroit and middling power for a left fielder. He also was a terrible defender in left with Detroit. (and all teams before that) The perception of Young being a good player>>>his actual performance of 0-1 WAR. He sucks.
Amazingly, he had only 2 strike outs in 19 at bats and walked twice.
But if anyone thinks he isn’t still a 1 HR in 40 AB hitter is kidding themselves. Did he go to batting practice on the day off between the regular season and the ALDS slap himself on the forehead and say, “oh, I get it, that’s how you blast ’em every 6 at bats.” no. He got (really, really) lucky.
Detroit is a hell hole.
Yes, but no one likes a hater.
Have you ever been there or just basing it off perception?
Is not!
This is like saying “the Bronx is a hell hole” to insult Yankee fans.
Most Tiger fans don’t live in Detroit. They live in some of the most affluent suburbs in the country.
I would easily be able to root for Detroit from here on out if Valverde spontaneously combusted.
You forgot “be on the losing end of a biased strike zone”
Was someone actually saying they should have pinch hit for Martin… in the 4rth? Because that’s darn near the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.
So here’s my top 3 reasons why pinch hitting for Martin would be moronic:
1. Who’s going to catch the rest of the game? Posada? Montero? Martin is the only complete catcher on the squad. Unless Montero is a lot better defensively than everyone thinks, isn’t playing him at the dish all game a net loss? And if not- why don’t the Yankees do it every day? We’re talking about trading 5 innings of defense for one PA.
2. Does anyone doubt the Yankees can score 2 or 3 runs in 5 innings, regardless of that AB? Subbing Martin is like saying “Hur hur, those weak hitting Yankees are down- they better lay down a sacrifice and play smallball!” When you have a squad that averages 5-6 runs a game, you’re still expected to score another 2 or 3 in this game at that point (just turned out to be 2…)
3. Is anyone confident that Posada can even play catcher at this point? He’s had like one start this year. He may be physically limited or unable to perform back there. So you sub out Martin, then Montero gets injured next inning. No more catchers on the roster. You play out the remaining innings with Posada allowing passed balls. This is one of the major reasons nobody subs out their catcher if they can help it- going to your emergency catcher is typically very ugly.
So… yah. That sounds like a bad idea to me. Probably about as bad as Martin laying down a sacrifice.
I love seeing the Yankees get eliminated, AGAIN!! Now that the Red Sox are long gone and the Yankees are gone we can enjoy watching some other teams for a change. Yes, there are other teams in MLB.
the only problem with that, is no one will
right now mlb is cringing at the thought of the phillies losing and having a WS that no one will tune into again
The profit maximizing result is big town teams win most of finals but you do want the small town to get a turn to keep fans there (and in other small towns) interested.
If MLB would spend more time and effort trying to market the 28 other teams or the game itself they wouldn’t be in such a bind when the Yankees or Red Sox are out of the playoffs.
I’m a baseball fan so I watch baseball for the enjoyment of the game.
Since I’m a Giants fan last year increased my enjoyment of baseball even more because it was my team winning, but I like it when new teams get it all togeather and win.
Detroit-Milwaukee WS! Woooo!
Benoit…balls!
I don’t understand why Nova got the loss. If the pitching staff (cough CC Sabathia, “ace” yet maybe 15th best pitcher in baseball(MAYBE)) didn’t let up another run the game would have been tied, so shouldn’t the loss have gone to CC? Not that anyone cares about wins or losses here but still, CC blew it for the pitching staff as much as A-Rod and Gardener blew it for the hitters.
@MattM
CC is a top 5 starting pitcher by WAR, tops in the AL in X-FIP and FIP and since 2007 the only pitcher better than him is Roy “Cy Young” Halladay.
Did CC pitch well in this series? absolutely not. If you want to criticize him it should be for being unable to adjust to a playoff pitching schedule, because you don’t always get normal rest, I would argue that’s valid. But when the staff allows three runs, and you are the Yankees at home, the arms don’t take the flack.
Am I the only one with a gut feeling that the Yankees would do better if they slightly increased their AVG even if it was at cost of slightly decreasing their SLG/ISO depending on the case? Seems to me that over dependence on HRs instead of a more balanced aporach is what makes this lineup so inconsistent, this series was a good (albeit short example of what I mean) You may average 4+ runs a game, but if you score 10 one day and get semi shut down the other chances are you’ll be a .500 team, of course it balances out over a 162 game season in favor of the current mindset, but you only got 5 games in a division series…
Actually, it’s the batting average dependent teams that have more inconsistent scoring. You need to string together multiple singles to score, where walk-HR is two runs with no chance for a double play or whatever. Beyond that, the nature of baseball is that nothing is more likely to happen than something, so scoring will always be dependent on streaks and thus inconsistent over small samples.
Still, this all or nothing type of offense doesnt seem the safest bet when its a short series.
How could we calculate how consistent a team is offensively? (math isnt my thing) Saying theyre good just because their RUNS/GAME is high and not looking past that is like saying everyone in the room has a car because CAR/PEOPLE = 1, without considering half the room doesnt have a car and each guy in the other half actually has 2.
How To Lose The ALDS: AROD
Yes, Benoit got it done in the 7th with a few big pitches in big moments. But in between, he gave up a hit, botched a slow roller to allow another hit, and walked a run in. He was shaky. Detroit was fortunate to escape that inning without being behind, much less holding the lead.
Am I the only one who was screaming for Valverde to come in to face A-Rod in the 7th? I think that was the right move. Use your best reliever at the most critical moment. Take your chances in the 9th with someone else. At least the 9th will begin with the bases empty, not loaded.
This is the real problem with the “closer in the 9th” system. You can stretch to use him in a jam in the 8th, but not in the 7th. So you are left going with less than your best at the most critical moment. Detroit was fortunate it did not cost them the series.
Jeff – I’d say that most Tigers fan I know would feel more comfortable with Benoit on the mound than Valverde. Valverde has been unreal in save situations, no doubt, but he also posted a big WHIP number – he was very lucky this season. Though he was fantastic in the 9th last night!
Sorry – that should say “bigger” WHIP. Benoit pitched to his 2.95 ERA, per FIP. Valverde’s ERA was much lower than his FIP. I’d say that Benoit was our best reliever, particularly if you take the liberty of removing his first six weeks – 7 ER allowed after May 16th, over 46.1 innings. No ER allowed after August 2nd, in his final 22 innings of the season.
Benoit is better than valverde, so that wasn’t such a bad more after all. also, most pitchers can handle the corpse of a-rod. the managerial failure was that of girardi, since he didn’t move a-rod down from 4th. a-rod can do a lot of damage from the 4th slot, its just that damage is against his own team.
Interesting that ARod fouls off Verlander’s triple digit fastball to work a walk, but couldn’t catch up to Benoit’s fastball.
I suppose a case could be made about a change-up and its effect here.
Circle – as Verlander has a pretty good changeup himself, I’d think that a case could be made about Rodriguez having difficulty adapting from a low-90’s Fister fastball to a high-90’s Benoit fastball. It seemed to work wonders when the Tigers put Kenny Rogers between Verlander and Bonderman – I’d love to see a study on the effects of alternating soft tossers/offspeed artists and flamethrowers.
I meant in the at bat of Verlander v. ARod, JV did not throw a changeup.
Benoit is the best reliever. Smart play by Leyland, which I don’t acknowledge much.
You have to keep in mind that these are human beings and not robots or video game characters. We’re all numbers people here, but perhaps Valverde wouldn’t be as comfortable coming into a game with men on base and not in the 9th inning. He hasn’t done it all year. We know he’s a headcase – he has an ERA close to 7 in non-save situations but an ERA under 1 in save situations. At some point, this becomes statistically significant and not coincidental.
This article could have easily been about Leyland leaving Benoit in after he walked in a run.
Seriously, ARod singles home 2 runs instead of K’ing … and that’s what the discussion would be about.
Leyland certainly does seem to leave his pitchers in to work through a jam … and it seems to pay off quite a bit.
TLR would have made 3 pitching changes in that inning alone.
All is right in the world again: ARod, fresh off a year and change when his hits actually mattered, is back to choking again. Fears of the apocalypse have been muted.
Thanks for stating the obvious. Did you really need to write an article about it?
Porcello is starting Game 2
How to lose the ALDS: not using your top relievers for situations that call for it.
Having Mariano Rivera average 1 pitch per game? Not bad Girardi. Way to get some mileage.