Yankee Stadium 4/15/12 - SRG

This is going to be quick because I have a headache that would render a giant useless. I am in agony right now but I am still laughing at the ending of tonight’s game.

A walk off passed ball? Really? Alex Rodriguez was at the plate with a 3-0 count and Tigers pitcher Brayan Villreal threw a pitch that Alex Avila couldn’t get to. Rodriguez waved Derek Jeter home – Jeter was on third with one out and Jeter was safe on a bad throw from Avila.

Neither Justin Verlander nor Ivan Nova factored into the decision. Nova had his worst outing of the season and Verlander gave up two home runs tonight. Rodriguez’s opposite field shot pulled the Yankees within one run 3-2 in the fourth and Russell Martin put the Yankees ahead 4-3 in the fifth.

Verlander is still winless at the new Yankee Stadium.

Joe Girardi was ejected from the game by Country Joe West and after the game Girardi repeated, ‘I wasn’t real pleased with the zone.’ a couple of times. He explained how one game can make a difference in making the playoffs and sitting home and how every game is important. I think what he wanted to say was “Joe West is a fat piece of s*** who sucks at his job and should retire.” Oh no, that was me.

This is a good win for the Yanks. You always want to win a game started by Verlander because you need to take advantage of him not being on top of his game. And when you have Freddy Garcia going tomorrow, you know it’s going to be an adventure.

Boone Logan, Cory Wade, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera kept the Tigers scoreless from the sixth inning on and Rivera picked up his first win of the season.

Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the ninth and picked up his first win of the season.

(Okay so this wasn’t so short…)

There are a couple of things that happen to me every year during the month October. One, I get excited because it’s sweatshirt and Uggs weather (Yes, I proudly wear Uggs, shut up) and two, I get playoff zits all over my face. Apparently the acne I had as a teenager wasn’t enough and my skin likes to torture me every year.

Anywho, I originally didn’t have tickets to Game 1 but thanks to Mother Nature – who I was cursing on Friday night – and a very kind Twitter friend, I was able to get a couple of tickets and attend the resumed game last night at the Stadium.

My brother and I were in Section 104, directly behind Nick Swisher who as usual, had fun with the fans and teased me – and everyone else all night with actions like this:

Look I’m human and female, okay? This does not take away from the fact that I know more about baseball than your average fan. Also, a guy two rows behind me was yelling extremely odd things at Swisher all night the weirdest being, “Swish! Inseminate my wife!!!!” Yeah…so he has a crazy effect on both sexes.

Okay back to the game itself, it was very odd to sit in the seats and have the Yankees bat first. Odd but also cool to have the game resume like that. And they looked to have something going right off the bat – nice pun – against Doug Fister but Jorge Posada decided to pull a Jorge Posada and make a base running mistake that a 5 year old in tee ball wouldn’t make and the inning took a different turn.

» Continue reading “A Long Night’s Journey Into Night: Yankees 9 Tigers 3″

Well, this game had the makings of one of those extremely frustrating losses – lots of stranded base runners and squandered scoring opportunities – then the top of the ninth inning happened. The Yankees were able to score two runs against boisterous Tigers closer Jose Valverde. Then Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth inning and barely broke a sweat getting his 11th save of the season. This was Valverde’s first loss of the season.

Today’s starters Bartolo Colon and Justin Verlander didn’t factor into the decision. Joba Chamberlain picked up the win for the Yankees. Verlander threw 128 pitches – his last few pitches hit the high 90′s on the radar gun – and finished with 6IP, 8H, 3ER and 8K. Colon pitched reasonably well. Thankfully, the two home runs he gave up to new Yankee killer Alex Avila were solo shots. He finished with 7IP, 7H, 3ER and 7K.

The Yankees offense, as I already mentioned, were in the midst of an epic RISP fail until the top of the ninth inning when Nick Swisher delivered what would turn out to be the game winning single which scored Mark Teixeira. The Yanks tacked on an extra run on passed ball thrown by Valverde that scored Alex Rodriguez.

Jorge Posada started the scoring for the Yanks with a ground rule double in the top of the first inning which scored Curtis Granderson and Teixeira. They scored again in the top of the second on a double by Eduardo Nunez who was in for Robinson Cano who is day to day with a bone bruise in his right hand. The Tigers scored in the bottom of the second and the bottom of the third closing the gap to 3-2. Colon was able to keep them at bay until Avila’s second home run tied the game in the bottom of the seventh.

The series continues tomorrow tonight when CC Sabathia (2-1, 2.25 ERA) goes up against Brad Penny (1-3, 6.11 ERA) at 7:05p on YES and on MLB Network.