Horrible start vs the Socks

4/25/09 11:50 am

The infamous Red Sox / Yanks rivalry began once again last night, kicking off their first 3 game set of the series. This year the teams will battle 18 times this regular season, and quite possibly in the post season, if they both make it.

So game 1 ended with a walkoff Youk bomb in the bottom of the 11th, allowing the Red Sox to win 5-4.
All had seemed well going into the bottom of the 8th, up 4-2. With a little trouble brewing, Mo came in with 2 dead, and got out of it. Then, with 2 outs in the 9th, Bay rocks a 2 run HR to CF to tie it up at 4. This was Mo's 1st BS of the year, and 2nd since last season. A lot of people were quick to blame Giradi for bringing in Mo in the 8th, but realistically, it was his best move. Bruney was hurt, Albaladejo had just hit a batter on an 0-2 count, and to bring in Marte would've matched him up against a Righty. I'm sure everyone else out there thought the game was in lockdown when he came in, just as I did. If Bruney had been available, I probably would've chose him to come in during the 8th, simply because he's been on a tear. But he wasn't, so Mo was the only choice.

However, had Yankee batters delivered when the opportunity rose, Rivera probably wouldn't have even entered the game in the first place.
A total of 28 runners were left on base for the Yankees during the game. During the 7th and 9th especially the Yanks had ample opportunity to blow the game open. In each the Yankees had bases loaded with NO outs. The 7th consisted of Tex knocking in a run with nobody out, Posada getting a single to load the bases (0 outs), a Swisher weak pop up (1 out), a Cano sac fly (2 outs), and a Melky ground out (3 dead).

In the 9th, Tex was HBP, Posada walked, and Swisher walked in order. 4-2 Game, top 9th, bases juiced, apeears to be a good time to blow it open no? No. Cano decides not to go the other way, as he'd been doing so well with, and grounds to the epic 2B Pedroria, who throws home, gets the lead out, allowing Varitek to throw out Cano at first for the 4-2-3 DP. Cabrera then popped out to the catcher to end the potential rally.


During the early half of the game, I was amazed that Chamberlain had 1 ER on 9 hits and 4 walks in 5 and 1/3rd. He was getting smacked around, but ALWAYS came up with the DP to get out of the jam. Ok, not always, but 4 out of 5 times is pretty close to a DP every inning.

I was impressed with the Yankees ability to run the pitch count up on Lester from early on. 114 pitches in 6 innings led to a somewhat early departure, getting the Sox bullpen from the 7th on.


So if theres one thing to take away from today's blog, it's DO NOT blame Girardi for this loss. I liked his lineup, got plenty of guys on base, having Posada at DH and Molina at the plate seemed fine to me. Offensively they combined 3-7 and 4 BB's (most of which was from Molina surprisingly). Even Ransom had a nice rbi rouble early on in the game. This loss simply came down to Yankee batters not coming through when the opportunity arose.


Steve Finney