Also, big fat major kudos go out to Doc Halladay for throwing only the 2nd no-hitter in post-season history. Of course the first was Don Larsen’s perfect game during the ’56 WS between the Yankees and the Dodgers. I hate the Phillies and hope they fall on their a$$es the rest of the way, but that took major stones, and good on him for that. It’s his 2nd no-hitter of the year, BTW. I guess everyone was right calling 2010 “The Year of the Pitcher”.
CC Sabathia is of course our ace and we live and die with the guy, so he started Game 1. He didn’t exactly have the best start possible, but thankfully the offense bailed him out. We won and all wins count so I’m not begrudging that, but I just wish that CC had a more dominant start, especially considering what Cliff Lee and Doc Halladay did yesterday. He gutted out 6 IP, giving up 3 ER on 5 H with 3 BB and 5K. Not a Sabathia-esque start by any means, but he got the win anyway. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Our pen was stellar, though. 3 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K. Who is going to complain about that? Mo had to even pitch a 4-out save and did a great job (of course it’s October and this is Mo’s special time). Let’s do this again for Game 2.
It looked like the Twins finally had our number, as it took us what felt like forever to finally score a run. Waiting until the 6th inning to finally get off the schnide is going to get old and tiresome the further into the playoffs we hopefully go. That said, we got some great performances from several people. Mark went 2-5 with 2 RBI, which just happened to be the 2 RBI that gave us the lead in the 7th, Alex went 1-3, Robbie went 1-4 with an RBI, Jorge went 2-4 with an RBI and Grandy went 1-4 with 2 RBI. Nicely, nicely done. I hope much like the pitching, we get more of this in Game 2. Andy is going to need it.
Stars of the Game™
Sabathia appeared to be laboring on the mound last night. He had a hard time finding the strike zone with consistency. Luckily we did not face Lee or Halladay today otherwise we might be down 0-1. Girardi’s gamble paid off by inserting Granderson in the line up. That adjustment in his swing has paid dividends. I really like Grandy’s attitude and willingness to fix the problems with his mechanics rather than let the ego overtake him. Grandy is much like Swish in that respect.
The pen indeed came through yesterday, shutting out the Twins in mop up work. I am glad/relieved that we won, but what bothered me was Young’s so-called hit was caught be Golson. Six umpires gathered together and figured that their opinions and inflated sense of self-worth were more important than looking at film to get the call right. Had Thome smacked the ball over the fence, I would probably have sent a box of my cats’ poop droppings to the league office labeled “lunch, ALDS officiating crew, MN-NY.” I was not upset over the fact that no one clearly saw Golson’s catch, but rather the fact that none of the crew looked at the film for confirmation. I hope Pettitte can regain his form and pitch a lights-out game against…..well, I’ll his name unsaid. I’m glad to be on a break during this post-season period.
Posted by cartwrightrocks | 10/07/2010, 2:38 PM//I am glad/relieved that we won, but what bothered me was Young’s so-called hit was caught be Golson. Six umpires gathered together and figured that their opinions and inflated sense of self-worth were more important than looking at film to get the call right. Had Thome smacked the ball over the fence, I would probably have sent a box of my cats’ poop droppings to the league office labeled “lunch, ALDS officiating crew, MN-NY.” I was not upset over the fact that no one clearly saw Golson’s catch, but rather the fact that none of the crew looked at the film for confirmation. //
I agree. The umps this season have been atrocious and we’ve seen it more than a few times. I don’t know why they think they’re above being wrong or above having to look at video for replay/confirmation, but it’s going to cost someone a WS ring one of these days and then all hell is going to break loose. Of course, we had something similar happen last season during the ALDS, also against the Twins, where Mauer got called for a foul ball when it was clearly fair, and when he did the at-bat over, promptly made an out. So we’ve benefited from crappy officiating as much as we’ve been hindered by it. I hope that tonight’s umpiring crew is a tad more “on the ball”.
Posted by feverspell | 10/07/2010, 6:32 PMThe site mentioned an error and did not register my post, I pressed “submit” again and it entered the post twice! Please delete one and sorry for the inconvenience.
Posted by cartwrightrocks | 10/07/2010, 4:04 PM//The site mentioned an error and did not register my post, I pressed “submit” again and it entered the post twice! Please delete one and sorry for the inconvenience. //
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Oh, it’s not a problem! That happens occasionally — it’s annoying, but the best course of action I’ve found is that if it happens to you again, just close the tab and come back to the site. It should be there and you won’t worry about double-posting. You could always copy/paste what you type into Word or Notepad or something so in case it doesn’t come up, you can re-submit.
Posted by feverspell | 10/07/2010, 6:33 PM