World Series Game 3: Gotta watch what you say, son.
Allow me to quote for you a passage:"Andy Pettitte, he's a lot like anybody else who ages -- his stuff is kind of starting to dwindle down," Manuel said.
"I've seen him pitch on TV a lot, and I've definitely seen him pitch against our Cleveland team," the former Indians manager added. "We used to have some pretty good success against him, and I think we are ready for him." - Charlie Manuel
Oh yeah, "dwindling" stuff. Providing the Yankees with bulletin board material hasn't done our opponents in the past any good, what makes the Phillies think it'll help them now? We'll take it though, take it time in and time out. Now our Magic Number drops one more spot, going from 3 games left to 2.
He of the "dwindling" stuff was on the mound facing Cole Hamels and the Phillies in their bandbox ballpark. Now, he didn't have a great start. He put the Yankees in an early 3-0 hole, but then battled back to not only get the win, really buckling down. His final line was 6 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 7 K. Not the world's greatest line ever, but when you realize how hard he battled to keep the Yankees in the lead once we took it, he pitched really damn good. Joba and Marte pitched the 7th and 8th and did a fantastic job, combining for no hits and no runs and 2 strikeouts in 2 innings. Phil Hughes came in for the 9th and did not do a good job, giving up a solo shot to Jayson Werth forcing Mariano Rivera to come into the game, after he pitched 2 innings last night. Thankfully Mo only threw 5 pitches to get the last 2 outs. I was impressed with our bullpen outside of Hughes and thought they did a great job shutting the Phils down.
And lo and behold, our offense returned. For only the 3rd time all playoff season, we scored more than 5 runs. Thankfully 2 of the 3 times came in games we sorely needed to win. 8 runs on 8 hits is more than we've mustered in a while and it was great to see. Alex went 1-2 with 2 RBI and 2 HBP, Andy Pettitte even got an RBI, going 1-3 on a single. Damon went 1-4 with 2 RBI, Swish went 2-4 with an RBI, and Godzilla got a PH homer. I really hope this continues tomorrow and Monday because we have to keep hammering their pitching staff.
Stars of the Game™
Two things I noticed. 1) on the last outs with the phils up, the yanks would fake throw to the stands then run in with the ball. I swear I've seen then throw into the stands on the last out so I wonder what that was all about...and 2) swish was Awesome! Did you hear his commments after the game? He said something like "well this is a small ballpark so there were a lot of homeruns tonight..." take that phils players! That's what you get for saying Yankee stadium doesn't have as good an atmosphere as your stadium.
Great game to watch. Bit of a nail biter in the first two innings tho. And how bout that Howard guy? Has he been on a base yet?
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On the whole, I like Charlie Manuel, but he can blow those anti-Pettite comments out his tired, stupid, wrinkled old behind. Lefty had one bad inning and was otherwise excellent. Huge, huge win Beth. I was totally in favor of The Big Guy going tomorrow win or lose. That it follows a win is massive, and I love it. The Yanks have a strong chance to seize control with a win tomorrow night. I like their chances. Money pitching from Pettite yet again. A-Rod's homer was a massive turning point. Pettite of all people took the lead from the Phillies. Swish got off the schneid. Matsui with the pinch-hit homer = $. Great, great win, Beth.
Jason from The Heartland
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Nice comeback today; and for that I probably lost another 50 or so strands of hair. I thought Pettitte pitched fairly well save for that horrible second inning; looking back it could have been much worse. (Don't know how many expletives were said when he walked in a run) I hope A-Rod and Swish feel a bit of relief after finally breaking through. Damon, Tex, A-Rod and Cano all have batting average in the 100s or less, thankfully we are up 2-0. I hope the bats come around more and the pitching remains solid.
What is up with Phil Hughes? He looks completely 'off' this post season and it appears to be getting to him. I know he is young and perhaps nervous, but he has great stuff. Hughes is one of the reasons why we are playing the WS in the first place, so I hope he can refocus his mind and play up to his capabilities.
CC pitches on 3 days rest. Hopefully this will be the last time he will have to pitch this season. As much as a series clincher in NY would be wonderful, I just want the Yankees to finish this team off in game five.
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what a great game!!! great job by andy to pull it together and hold his own after a bad beginning (and even get a hit and RBI as well)! great job by arod to snap out of his WS mini-slump to turn the momentum of the game around for the yankees! great job by shishalishious to have a big game after being benched a game! great job by matsui to contribute even with only one PH at-bat! great job by joba and marte to be dominant in the late innings! great job by mo to get the job needed done in only 5 pitches! no comment on hughes...
i was at a halloween party with mostly yankee fans and a few philly fans - ugghhh =( so it was not a fun first couple of innings.
now talk about a supersticious bunch of baseball fans - in the beginning of the 3rd inning, this guy who was watching the game stepped out of the room to talk to someone in the next room. then andy had a 1-2-3 inning and the yankees' bats came alive. with arod's HR and all the screaming and cheering, the guy ran back in to see what happened and then had to go sit in the other room for the rest of the game because he was labeled the "he-has-to-be-out-of-the-room-for-the-yankees-to-hit" guy!!! so he actually "watched" the game from the next room, running back and forth everytime he heard us screaming and cheering! lol. poor guy, but he was such a good sport - a true fan who wanted the best for the yankees!
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Awesome game! Look, Andy is a dynamo. He had a crappy start last night but then pulled it together. Any player can have a rough time but the truly talented and composed can make in-game adjustments. Andy did just that. Glad the bats woke up too.
This series is a Mets fan and a New Yorkers dream, all rolled into one. Of course, the Mets being in the WS would have been nice too but that certainly was NOT going to happen and we knew that very early on . I love the Yankees too so if the Mets can't be there, this is just as good for me. And to have them face the Phils, who are also a good team but a Mets foe, well...just does not get any better than this for me. I like that the Yankees took the opener at Philadelphia too -sort of like having the mental edge now.
Great series so far! GO YANKEES!!!!
Lee Ellen
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Beth, no kidding! Andy came through with flying colors (tumbling Swishers too!) : ) Great game.. congrats on Game 3.
Buz - http://buzblog.mlblogs.com/
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//On the whole, I like Charlie Manuel, but he can blow those anti-Pettite comments out his tired, stupid, wrinkled old behind.//
He wasn't the only one spouting off. Jimmy Rollins said the Phillies would take it in 5, Cole Hamels said that Alex's HR wasn't really a HR and that he couldn't wait for everything to be over and oh by the way Charlie said during his post-game presser last night that no one told the Phillies that a ball that hits the camera counts as a HR. Yeesh.
//I was totally in favor of The Big Guy going tomorrow win or lose. That it follows a win is massive, and I love it. The Yanks have a strong chance to seize control with a win tomorrow night. I like their chances.//
Turns out CC has a pretty decent bat along with his pitching acumen. I'd love to see him hit a HR. God would that be hilarious. I mean, if Andy Pettitte can get an RBI single, CC Sabathia can hit a HR.
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//I thought Pettitte pitched fairly well save for that horrible second inning; looking back it could have been much worse. (Don't know how many expletives were said when he walked in a run)//
By my count, 150.
//What is up with Phil Hughes? He looks completely 'off' this post season and it appears to be getting to him. I know he is young and perhaps nervous, but he has great stuff. Hughes is one of the reasons why we are playing the WS in the first place, so I hope he can refocus his mind and play up to his capabilities.//
I'm not sure what's wrong with Phil, but I'm hoping that we blow Blanton out of the water tonight so that he has a couple garbage time innings to get some confidence back. I don't have a problem with Joe going to Mo for the last 2 outs, it's the World Series - countless times we saw Torre not use Mo when he should have and while overuse isn't good either, this time of year underuse is criminal.
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//i was at a halloween party with mostly yankee fans and a few philly fans - ugghhh =( so it was not a fun first couple of innings. now talk about a supersticious bunch of baseball fans - in the beginning of the 3rd inning, this guy who was watching the game stepped out of the room to talk to someone in the next room. then andy had a 1-2-3 inning and the yankees' bats came alive. with arod's HR and all the screaming and cheering, the guy ran back in to see what happened and then had to go sit in the other room for the rest of the game because he was labeled the "he-has-to-be-out-of-the-room-for-the-yankees-to-hit" guy!!! so he actually "watched" the game from the next room, running back and forth everytime he heard us screaming and cheering! lol. poor guy, but he was such a good sport - a true fan who wanted the best for the yankees!//
See, it's those kinds of sacrifices that will lead us to #27. He should be honored on a parade float, standing next to you and your purple socks. Which BTW, you better be wearing tonight.
I'm glad you ended up having a good time at the party after all!
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//Awesome game! Look, Andy is a dynamo. He had a crappy start last night but then pulled it together. Any player can have a rough time but the truly talented and composed can make in-game adjustments. Andy did just that.//
I'm not worried about our pitchers, to be honest. It's the offense and the backend of our bullpen that has me nervous sometimes. I knew Andy would get touched up a little, they're playing at home. I also knew he'd adjust and buckle down, I had just hoped the offense would help him out. He even got the game-tying RBI. How about that!
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//Andy came through with flying colors (tumbling Swishers too!) : ) //
It was great to see Swish break out of his mini-funk. Hopefully that can continue tonight and tomorrow.
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//Two things I noticed. 1) on the last outs with the phils up, the yanks would fake throw to the stands then run in with the ball. I swear I've seen then throw into the stands on the last out so I wonder what that was all about...//
Apparently fans were screaming obscenities at Melky and Swisher so they dished it back by fake-throwing the ball into the seats. Eff 'em.
//And how bout that Howard guy? Has he been on a base yet? //
He's struck out 9 times in the last 3 games. Don't expect Joe Buck to bring that up though, he'd rather harp on the fact that Alex had a bad couple games this post season.
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Swisher is such a character-great comeback game for him
http://pittpeas.mlblogs.com
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//Swisher is such a character-great comeback game for him//
He is. Even if he has a bad game, which happens to everyone, he still genuinely looks like he enjoys just being on the team. I think it's great, to be honest. The Yankees need to slowly back away from that stodgy, business-like demeanor they gave themselves and admit that it's a kid's game. Have some fun damn it, you're in the World Series!
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//Only 2 teams in the last 20 years have lost after being down 2-1. I can almost taste it!//
If we can win tonight, my confidence level will shoot through the roof. We need to win tonight.
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Huge win for the Yanks. They are now in the same situation they were in in the ALCS: up 2-1 as visitors. The shut up that Philly crowd nicely. Only 2 teams in the last 20 years have lost after being down 2-1. I can almost taste it!
-- NYColeman
http://nycoleman.mlblogs.com
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