ALDS Game 1 Thoughts
By Frank Russo ~ October 8th, 2009. Filed under: 2009 Playoffs.
Final Score Yankees 7, Minnesota 2.
Just a great win by the Yankees last night at the “New House. CC grinded out the first few innings, then settled down nicely. Hughes, Coke, Joba and Mariano shut the door afterward, (despite a minor hiccup in the 9th inning). Both Jeter and Matsui went yard and even A-Rod chipped in with 2 RBI. All-in-all, it was quite a satisfying night in the Bronx.
Before we forget, it was nice to see Nick Swisher drive in the go-ahead run in the 4th inning.
1 win down, 10 more to go for “Girardi’s Minions.”
It was very fitting that the first ever post-season homer at the “New House” was hit by El Capitan.
Jeter’s homer tied Mickey Mantle and Reggie Jackson for third place on the all-time postseason homers list with 18. Mantle’s homers, of course, were all hit in the World Series.
I can’t imagine what would have happened had the Yankees lost last night’s contest and A-Rod had left a ton of runners on base. My guess is WFAN would have been totally unlistenable as fans took their turn waiting to jump off the GW Bridge.
When Minnesota scored their 2 runs in the 3rd, TBS scanned the crowd. Many fans had that “here we go again” look on their faces.
Sabathia went 6 2/3 of an inning on 118 pitches.
The Yankees had 13 LOB, Minnesota 16.
The Yankees were 3-9 with RISP, Minnesota 1-9.
Joba’s outing: 2 pitches total, 1 out.
Jorge Posada had a bit of a rough night behind the plate. Especially with passed balls. When Joe Mauer scored on a passed ball in the 3rd, you could hear many in the crowd groan.
Is it me or does the pairing of Chip Caray and Ron Darling seem to be ill-matched.
Ron Darling is a terrific color man. Chip Caray, well, let’s just say, I preferred his grandfather, Harry.
Speaking of Chip Caray, bad job by him when he stated that the age of the Yankees corner outfielders made them a liability. Yes, Damon is an older player, he’s going to be 35, but Nick Swisher is just 28. If John Sterling had made the same statement, he would have been ripped from here to eternity for it.
Another bad gaff by TBS last night. When Mariano came into the game in the 9th inning, a graphic with the pictures of the all-time leaders in post-season ERA was brought up on the screen. Mariano of course was #1 on the list. Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mickey Lolich was also listed. Unfortunately, the picture that TBS had up for Lolich was actually that of former Tigers catcher Mickey Cochrane.
The YES Network’s pre and post game coverage was phenomenal. Bob Lorenz, John Flaherty and Ken Singleton did a superlative job in the studio breaking everything down.
It seemed like Kate Hudson, who was at the game last night, got almost as much face time with the TBS cameras as her boyfriend, Mr. Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez.
October 8th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I know this is a new york site, but TBS coverage… during a couple of innings listening to the announcers I forgot who the Yankees are playing. A baseball game is two teams right?