Rivera Happy To Pitch Longer Than Usual
It’s October, and not only are the “Joba Chamberlain Rules” discarded, so is the “Mo M.O.”
During the season, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was steadfast in limiting Mariano Rivera to four outs. In a tied Game 2 of the ALCS, he used his closer for seven.
“I’m beat up right now,” Rivera said jokingly on Sunday. “You play for the organization that has given you everything. It doesn’t matter how long you go, as long as you do it right.”
Rivera got the last out of the eighth on one pitch, then dominated the ninth with two strikeouts. Even after retiring the Angels in the 10th, his longest outing in years, he was only at 24 pitches. That’s often what a reliever, even Rivera, might throw in one inning.
“Knowing we had an off day [Sunday] and how few pitches Mo threw in those four outs, we felt we could go back to him,” Girardi said.
The downside: Rivera, 39, who had minor shoulder surgery — if there is such a thing for a pitcher — last winter may need more care than he has needed in the past. Also, Rivera often struggles coming into tie games because he may be too aggressive with pitches in his first inning to keep his pitch count low for a second inning.
But Rivera’s effort stretched out both the game and the Yankees bullpen so they could win it in the 13th.
Click here to read the full article – By DOM AMORE of Courant.com
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Yankees Close Out Series
There were the home runs by Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada. The heads-up defensive play by Derek Jeter. A lucky break here and there.
But in the backdrop was pitching, on top of pitching, followed by pitching, all wrapped with pitching.
And that’s why the Yankees have done in 2009 what they had not done in five long years, survived the first round of playoffs and advanced to the ALCS. They beat the Twins 4-1 Sunday night to complete a three-game sweep in the Division Series in the last baseball at the Metrodome.
Andy Pettitte pitched the first 6 1/3 innings to get his 15th postseason win, tying John Smoltz’s record, and Mariano Rivera applied the finishing touches as the Yankees held the Twins to six runs in the three games.
“You can talk about home runs all you want,” said Rodriguez, who hit a game-tying home run, his second of the series, off Carl Pavano in the seventh. “If you don’t pitch, and you don’t defend, you’re not going to win. The story of this series was CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte; they were all terrific. You get some big hits at the end, but it wouldn’t have been possible without their performances.”
The Yankees, after pouring still more champagne and beer all over each other, have four days to rest for the ALCS, where they will play the Angels. Game 1 is Friday at Yankee Stadium.
“It feels great, but I have to give the credit to everybody else,” said manager Joe Girardi, who won his first playoff series. “Our starting pitching was tremendous. That sets the tone.”
Click here to read the full article – By Dom Amore of Courant.com
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Jacobs: Posada Needs To Settle Down
Derek Jeter, Yankee captain and best man at Jorge Posada’s wedding, called the situation awkward. Damn straight it’s awkward. You pull a catcher with four World Series rings and nearly 100 games of postseason experience off the big stage, of course, it’s uncomfortable.
Just don’t confuse awkward with controversial. Don’t confuse uncomfortable with a hullabaloo. At this point only Posada can make this situation ugly and if he makes it ugly, well, it would diminish him much more as a man, a Yankee, than as a catcher.
“I’m not jumping for joy here,” Posada said Thursday after the Yankees’ off-day workout. “But I accept it.”
He better.
Jose Molina will be behind the plate tonight when A.J. Burnett faces the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of the ALDS. And while it would be entirely fair to say that as an offensive player Molina can’t carry Posada’s bat, it also would be no exaggeration to say right now everything is rolling in the Yankees’ favor. The two O’s in October — Alex Rodriguez and CC Sabathia — produced in a significant way in Game 1, the Twins look kind of spent … and if the sometimes electric, other times enigmatic Burnett pitches to his level of talent, there will be an undeniable scent of sweep in the air. Posada would be an idiot to disrupt the momentum.
Molina comes from a family of catchers, brothers in arms and shin pads. And as he held court, a rarity for him in this A-list clubhouse, everything about the career backup suggested he understands the complex psychology of handling pitchers.
“I prefer that a pitcher be 100 percent in his pitch than 50-50 in my pitch,” Molina said at one point. “We don’t know everything.”
Posada has caught 78 of the past 79 Yankee postseason games and sometimes he catches like he knows everything. Posada is prideful. He’s a leader. As evidenced by the two passed balls in Game 1, he also is not Johnny Bench back there. Never was. He hasn’t always meshed with pitchers. Of course, he’s not happy he isn’t playing just as he wasn’t happy when Joe Torre decided to use John Flaherty to catch Randy Johnson in 2005 (the Big Unit was terrible that night). He shouldn’t be happy. No athlete wants to sit.
“I know how bad Jorge wants to be out there and how intense he is,” manager Joe Girardi said. “Obviously, as time goes on, things can either build or diminish in the story. But we talked about it Sunday. I’m not saying he liked it, but emotionally he was good with me.
“It was a hard conversation.”
Click here to read the full article – By Jeff Jacobs of Courant.com
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A-Rod says goodbye to October hex
Derek Jeter was on second base with two outs in the first inning when Alex Rodriguez left him there by flying out to right. But Rodriguez wasn’t unhappy with his turn at the plate.
Rodriguez hit it “good” a few times in last night’s 7-2 Game 1 win over the Twins in the first playoff game at the new Stadium, as he finally started delivering in a Yankees playoff game. He had a pair of run-scoring singles, including a critical one in the Bombers’ game-clinching fifth-inning rally.
On that one, Rodriguez laced an RBI single to left, then scored on Hideki Matsui’s two-run homer, part of the Yankees’ three-run inning. Later in the seventh, he smacked an RBI single off the right-field wall.
Click here to read the full article – By MARK HALE of New York Post
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A-Rod blasts into playoffs with record day
Yesterday’s record-setting day was nice. Now it’s time for Alex Rodriguez to produce in the postseason: the only time that counts in the Yankees’ universe.
Yesterday’s seven RBIs came in the sixth inning, which is an American League record. In 1999, Fernando Tatis, then with the Cardinals, drove in eight with two grand slams.
The home runs pushed his career total to 583 and ties former Athletics and Cardinals superstar Mark McGwire for eighth on the all-time list.
Still, when it comes to Rodriguez, it’s always, “What Have You Done For Me Lately.”
He knows Yankees fans have been waiting since 2004 for him to deliver in the postseason like he did yesterday when the Rays foolishly walked Mark Teixeira to load the bases after Rodriguez already crushed a three-run homer in the sixth.
Rodriguez also understands the blame will fall on his shoulders if the Yankees don’t win the World Series and he doesn’t hit.
Nevertheless, Rodriguez said he is comfortable and likes the Yankees’ chances.
“We have a very deep lineup, one of the best if not the best,” Rodriguez said. “I know I hit cleanup for a reason. There is going to be a point where we need a big hit and my number is called. I am looking forward to that.”
Click here to read the full article – By GEORGE A. KING III of Nypost.com
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Yanks expect more from Chamberlain
With one day to absorb Joba Chamberlain’s last start, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said that he saw no reason to administer a reality check to the young hurler. But the club does need to see better results, and in a hurry.
Though he said he was embarrassed by allowing seven runs to the Mariners in Sunday’s three-inning start at Safeco Field — a 7-1 Yankees loss — Chamberlain was relentlessly positive in dissecting his outing, using the word “great” several times and telling reporters his stuff “was all working, surprisingly.”
The comments drew plenty of attention from fans on talk radio and the Internet, but Girardi said on Monday that he believes Chamberlain — who has now lost a career-high four straight decisions — knows that the results are not acceptable.
Click here to read the full article – By Bryan Hoch of MLB.com
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Will Yankees re-sign Damon?
It might be. Damon has been pretty up front about his desire to keep playing for the Yankees past 2009, and he has said that he can’t imagine wearing a different uniform, which isn’t exactly a page right out of the Scott Boras playbook as it relates to an upcoming free agency.
But Damon seems legitimate and unapologetic about what he wants, and why not? He has absolutely loved hitting in new Yankee Stadium, owning the kind of swing that seems tailor-made for the place — shades of how Bobby Murcer enjoyed so much success at the old building a few decades ago.
Damon might not be the same productive player if he had to log 81 games worth of at-bats in a different stadium, but in the Bronx, he still seems to be a good fit. There was a thought earlier in the year that the Yankees would be primed to let Damon walk as a free agent, but now it appears the winds have shifted and they are more amenable to the idea of keeping him.
Click here to read the full article – By Bryan Hoch of MLB.com
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