Friday, October 7, 2011

Yankees offense fails as they lose Game Five to the Tigers

The New York Yankees lost to the Detroit Tigers by the score of 3-2 on Thursday night. Ivan Nova started but the Yankees used almost their whole pitching staff to get through nine innings. Nova started off rough but he was pulled due to an arm injury. CC Sabathia even got in the game as a reliever for the first time. The story of the game is the Yankees offense or lack of offense. The Yankees had plenty of chances but just couldn’t get the big hit and that is why they are going home and not moving on to face the Texas Rangers in the ALCS.
Nova pitched two innings giving up two runs on three hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three. Nova took the loss in the game. Phil Hughes pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and he struck out two, Boone Logan pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up one hit and striking out one and Sabathia pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up two hits and one run with two walks and four strikeouts. Rafael Soriano pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with two strikeouts, Dave Robertson pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect inning.

Derek Jeter had one hit, Curtis Granderson had one hit and a walk and Robinson Cano had two hits and an RBI. Alex Rodriguez had a walk, Mark Teixeira had a hit, RBI and a walk and Nick Swisher had a hit. Jorge Posada in most likely his last game as a Yankee had two hits. Posada hit 429 in the series and was the Yankees best player in this ALDS. Posada will most likely retire but it will be interesting to see if he gets other offers and thinks about them at all. Brett Gardner had two hits. Teixeira had a double, Cano had a homerun. The Yankees were 2-9 with runners in scoring position and they left 11 men on base.

The Tigers got on the board right away in the first inning. They hit back-to-back solo homeruns on consecutive pitches. Don Kelly and Delmon Young hit the homeruns. In the fifth Victor Martinez had an RBI single to push the lead to 3-0 Tigers. In the bottom of the fifth Cano hit a solo homerun to make it 3-1. In the seventh inning Teixeira walked with the bases loaded to drive in a run and make it 3-2. It could have been a lot worse but Rodriguez and Swisher both struck out with the bases loaded. That score would hold up and the Tigers would celebrate after Jose Valverde their closer completed a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Rodriguez for the second straight year made the final out of the season. Here is what he had to say about it. “It’s devastating, this is going to hurt for a long time. This one stings especially at home.” Detroit became the first team to celebrate clinching a series at the New Yankee Stadium. The Yankees will have an uncertain future as their ace Sabathia can opt out of his contract, their general manager has to sign a new contact, Posada most likely played his final game. The Yankees have a club option on Swisher who they may not want to bring back after another dreadful postseason. The best pitcher on the free agent market is C.J. Wilson who is no better then a number two starter. Nova was taken out of the game after two innings because of tightness in his forearm. There were a lot of critics of Girardi but the bullpen did a good job in the end and it was the hitting that failed. The Yankees had the same lineup for the whole series and maybe you can say why didn’t he start Eric Chavez or why didn’t he give Montero a chance etc. At the end of the day though he isn’t the one with a bat in his hands.

Sabathia had this to say, “The level of disapppointment is through the roof. We come into spring training with a goal to win the World Series every year. That’s not a goal for every team, but it’s a goal of ours. And we didn’t get it done.” Girardi said “Our pitchers threw as well as they could this year. I really believe that, they pitched their hearts out. Those guys have nothing to be ashamed of.” The Yankees left the bases loaded in the fourth and seventh innings and that is where the game was lost. The Yankees could of just hit two sacrifice flys there and they probably will win the game. A single in either situation and they win the game, they couldn’t even make contact, only scoring when they were walked. It is very disappointing and frustrating but there is nothing you can do but move on and hope that you can learn from it and get better. The Yankees will have a long winter ahead of them now before they start reporting down to Tampa in February for Spring Training. The Detroit Tigers will move on to play the Texas Rangers in the ALCS.

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