Angels at Yankees-ALCS Game 2

The New York Yankees will take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim tonight weather permitting in Game 2 of the ALCS. The Yankees took Game 1 last night 4-1 behind a dominant pitching performance from CC Sabathia. A.J. Burnett will take the mount tonight against Joe Saunders. A.J. had a good game in the ALDS but recieved a no decision and Saunders didn't pitch in the ALDS for the Angels. Joe Saunders will be on long rest. Here are some notes and the lineup via the Yankees media notes and the Lohud Yankees Blog. The Yankees are 52-1 this season when holding their opponents to 2 runs or less, including 3-0 in the postseason. The Yankees were 66-20 this season when scoring first. The Yankees were 71-2 this season when leading after 6 innings showing just how good their bullpen has been. The Yankees are 15-0 this season when the score is tied after the 7th inning. According to Elias this is the second longest streak in ML history under those circumstances. The 1906 Giants won 16 straight that were tied at the end of the 7th inning. The Yankees scored 8 runs with 4 homeruns and 6 walks in the 7th inning or later during their 3 game sweep in the ALDS. The Yankees never give up and never say die and this is the mark of a great team. During the regular season the Yankees posted a ML best 293 avg under the same circumstances. A-rod is batting 462 with 4 runs, 2 homeruns and 7 rbi's in the postseason. He has hit safely and driven in at least one run in all four of the Yankees postseason games. His 2 homeruns and 5 of his 7 rbi's have tied the game or put the Yankees ahead. He has gone 3 for 4 with 4 rbi's with RISP. Half of his homeruns and rbi's during the regular season either tied the game or gave the Yankees lead. The Yankees have gone 34 and 8 at home since the all star break including 3-0 in the postseason. Phil Hughes became the primary setup man on 7/3 and since then the Yankees went 58-26. The Yankees were 31-5 in games which he appeared in. The Yankees were 36-18 vs LH starters in 2009 the second best winning percentage in the majors against lefties. They led the majors with a 286 batting avg against lefties. Yankees starters have a 1.33 era in the postseason. They are holding their opponents to a 186 batting avg and have 28 strikeouts with only 7 walks. They have held their opponent to 3 runs or less in 15 of their last 16 dating back to the reg season. They say pitching wins and the Yankees pitching has been great. Yankees Lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Matsui(DH) Swisher(RF) Cano(2B) Cabrera(CF) Molina(C)

CC dominates Angels

The New York Yankees won Game 1 of the ALCS 4-1 tonight. CC Sabathia is the story of the game as he went 8 innings giving up 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. He was just dominant all night, never in trouble. The Yankees scored two early runs with some help from the Angels defense. A-rod had a sac fly, single and a couple of walks. Johnny Damon had a couple of hits after having a terrible ALDS. Robinson Cano continues to struggle as well as Hideki Matsui. The story of the game though was the pitching and if CC continues to pitch like this then the Yankees will be hard to beat. A.J. Burnett will try to go out tomorrow and pitch just like this and really put the Angels in a hole heading back to Anaheim. The weather doesn't look good for tommorrow so they may not play until Sunday but hopefully they can play tomorrow and keep it going. I thought the Yankees offense was better but still not great but in the postseason these are the type of games that are played. It was about 30 degrees and that doesn't help the hitters, so you have to pitch and play defense and you will win games. The Yankees are scoring enough runs to win and that is all that matters. It looked like Joe Girardi listens to talk radio and the papers as he let CC go where as he had a quick hook in the ALDS and got criticized for it.

Angels at Yankees-ALCS Game1

It has been a long wait, 5 days to be exact but it is finally time to play some baseball. The weather is looking ok for tonight and they should be able to get the game in uninterrupted. It doesn't look great for tomorrow unless they change the time and Sunday doesn't look great either but we will wait and see what happens. It will be really cold like in the 30's tonight with the wind being 15-20mph. The Yankees and Angels both swept their first round series and are now starting over again. This is the first time these two teams will meet in a best of 7 series. The Angels eliminated the Yankees in the best of 5 in 2002 and 2005. Here are the pregame notes and lineups via Sam Borden of the Journal News and the Yankees media guide. CC will pitch 3 times in this series if the weather permits. He has pitched well on 3 days rest in the past but the Angels do well against him. He was 0-2 with a 6.08 era in 2 starts against them this season and is 5-7 with a 4.72 era in 14 career starts. A-rod had a monster division series and he has done well against the Angels this season. He was 8 for 24 with 5 homeruns and 9 rbi's against the Angels this year. Johnny Damon was the only regular that took part in a simulated game on Tuesday at the Stadium. He was 1 for 12 in the ALDS and is hitless in his last 10 at bats. Him and Kevin Long worked on things and they think they found a mechanical flaw that they fixed. MO is still the best, he appeared in all 3 games of the ALDS and didn't allow a run while striking out 7. Joe Girardi will go to him early if he has too and won't be worried about it. If you look around all the other closers had trouble in the first round but not MO. The Yankees have been great against the other teams bullpens this season and the Angels weakness is their bullpen. Brian Fuentes the closer led the league in saves but he also blew 7 of them and had a 1.40 whip. He has untested or aging guys behind him and if they have to go to the pen early and often they could be in trouble against the Yankees. Yankees Lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Matsui(DH) Posada(C) Cano(2B) Swisher(RF) Cabrera(CF)

News from todays workout

The Yankees today decided to add Freddy Guzman and drop Eric Hinske from the roster. I don't think this is that big of a deal but clearly the Yankees are going to play this series different, run more and play small ball the Angels way. I think this is also saying that Gardner may start and Guzman would become the main pinch runner. A.J. Burnett will pitch game 2 and Andy Pettitte game 3 which was expected but Joe Girardi won't go beyond that for now. Dave Eiland talked about Phil Hughes and said they made a slight adjustment and thinks he will be better now. Johnny Damon worked with Kevin Long and also thinks he made a mechanical adjustment and will be better. This has been a long wait and it could be even longer but hopefully not. The weather was terrible in the NY area today and tomorrow it doesn't look good either, Saturday may be a little better. I hope this game gets started and on time but it is possible we may not get to see a game tomorrow either. There is only so much analyzing and talking about certain things you can do, these teams are pretty closely matched and it is time to prove who the better team is on the field. It will be interesting to see if Joe Girardi uses Jorge Posada for a DH in game 2 with a lefty pitching and Molina catching Burnett.

NLCS Preview continued

I was able to find some more facts about the season series between the Dodgers and Phillies. The Dodgers won the series 4 games to 3. The thing to remember is that Manny Ramirez did not participate in any of these games as he was suspended. The Phillies had 3 players who hit very well against the Dodgers and they were Carlos Ruiz who was 8 for 14 with a homerun and 5 rbi's. Raul Ibanez was 8 for 26 with 1 homerun and 5 rbi's. Jayson Worth was 8 for 26 with a rbi. The Dodgers had James Loney who was 11 for 28 with 2 homeruns and 6 rbi's. Matt Kemp was 9 for 27 with 3 rbi's. Casey Blake was 8 for 24 with a homerun and 4 rbi's. The guys who were cold for the Phillies against the Dodgers were Ryan Howard who was 3 for 28 with 1 homerun and 3 rbi's. Shane Victorino was 3 for 24 with 1 homerun and 3 rbi's, Chase Utley was 4 for 26 with 2 rbi's. Jimmy Rollins was 5 for 28 with a homerun and 2 rbi's. The Dodgers had some cold bats against the Phillies. Rafael Furcal was 6 for 27 with a homerun and rbi, Russel Martin was 5 for 22 with 1 rbi. Pitching wise Clayton Kershaw struggled against the Phillies going 0-2 in 10 1/3 innings giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits with 10 strikeouts. Brad Lidge struggled for the Phillies against the Dodgers going 0-1 in 3 2/3 innings he allowed 3 runs on 8 hits with 3 strikeouts. Randy Wolf did well against the Phillies going 1-1 in 12 innings he allowed 7 runs on 11 hits with 12 strikeouts. Jonathan Broxton was 2-0 in 3 innings he allowed 2 earned runs on 3 hits with 8 strikeouts. Cole Hamels did well for the Phillies going 1-0 in 16 innings he gave up 1 run on 12 hits with 14 strikeouts. Ryan Madson went 4 innings allowing 0 runs on 4 hits with 4 strikeouts. I hope this gives a good look at the NLCS and what we may see but of course in baseball you just never know. I got these stats off of philly.com but you can also find at baseballreference.com and other sites like these.