Honestly, how many times do you see an intentional walk backfire?
Equally puzzling is why Girardi summoned Robertson at the moment his team desperately needed to get outs. Your season rides on stopping Texas right there and you summon maybe the ninth best pitcher on the team?
These have been some great League Championship Series. Thanks be to the gods. I always liked Ron Washington, nice to see him getting this.
The Yankees lose! Theeeeeeeee Yankees lose!
Congratulations to the Texas Rangers and to all of their fans who have hung in there with them for a lot of years. During a lot of those years, the Rangers really stank it up.
That was the first game of the playoffs I’ve had the privilege of sitting down and watching on TV. It was worth the wait. And the Yankees didn’t roll over and play dead, either. Girardi’s intentional walk was a necessary gamble at the time.
Here’s to old Zonk. Here’s to Mark Holtz, the radio announcer who helped me learn to like baseball. I wished he had lived to see this.
I almost forgot:
As a baseball fan, I am deeply grateful to the Texas Rangers. Thank you, thank you, for sparing us the yawn-fest of more Yankees and Jetersturbation.
Good question. I’ve seen it a bunch, it seems, but don’t have numbers. It does seem like an exceptionally high-risk move given that it typically means putting a second runner on. A hit scores a run, and you may give up three. A few of those and you’ve brought the “percentage” return way down.
I mean, I think you need to be really afraid of the guy at the plate to do this.
And you need to be really unafraid of Vladimar Guerrero. While not the hitter he used to be, that was, perhaps, a mistake.
You said it. And good for Vladdy. Always liked him too.
Like when Arizona’s Greg Olson intentionally walked Barry Bonds with the bases loaded with two outs in the ninth when they were up by two runs moving the tying run to third base and winning run into scoring position. The next batter lined out so that time the strategy did work. Or at least didn’t fail by working at least as well as the alternative. And that’s the crux of the problem, all you can tell is the strategy didn’t fail in some sense. And even if the next batter does get a hit and drives in a run, the walked batter might have hit a home run so you can’t tell it wasn’t correct even if it appears to fail.
Congrats to the Rangers fans! Enjoy it! You beat the two best AL teams. And, if Charlie Manuel’s stolen words are the be trusted you have to beat the best to be the best. So, yeah, the Rangers are the AL’s best.
Sorry Yankees fans. It was a nice season. And, they did play a couple of good games in this series. Just wasn’t their year this year.
By the end of the weekend we’ll know who is going to go under Cliff Lee’s knife in Game 1. Either way, I think it is going to be a great world series.
Cliff Lee going against his former short time teammates?
Bengie Molina facing the superstar rookie who took his spot?
I wonder if Ron Washington will be willing to roll Lee out there on short rest & start him for games 1, 4, and 7 of the WS. Seems like it would be an option, now that the Rangers have finished off the Yanks in six …
…what a disaster. Well, no matter who wins the NL, I want Texas to win. I want to see Vlad get a ring. He deserves one more then anyone still playing (except maybe Halladay).
(More than a) Couple of thoughts: 1) This series proved again that starting pitching means everything in the playoffs and the Yankees’ starters sucked. 2) Joe Girardi is a below-average manager. 3) A-Rod is truly washed up. I predict he falls well short of 755 home runs. I have always been a fan and am grateful that he brought home a ring last year. Without him, this decade would be a failure. 4) Cano is a beast and will remain so. To have him hit the way he did, and still lose in 6, is absolutely pathetic. 5) MLB umpiring sucks. The home plate ump needs to be replaced by technology. There is just too much pitch-to-pitch variability on strikes/balls. It’s not fair that pitchers’ reputations dictate strike zones. Computers and cameras would be far more objective.
This may sound like sour grapes but this quote from “A Bronx Tale” always makes me feel a little bit better immediately after the Yankees are eliminated:
Young Calogero: Bill Mazeroski, I hate him. He made Mickey Mantle cry. The papers said the Mick cried.
Sonny: Mickey Mantle? That’s what you’re upset about? Mantle makes $100,000 a year. How much does your father make? If your dad ever can’t pay the rent and needs money, go ask Mickey Mantle. See what happens. Mickey Mantle don’t care about you. Why care about him?
Calogero: [narrating] After that, I never felt the same way about the Yankees.
It eases the pain for a couple of hours.
That and the memory of at least five World Series titles in your lifetime. I just want to see the Cubs play in a World Series game; forget winning that game or, God forbid (and he must), the entire series.
Congratulations to the Rangers, they were the better team for sure this series. They’re a gutty team. Good luck to them in the next round. And to all of the Yankee haters on this board, here’s hoping that someday your teams will come close to accomplishing what the Yankees have over the years.
Thanks. I’m sure you’re very happy today, knowing how much better your team has been in the distant past than other teams. It would make me sad to think of you as bitter or depressed or disgruntled or pissed-off today. I want you to have a nice day–I know I will.
Past glories do not make up for current disappointment. Still, Texas played better baseball - the Yankees could neither match the pitching, the hitting, or the baserunning.
Posada needs to give up as a catcher.
This series proved again that a powerful hitting lineup will get you to the playoffs. The playoffs are decided by pitching. the Yankees were outpitched. Pitching shuts down hitting.
SI noted that Girardi ordered eight intentional walks. Batters following those walks drove in six runs.
Given that so many of those walks happened earlier in the game, that sounds to me like a dreadful ratio. I can understand intentional walks when the walked batter doesn’t matter much or at all. Bottom 9, tie game, man at second… the batter doesn’t matter, so if walking him gives you a better matchup and sets up a double play, then it might be your best move. But early in the game, when multiple-run innings are probably going to decide the outcome, I just don’t get it, unless you’re walking an awesome batter to pitch to a pitcher or a shortstop who really can’t hit.
And Vladimir Guerrero is not a man who can’t hit. I mean, people say he’s old, but he hit .300 this year with 29 home runs. He drove in 115. He’s not Ray Oyler. This is a guy who himself has led his league in intentional walks five times; he is still a hideously dangerous hitter, especially since there is no particular pitching approach you can use to minimize what he can do.
I’m sure the announcers will still find ways to mention him multiple times. Derek Jeter is baseball’s Brett Favre.
This, but replace “Cubs” with “Mariners”. Are my Mariners now the one-and-only remaining team to never see a World Series?
And as a lifetime AL West fan, the idea of the Rangers winning with superior pitching just seems crazy, man! Crazy!
I’m summing up this ALCS like this: The Rangers out-Yankeed the Yankees.
ETA: Now, Go Giants! I’m looking forward to an all-West Coast series.
Except when it doesn’t.