Exactly, Ulf. It’s weird, but it’s how it seems to work, and it happens often enough that I think it’s strategy. (leading up to the two homers in the 7th or 8th inning.)
What Exit: … a strong pitching staff for the Yankees? I call shenanigans!
So, how bout them Angels?
Taking pitches to get the starter tired and to the bullpen has been the Yankees strategy since they rebuit in the 90s. Even Billy Beane credits Gene Michaels with building his teams for pitch taking and OBA before Beane did it. The did it very well this year.
Not as much as an effective revenue sharing and salary cap system, like every other damn league has been able to make work. But that’s another discussion, and has been done many times.
Not a good few days in Boston. Good pitching got beaten by better hitting.
The Red Sox suddenly looked old this series. The big turnover was going to be a year later, with the Drew, Ortiz, Lowell, and Varitek contracts expiring, but the turnover may have to start early. For 'Tek, it already has - he’s now a backup, and he has stick around if he wants to manage in the system later on.
Worse, the Angels’ mental block vs. Boston is officially broken, and for that matter so is A-Rod’s vs. October. But what the hell, it’s football, basketball, and hockey season already, too.
Good bat control, and the ability to work pitchers deep into the count to get what Ted Williams called “a good ball to hit”, is indeed part of what a good ballclub does. Nothing “weird” about it.
Thanks for an excellent explanation. This is something I’ve wondered about for some time now; in fact I almost asked last night for a breakdown of when the Yankees hit most of their homers. It’s always bugged me because it’s generally acknowledged that you can’t just “decide” to hit a home run (I mean if you could hit home runs at will, then why don’t these power hitters hit one every at bat?), so I always find myself wondering why, if they can hit HRs so easily, they don’t just do it early and jump out to a lead to begin with instead of turning every game into a close-score drama fest in the 7th-8th-9th. Of course, the Yankee-hater in me likes to attribute it to the umpires shrinking the Yankee strike zone to the size of an apricot in the late innings 
On the other hand, I continue to be baffled by the way it always seems to be the Yanks’ 1-2-3-4 hitters coming to bat in those crucial situations. They never seem to have situations where the #9 hitter is up with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th down 1 run. It’s always Jeter or Arod.
ETA: Of course, I only listen to Yankees games during the postseason or when they’re playing the Mariners, so my sample size is obviously small and I don’t get to hear all those times in the other 150 or so games when the #9 hitter does come up in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs and hits a dribbler to shortstop.
The ‘weird’ part is how often the batters manage to hit foul successfully. That’s just tricky. I mean, I can say ‘sure, they mean to do it’, but there’s no way they’re not trying for hits, too.
Rik: It’s because Jeter and A-Rod are that good… but they’re not 1-2-3-4. The Yankees are big enough bats, that it’s more like 2 4 5 6 8. Last night it was Posada hitting one of the 7th inning homers, and I think he was at 6. Either A-Rod or Jeter will hit a home run, but they’re 2 and 4, not 1 and 2.
Well that is another dirty Yankee trick. The 7-9 batters for the Yanks are all good hitters too. Cano batted around .320 with power. Swisher only batted around .245 but with a .380 OBA and Melky Cabrera might be their most “clutch” hitter with 5 walk off hits in the last two seasons. This is the #9 guy winning the games for them. He also has a good Batting average and OBA and some power.
Yankee HR’s by inning
1, 18
2, 24
3, 27
4, 30
5, 27
6, 26
7, 31
8, 34
9, 22
EI, 5
Looks like your observations are pretty accurate. The 7th and 8th are there biggest innings.
Keep in mind the 9th inning is skewed by the fact they often do not hit in the 9th at home. They had a very good record at home this year. Going 57-24 at home with 15 walk-offs. They were 7-3 in extra innings and I am not sure how many of those 3 extra innings losses were at home. I would say 1. So in 41 games, they did not have batting in the 9th. This brings there 9th inning power numbers closer to 29 or 30 if averaged out for 162 games.
A good hitter can often put the bat on the ball, trying to extend an at bat. The idea is to spoil good pitcher’s pitches, waiting for a good batter’s pitch. That’s a combination of good eye and bat control. The batter really doesn’t want to hit the ball in fair territory, but doesn’t want to be called out on strikes.
Well, I knew Arod wasn’t the #2 hitter. Wasn’t sure about Jeter though. Doesn’t he sometimes hit leadoff?
Here come the Phillies!!!
I’ve lived in many places. I’ve always been a fan of Red Sox, Cubs (until last year happened 
) Dodgers and Phillies (was growing up near Philly for the 1980 World Series win.)
I’m hoping for a Philies/Dodgers rematch. I am still surprised that the Dodgers SWEPT the Cardinals, a team who looked WAY better than LA in August and September. The questions still linger: Did St. Louis really show up? Is the Dodgers bullpen an element to trust? Either way, if the Phillies prevail ( Colorado is NO joke, just ask the Dodgers), I’ll enjoy sitting back, cheering for both teams and getting drunk. Hope it goes 7!
As far as the BoSox/Angels, the best team won. Like any other BoSox fan, as soon as they put up the Stat Graphic on TBS saying, “Papelbon has never allowed a post season run to score”, I said, “Oh, fuck. There it goes.” The Angels brought great pitching and great bats to this series. I also think that the Angels are the ONLY postseason AL Team than can beat the Yankees since it started.
What’s the temp in Denver today? Up to 30 degrees maybe?
Man. Phillies Rockies game last night was nervewracking. Up and down the entire time. Good game by both sides. I would not be disappointed to watch tonight’s game and view a blowout. (I don’t expect it. But, one can dream.)
I hate when people complain about the reffing in games. But, I really did think the ball/strike calling last night was atrocious on both sides. I don’t mind a big strike zone, or a small one. Just be consistent throughout the game. This ump didn’t seem consistent from batter to batter. It was really weird. But, I don’t think either team got the worst of it, so in the end it doesn’t really matter.
All of the series are going as I expected. What I didn’t expect was so many sweeps. I guess looking at the individual games shows that the teams were closely matched just a few good bounces and a few bad pitches led to the wins. It’s shaping up to be a great postseason.
Jeter was leadoff most of the year this year. He did great with it.
The Angels have had the Yankees’ number recently. I have a lot of respect of Mike Scioscia as a manager, not to mention Chone Figgins, Torii Hunter and Vlad Guerrero as players. It’s hard not to like that team. But for the next 4 - 7 games I’ll try.
My God, are the Rockies getting shafted by the umps in this series.
Still, a few clutch hits would have erased all the damage.
No they’re not. They just can’t hit so the shitty umpiring looks worse for them than it does for the Phillies, who are scoring anyway.
Meanwhile that was interference on Fowler.
See? Hurdles do pay off.
I totally deserved that double.
Nice of the Rockies to bring in Beimel now. Just three batters too late.