Kuzul

After a day off, the ALCS resumes at Rangers Stadium where Texas will host New York in a pivotal Game 6 matchup. Phil Hughes (1-1, 5.73 ERA) will take the mound for the Yankees against the Rangers Colby Lewis (1-0, 1.69 ERA).

Hughes and Lewis pitched against each other in Game 2. In that game, Hughes was hit hard, giving up 10 hits and seven earned runs in four innings in a historically poor performance. Lewis, on the other hand, gave up just six hits and two earned runs through 5.2 innings. Both bullpens then threw shutouts, and the Rangers took the game 7-2. Lewis received the win, and Hughes the loss.

Much more is riding on this Game 6 than game two though, as the the Yankees will try to quell the Rangers World Series hopes for at least one more game and avoid heading back to New York disappointed.

The Yankees were outplayed for all but one inning in their shaky game on victory. They followed up with three straight games of poor hitting and poor pitching, losing the three games by a combined score of 25-5. But the bats came back and C.C.’s arm gave New York a resurgence in a 7-2 game five win to get the series back to 3-2.

The Rangers starting rotation looked really strong, anchored by another dominant performance by Cliff Lee. Also, the offense tagged the ball hard and often, with Josh Hamilton showing why he may be the AL MVP. Minus the eighth inning in Game 1, they totally dominated the Yankees until faltering in a big way in Game 5.

I guess the question for tonight will be: Can the Yankees continue the success they found on offense and defense in Game 5? Or will the Rangers come back with the dominance they had for four games? Tune in at 8:07 on TBS to find out.

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Entering the MLB postseason, analysts and other fans of the sports seemed to be skeptical of the New York Yankees chances to repeat their World Championship run from last year. Much of this skepticism centered around the lack of quality pitching following CC Sabathia in the rotation.

However, in the Yankees sweep of the Minnesota Twins Sabathia’s win ended up being the weakest performance, as Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes pulled strung together very strong performance in their respective wins.

From the bullpen, Kerry Wood okay in Game 1, dominated in Game 2, and then struggled in Game 3; he gave up the bullpen’s only earned run in the series in Game 3. Mariano Rivera didn’t give up a run in his three relief performances in which he captured 2 saves, continuing his postseason dominance.

Overall, in the Minnesota series the Yankees pitching staff seemingly silenced any doubt that was circulating.The Yankee’s offense was never really a cause for concern, but it is good to note that they didn’t disappoint, adding run support from a slew of different players in their lineup.

However, just playing well isn’t the only reason that the Yankees might now be the favorite, other teams have been struggling.

Tampa Bay couldn’t hit Wilson and Lee in the first two games in which both Shields and Price struggled, and then in Game 3 they rebounded in a win in the late innings. Texas looked strong until Game 3, where the bullpen was unable to hold the lead and the offense didn’t have the same success at the plate.

The Phillies got one of the best pitching performances in postseason history in Game 1, and with 4 runs in support won easily. In Game 2, Philadelphia won in a sloppy comeback after Oswalt had trouble early. The Reds probably should have won Game 2, but beat themselves with errors, they didn’t look very good in either game.

Tim Lincecum showed why they call him The Freak in Game 1, as they battled their way to a 1-0 win. In Game 2, they were able to open a lead early, but then blew it later in the game and finally lost in extra innings after Ankiel’s home run.

Overall, no team besides the Yankees have shown the consistent, high quality of play on both sides of the ball that the New York Yankees have this postseason, which is why they are once again the team to beat.

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For those who did not have the pleasure of watching Game Two of the ALDS between the Yankees and Twins, one of the biggest story lines was a controversial call in the seventh inning. With one out, two strikes, and Jorge Posada on first base, Carl Pavano threw a tailing fastball on the inside of the plate for what “should have” been strike three.

However, it was called a ball by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt, and Berkman promptly hit the next pitch over Denard Span’s head into center for a double and an RBI, giving the Yankees a one-run lead late in the game. Berkman would later score on a Jeter single to go up 4-2. So overall, a big, game-changing mistake on the part of the umpire and another case for replay in baseball, right?

Wrong. Simply looking at this one at-bat does not tell the whole story of the game. Carl Pavano, and then later Kerry Wood, were getting called strikes that were clearly on the outside of the plate (Andy Pettitte was not seemingly getting these similar calls, presumably because he is a lefty. I have no idea). Throughout the game, I wasn’t counting, but Hunter Wendelstedt gave anywhere from 10-15 called strikes that should have been balls in that location. So, for him to call a ball on the inside edge of the plate does not necessarily represent a mistake, but rather represents where his strike zone had been all night in Game Two. Anybody who has played baseball knows that umpires are given this discretion on judgement calls like balls/strikes, and these expanded strike zones aren’t uncommon.

Lance Berkman recognized this, as seen in his post-game comments:

I mean, I felt like it was a ball. I had to swing at it, I had two strikes. It was a tough pitch. You know, I’ve had a lot of people ask me about it, and like it was right down the middle or something. That’s a very borderline pitch. Sometimes it gets called, sometimes it doesn’t. I felt like Hunter was very consistent all night with not giving anything inside. He was giving probably four to six inches off the outside corner, wasn’t giving anything over the inside corner. So that was the strike zone. And I mean, I have been punched out plenty on balls that I didn’t think were strikes, so what the heck. You know, if he had called it, I wouldn’t have been happy about it, but I wouldn’t have been shocked.

Either way, people are going to continue to talk about this as part of the instant replay debate. There are missed calls in baseball (e.g. Golson’s catch in Game One on Wednesday), but in this instance there was no bad call, just a consistent call in an expanded strike zone which is part of the game of baseball. 

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