Welcome to Game 2
Lineup is the same as it was in Game 1. Leyland liked the way his club hit last night, so he’s going to stick with his order. With the off-day Thursday, don’t be surprised if Leyland shows more willingness to go to his bullpen tonight. Zumaya, Rodney and Jones all have two days of rest, which is a long time in the playoffs but also a sign of no leads to protect.
Jason Beck
The game was much closer last night than Yankee fans are willing to admit today.
We had them on the ropes in the 7th with 2 on 2 out and ordonez up. If Ordonez comes through we have the winning run up and maybe Torre has to go to his 4th pitcher of the inning, Farnsworth, who I think the Tigers match up very well with. Ordonez made a fantastic catch in the corner but he missed two crucial chances to drive in runs.
Granderson was something last night, even going deep off a leftie, which scared the Yankees good.
The hit-and-run play was a diaster on every level, you need to either bunt (which I don’t really like either cause its the 2nd inning and we’ll need 6-7 runs minimum) or hit away. A lead-off 400ft double and a walk, you should make Wang work his way out.
The Tigers approach at the plate was brilliant last night. They laid off bad pitches and went early in the count which is the key against Wang. Tonight needs to be all about discipline because with Mussina, if you swing at stuff out of the zone he won’t throw another strike all night. With Mussina you have to make him work. If you hit him hard early or he gets some bad calls or an error he sulks and implodes. If he gets a few 7 pitch innings he can become unhiitable. Make him go from the stretch, make him earn it.
Doubles in the 3rd,4th and 5th and he got no runs — b/n the ridiculous and Polancos DP we killed ourselves(2 DPs for Polanco last night). Had the chance to strike first on the road in game one of a 5 gamer against the Yankees and we send Ordonez with Rodriguez up
I was looking forward to Farnsworth vs Monroe and Thames but Thames just missed it and popped up while Monroe took a HANGING slider down main street at the letters — not like him at all.
WE’ve been hitting pretty good for a few weeks now could we just get a great performance from the starters. Just one or two. To win this series we’ll have to win 9-7, 10-8 at some point but we will also need a dominant pitching performance at some point. If we could put all our assets together we could shock these guys.
Did Leyland nned to fawn over the Yankees during introductions like that??? I thought it was very strange and a little embarrasing. Lets give intensity a try.
Leaving Robertson in was debatable, I didn’t mind it but Polanco needs to get to that ball. It would have been an interesting thing to see on replay (where Polanco was playing) but as was typical last night the announcers were talking about some nonsense and not the game.
I don’t know how Inge got to that ball that Robertson dropped — amazing.
Grillis error was just embarrasing.
You have to pitch Jeter inside, its conventional book but its true. Jeter is an incredible ballplayer and hes hot right now but you have to come in and preferably up on him. But,
1) With a hitter like Jeter you can’t come any spot over and over — got to mix it up.
2) The ump was not calling that inside corner at the letters. Jeter is going to get that call because of who he is but that is the spot to try for.
Walker pitched to a batter or two this year — situational lefty — now in the playoffs in the Bronx he pitches 2 innings??? The 7th and the 8th??? Leyland conyinues to baffle me.
THe Yankees love fastball pitchers. Verlander will need to get off-speed stuff over early and often. Tiger pitchers in general don’t climb the ladder with fastballs enough, the Yankees are susceptible to that. We need him to dominate tonight.
The game was much closer last night than Yankee fans are willing to admit today.
We had them on the ropes in the 7th with 2 on 2 out and ordonez up. If Ordonez comes through we have the winning run up and maybe Torre has to go to his 4th pitcher of the inning, Farnsworth, who I think the Tigers match up very well with. Ordonez made a fantastic catch in the corner but he missed two crucial chances to drive in runs.
Granderson was something last night, even going deep off a leftie, which scared the Yankees good.
The hit-and-run play was a diaster on every level, you need to either bunt (which I don’t really like either cause its the 2nd inning and we’ll need 6-7 runs minimum) or hit away. A lead-off 400ft double and a walk, you should make Wang work his way out.
The Tigers approach at the plate was brilliant last night. They laid off bad pitches and went early in the count which is the key against Wang. Tonight needs to be all about discipline because with Mussina, if you swing at stuff out of the zone he won’t throw another strike all night. With Mussina you have to make him work. If you hit him hard early or he gets some bad calls or an error he sulks and implodes. If he gets a few 7 pitch innings he can become unhiitable. Make him go from the stretch, make him earn it.
Doubles in the 3rd,4th and 5th and he got no runs — b/n the ridiculous and Polancos DP we killed ourselves(2 DPs for Polanco last night). Had the chance to strike first on the road in game one of a 5 gamer against the Yankees and we send Ordonez with Rodriguez up
I was looking forward to Farnsworth vs Monroe and Thames but Thames just missed it and popped up while Monroe took a HANGING slider down main street at the letters — not like him at all.
WE’ve been hitting pretty good for a few weeks now could we just get a great performance from the starters. Just one or two. To win this series we’ll have to win 9-7, 10-8 at some point but we will also need a dominant pitching performance at some point. If we could put all our assets together we could shock these guys.
Did Leyland nned to fawn over the Yankees during introductions like that??? I thought it was very strange and a little embarrasing. Lets give intensity a try.
Leaving Robertson in was debatable, I didn’t mind it but Polanco needs to get to that ball. It would have been an interesting thing to see on replay (where Polanco was playing) but as was typical last night the announcers were talking about some nonsense and not the game.
I don’t know how Inge got to that ball that Robertson dropped — amazing.
Grillis error was just embarrasing.
You have to pitch Jeter inside, its conventional book but its true. Jeter is an incredible ballplayer and hes hot right now but you have to come in and preferably up on him. But,
1) With a hitter like Jeter you can’t come any spot over and over — got to mix it up.
2) The ump was not calling that inside corner at the letters. Jeter is going to get that call because of who he is but that is the spot to try for.
Walker pitched to a batter or two this year — situational lefty — now in the playoffs in the Bronx he pitches 2 innings??? The 7th and the 8th??? Leyland conyinues to baffle me.
THe Yankees love fastball pitchers. Verlander will need to get off-speed stuff over early and often. Tiger pitchers in general don’t climb the ladder with fastballs enough, the Yankees are susceptible to that. We need him to dominate tonight.
Good stuff, Rube. I don’t know if Verlander can handle them. If he does get into a groove, they’ll step out a lot to slow him down.
Quite simply, I think we have to hit with them early, get it into the mid to late innings, then bring on Zumuya who will climb that ladder on them. Also, this is not the White Sox and you don’t play small in the early going. You get you a 7-7 game in the seventh, then yes.
And so much of this has to do with the **** home plate umpire. They’ve got to be willing to punch out these big name players. The boys in blue have deserted us the last few weeks. I couldn’t count how many times we’ve had a guy struck out, or had a call missed on 1-1, which led to big innings. More than I’ve ever seen before.
Yankee fans should love that last paragraph. Wherever they are.
The umpire argument is laughable, questionable calls both ways last night, i.e that high slider monroe got punched out, the inside strike three call on AROD….the calls go both ways.
Was the game closer than the score indicated? You betcha, but the bullpen pulled through for the yanks, albeit as nerveracking as it was for us yanks fans. Bad coaching decisions were on both sides, the hit and run for the tigers and pulling wang for the yanks.
What amazes me about all these posts, is how the authors refuse to give the yankees any credit at all. You all make very valid points about the tigers, but refuse to recognize the point that the yankees won and the tigers got outplayed.
The Series is 1-0 yankees, just dont forget that guys
Duh-wight:
In the first place, this is a Tiger blog, which may explain why we talk about our team and not yours. But I’ll offer the following from the past 24 hours:
“You can’t come inside to Jeter. He just pulls his hands in and lines one somewhere. Going outside isn’t great either, but he is a .343 hitter, after all. Any way you cut it, however, one of those guys will get you, so you better put those hittin’ shoes on.”
That was me.
Rube on Mussina:
“If he gets a few 7 pitch innings he can become unhittable.”
Rube on Jeter:
“You have to pitch Jeter inside, its conventional book but its true. Jeter is an incredible ballplayer and hes hot right now but you have to come in and preferably up on him. But,
1) With a hitter like Jeter you can’t come any spot over and over — got to mix it up.”
Which of these words are you not understanding?
By the way, did you get me those stats on the ’27 Yankees? I’ve been waiting, number man.
yes i got the 27 yanks numbers
blah blah blah, every lineup has holes, you are ignoring the point that this lineup has no easy outs…hence best lineup ever. I dont think one player on the tigers would start on the yankees
joe morgan said today on a chat that the yankees have the best hitting lineup ever, he didnt call them the best lineup ever overall cause he says they lack speed. However Bobby Cox called the yankees the best hitting team ever.
i just want one of you guys to say the tigers got outplayed last night…face facts, based on the comments if i didnt see the score i would say the tigers won last night.
Is that why you’re hanging around here, to hear one of us say that? You won the game, you need more? What is this General Zod stuff? “Bow before Zod, kneel before Zod.” That stuff always closes out of town.
Dwight-I find you an obnoxious sort and this will be the last time I respond to you but you seem to have selective sight and memory. Yesterday I poste this:
“They got beat and outplayed, plain and simple so I can’t pin this on Leyland but the fact that he does call for plays like this makes me worry because who knows when he is going to do the same thing again. He is stubborn.”
Does that satisfy your need for capitulation on the part of your adversary?
No need to dwell on this but we got beat yesterday—key word yesterday. If we don’t beat the Yankees I am hoping someone else does but if they don’t then we can all indulge ourselves in being beaten by the best.
Now get lost and leave us to our own devices.
Huge rain front descending on NYC. Came through here in Western NY a little while ago but, again it looks like a bigger mass is closing in on NYC.
Rube, we did see the same game last night! I didn’t get any feedback, so wasn’t sure if anyone agreed with my take.
Dwight. You’re last post finally sounded objective. I can appreciate that. It was my post last night you referred to about Giambi. I didn’t trash him, I was basically saying that he is overrated. I said Matsui didn’t look that good offensively or defensively. Not much more than that. The lead part was just for fun. If you had followed this group of bloggers for most of the season, you would have read a lot of negative comments about our own Tiger players. We usually call them like we see them. And last night I thought I gave Jeter his due. He’s another Hall of Famer. And I don’t begrudge him being a Yankee because they didn’t buy him, although they’re paying him well to stay.
The Yankees are loaded with a lot of great ballplayers. I doubt any of us here would disagree with that. It’s not the players I dislike, it’s the whole Yankee system. You can call it whatever you want, envy, jealosy, whatever, but the botton line is that yes, MLB represents free enterprise and capitalsim at its finest. But a level playing field? Are you kidding? I’ve have good friends over the years (even a nephew) who love the Yankees. I’ve respected many of their players, Mattingly certainly comes to mind. He toiled on some pretty mediocre teams.
As far as this group goes, do we delude ourselves into thinking the Yankees stink? Of course not. We know they’re an assembled juggernaut that will take the Tigers’(any team’s)absolute best effort to beat. We think it can be done because the strength of the Tiger team is pitching. Yes positionally the Yankees rate higher by far than any other team. It’s interesting, a sports writer for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Bob Mathews, rated the 8 playoff teams positionally, including DH, 1 pt. for best, 8 pts. for worst, and he had The Yanks rated first and the Tigers a distant second, ahead of the other 6 teams.
We believe the Tigers pitching has the edge. You can debate that if you want. Rivera is still a great closer, a Hall of Famer, but the Tigers have a guy named Zumaya who is “pretty good” too, and 4 very capable starters.
They’ve always said that goog pitching will stop good hitting. So it depends upon who shows up to pitch, and who shows up to hit.
As for the plate umpire last night, I can agree with you to a certain extent. But as I watched the game I saw the strike zone really shrink at critical moments twice where it killed the Tigers. When ARod was called out later in the game, it wasn’t really a critical point. I would have liked to have seen the strike zone expanded for both teams equally last night. It was too small IMHP. In my estimation, it would have favored the Tigers.