Inching Closer

          The phone rang about twenty seconds after I hit “send” on the text message.  It was Acc.  “Dude, I’m stuck in Ohio h*ll.  What’s going on?”  Now, in fairness, the poor b*stard was reacting to my text, which said simply, “I can’t watch this cr*p.  Why do they always do this after beating Boston?”  I actually forgot the big boy was stuck in Ohio, or I might have been a bit less abrupt.  So after shocking him out into the hallway of whatever function he was at, I gave it to him straight.  “Not good, bro.”  He sounded a bit distressed.  “What is it like 10 - nothing?”  I realized at this point that perhaps I was being a bit overdramatic.  “No, dude.  Actually it’s only 2-0.”  “That’s it?  What inning?  Why did you make it seem like it was life fifty to two?”  “It’s possible I might have overstated it somewhat.  It’s the second inning, and Cabrera just hit Giambi.  First and second, nobody out.”  “Nice, *sshole.  I almost had a heart attack in front of about 200 people I don’t know.  What’s going on now?  Who’s up?”  This last part was what was really important.  Good news solves everything.  I proceeded to walk him through the entire inning, right through Dougie’s game-tying base hit.  We were on our way…

         I caught a little of the replay of WFAN’s Mike & the Mad Dog show on YES tonight, and two points stuck out.  Unabashed Yankee-hater Chris Russo was screaming about pitching to Jeter on Sunday night in the eighth.  Jeter’s done it to them so many times in that spot, he said, so why do you pitch to him instead of Abreu.  If Abreu beats you, so be it.  But you don’t want the bat in Jeter’s hands there.  I see his point, but you also don’t want Schilling out there for another batter.  Jeter hit the 90th pitch from Schilling, and you can’t expect that he had a whole lot more in the tank.  He had pitched a great ballgame up to that point, and pitching to Abreu probably would have meant bringing in the lefty.  I think he liked his chances better with Schilling.  And there was one other factor.  I think he wanted to get Schilling a win.  Francona is known as a player’s manager, and I think he has a bit of a tendency to leave a guy in there in one batter too many, hoping to give the guy an opportunity to get the win.  He did it a few times this year against the Yankees with Dice-K, and it worked in a few of the early games and it didn’t work later in the season.  But I think that was partially behind the decision to pitch to Jeter.  Besides, Abreu isn’t exactly Paul Zuvella.  It’s not like that’s a great option either.

        The other point I thought was interesting was when Mike Francesa made the point that Boston’s lineup without Manny just isn’t scary.  I completely agree.  It’s a good lineup; lots of tough outs.  But that Ortiz/Manny combo is what makes that lineup go boom.  Even when he’s not having the greatest year, he’s always scary.  Manny’s health will be a huge factor as they get closer to the playoffs.

        I was flipping back and forth to Baseball Tonight on ESPN as I watched the end of the Yanks, looking for updates on the Tigers.  There was a good moment as they went through the in-progress Yankee clip.  Karl Ravech was running through the Millar strikeout with the bases loaded (worth noting that I would not have complained if he was given the walk on either one of those first two strike calls).  He made a comment that “The Yankee bullpen has really tightened it up.”  Steve Phillips commented “Well, they’re giving up base runners, but they’re finding ways to sneak out of it.”  Ravech then hit him with, “Man, Steve is just jones-ing for the Yankees not to get in.”  Then Kruk piled on.  “Why don’t you just say you don’t like them?”  The former Met GM and loser of the 2000 World Series to the Yankees just laughed.  But didn’t argue.

         So Detroit finally blinked.  Sooner or later it’s going to get you.  You can’t win every game.  At this moment, the Yankees are closer to Boston than Detroit is to them.  If the Yankees can go 7-5 in their last 12, Detroit has to go 10-1.  And that’s just to force the one-game playoff at the Stadium…  Maybe now’s the time for Detroit to start freaking out to the commissioner’s office at 245 Park Avenue about having the fifth best record in baseball and not being allowed to participate in the playoffs, while all these National League ******* are vying to get in and pull a “Cardinals.”  That’s what Steinbrenner would have done.  Before he checked his marbles, the poor guy.  Or maybe this is just punishment for the Tigers after letting the Cardinals humiliate them last year.  I’d be okay with that.

        Joseph, I completely agree with you.  I’ve always been against “protecting the plate.”  If you start swinging at balls out of the zone because you’re trying to “protect the plate” with two strikes, you’re going to make an out.  So why is hitting the ball weakly by swinging at a pitch that you can’t drive better than letting the ump do his job and call a ball, giving you a better count?  There aren’t too many good outcomes if you swing at a ball out of the zone.  I guess fouling it off is the best one.  But there are so many bad outcomes.  So if you take it, and let the ump do his job, most likely you’ll improve your count.  The umps usually get it right.  And even if he does punch you out, it’s no worse than if you trickled one back to the pitcher.  So we agree.  How about that…  Maybe we can all just get along….

        Seannie, your boy’s up!!  (I don’t want to mention that I’ll be there with the fellas in section 24 tomorrow, because of the obvious issue of my record.  But I’m determined to bring back a win….)