It’s October, again, and that means play-off baseball, which means that my Yankees are among the field of hopefuls, and even the favorites in the minds of some. If the New Yorkers had better starting pitching and a more reliable bullpen I might agree, but if I had money to wager, I’d bet that the Bronx boys make an early exit.
Game 3, Detroit, and the Yankees are not hitting against Kenny Rogers. The Gambler is mixing a wicked curve with a nice change-up, and the Yankees are flailing. The Yanks have had base runners in every inning but can’t move them because they are incapable of stringing hits together. Shades of last year against the Angels, shades of the great collapse against the Red Sox in 2004, and against the Marlins in 2003. This high-priced offense that lives by the big fly has a nasty habit of going stone cold at the wrong time. A-Rod is absolutely the highest-paid choke-artist in the history of this great game. What’s he hitting in the first three games of this series, .175? The Yanks would be smart to move A-Rod in the off season, to any team that will take on his massive salary and give something of value in return.
Five innings in the books and the Yanks trail by three. Rogers has struck out five. He’s on his game and the momentum has shifted entirely to the Tigers. Giambi just grounded to first for the third out. Another runner stranded.
5-0 now. Detroit has all the mojo, Randy Johnson is off to the showers, and George Steinbrenner must be popping a hemorrhoid. Not much to say, except this looks awfully familiar. Few teams in a best-of-five series have ever come back from a 2-1 deficit, but it looks as if the Yanks are staring down the barrel at that dire option.
Top 7th. Posada strokes a lead-off double to center. The Yanks have had at least one base runner in every inning. Matsui grounds to second, moving Posada to third. Bernie Williams swings like a blind man at a Rogers curve and strikes out; Cano grounds to second to end the inning. The Yanks appear flat and stunned. Rogers is pumped up, Tiger fans, sensing that the night belongs to their club, go apeshit.
Granderson just hit a solo dinger to right for a 6-0 lead. The Yanks are finished. When the Bombers go 1-16 with runners in scoring position, Yankee fans can read the writing on the wall because we’ve seen it so many times over the past four or five years. They could have mailed this dismal performance in from the airport. Should I switch this massacre off? It’s excruciating to watch a $200 million team get shut-out. Joe Morgan, who before this series began said that the Yankees were the best hitting line-up he’d ever seen from top to bottom, must feel like a fool.
Damon just fanned. Jeter works a walk, though he took a pitch that was a borderline strike. Looking toward tomorrow – and what else can we do? -- the Yanks will send Jaret Wright to the mound. How many innings will Clyde’s son last before Torre brings a hook? Abreu goes down looking and A-Rod lofts a lazy fly to right. The futility continues to pile up for the game’s highest-paid player.
Game 3 has been ugly, just ugly. The Bronx boys should feel ashamed. 0 for 18 with runners on base, dominated by a 41-year-old lefthander. They fall 6-0 and trail 2 games to 1. They have dug a deep hole.
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