[AlNipper49]

Breaking out from the game thread... lots of stuff to discuss from last night. As for me... I still have my post-game boner. Hooya!

[hair and cheese]

To me, the biggest difference between Us and Them is defense. Pedroia's play where he saved a run and threw Jeter out at first was the game changer. Cano doesn't make that play. What a turnaround, that would have been a pretty crappy loss. Every Yankees series I have the same goal, take two out three and hopefully hang one on Mariano. There is only one thing better than 8 in a row...

[AlNipper49]

Their defense just took another hit with Ransom going down. He obviously wasn't the best ever but Berroa is worse...

Burnett hasn't been getting them to hit on the ground as much as he usually does this year, so we'll see what difference this makes. Hopefully someone lines a ball into Teixeira's Maddow-looking vagina.

[Eric Van]

AlNipper49, on Apr 25 2009, 06:13 AM, said:

Their defense just took another hit with Ransom going down. He obviously wasn't the best ever but Berroa is worse...

I think they'll play Pena there for at least the weekend, which means a wash on defense but a further hit on offense.

[AlNipper49]

I'm going off a hazy memory here but wasn't Berroa legitimately fricken awful defensively?

Atleast I won't have to hear Yankee fans in CT trying to patiently explain to me that Ransom was an excellent player because there was a Youtube of him jumping over a chair, or some such silliness.

[OilCanShotTupac]

Great Lupica column on last night's game link:

Quote

Then Jason Bay, the guy who replaced Manny Ramirez in left at Fenway, hit a ball off Mariano Rivera as hard as anyone has ever hit one, at Fenway or anywhere else, the kind of shot Youkilis would hit off Damaso Marte into the Monster seats in the bottom of the 11th to win this amazing game, 5-4, for the Boston Red Sox last night.

"I left a pitch over the plate," Rivera said in front of his locker when it was over, when it was a few minutes before midnight at Fenway.

"Too much of the plate," he said.

"It's hard," Mo Rivera said, "but it happens."

Not like this, not to him.

*****

A blown save that made Fenway sound the way it does for much bigger games than these, much later in the year. You knew it was only a matter of time after that, because sometimes there is an inevitability about these things, the way there was an inevitability to Game 4 after Bill Mueller's single scored Dave Roberts that night.

Youkilis hit the walk-off, Youkilis finished the Yankees off in the bottom of the 11th at Fenway. But Jason Bay did this. To Mo Rivera. Hit him as hard as anybody ever has.

[bankshot1]

hair and cheese, on Apr 25 2009, 08:06 AM, said:

To me, the biggest difference between Us and Them is defense. Pedroia's play where he saved a run and threw Jeter out at first was the game changer. Cano doesn't make that play. What a turnaround, that would have been a pretty crappy loss. Every Yankees series I have the same goal, take two out three and hopefully hang one on Mariano. There is only one thing better than 8 in a row...

Pedroia put on a clinic last night.

[Soxfan in Fla]

Their defense is not very good and neither is their pen. Sox are better in both these scenarios. Their lineup also seems to be taking hits. Not sure how wel they will score this season outside of their little bandbox.

Nice way to start round 1 with the Bay and Youk shots to their collective gut.

[bombdiggz]

Pedroia did indeed put on a defensive clinic last night (he was pretty solid at the plate too) and Bay (again on both sides of the ball) and Youks came up huge to send everyone home happy. I know they certainly turned the night around for me.

But, lets remember it wasn't all roses last night. Drew, Papi, and Taco all left a lot to be desired. The double plays were extremely frustrating. We scored 2 runs, 1 earned off a guy who allowed 13 baserunners in 5.1 IP. I'm going to chalk the double plays up to some really bad luck on BAPIP. But, the thing I found most frustrating was how aggressive some the Sox were in their approach against Chamberlain who did not have very good control last night, as evidenced by his 4 BBs. I was really hoping going into the game that the Sox would be patient in order to get into that bullpen which is now further weakened by the loss of Bruney, but they were not.

I'm specifically remembering a lot of swings on the first pitch of the at bat. Tek did it in the 2nd, Taco in the third, Lowell in the fourth, Drew with one out and two runners on in the fifth. I really think you have to make the opposing pitcher work a lot harder when the pitcher isn't showing very good control especially considering the opposing bullpen. On the flipside, Pedroia, Youk, Green, and Bay were all patient in their approach and were successful.

This post has been edited by bombdiggz: 25 April 2009 - 11:17 AM

[Redkluzu]

For anyone who likes to revel in our victory, reading and comparing what everyone says, on Sox and Dawgs, a list of about 20 places to catch up on last night's glory.


Here's my fave from the New York Post:

Quote

BOSTON -- When Black Friday comes . . .It throws a black drape over the Yankees' universe.

Usually, it doesn't get any worse than a future Hall of Fame closer flushing a save by giving up a two-run, two-out ninth-inning home run to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.

[bombdiggz]

I'm remembering another observation from last night game, funny how a fine comeback win can make you forget somethings, I thought the umpiring last night was brutal.

Could someone please post the graph of pitch location and called strikes when they have a chance, I'm curious to know if the data actually supports that or if was just my angst before the polite canadian blasted that ball to deep center off Rivera. I thought Lester was getting squeezed a bit and it seemed like Oki got squeezed a couple of times too.

http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfx/zoneplot...l&sp_type=1

Ok, so I found the data and it's pretty damn clear. The Sox had a lot of strikes lower in the zone and one right in the middle that were called balls, by my count five. On the other hand, there were 3 pitches thrown by a Red Sox outside of the zone called a strike by Cullbrith, while roughly 9 Yankee pitches outside the zone were called strikes. Cullbrith had a pretty bad night last night, missing about 20 calls and the majority of them in favor of the away aquad.

This post has been edited by bombdiggz: 25 April 2009 - 11:35 AM

[DannyHeep]

hair and cheese, on Apr 25 2009, 08:06 AM, said:

To me, the biggest difference between Us and Them is defense. Pedroia's play where he saved a run and threw Jeter out at first was the game changer. Cano doesn't make that play. What a turnaround, that would have been a pretty crappy loss. Every Yankees series I have the same goal, take two out three and hopefully hang one on Mariano. There is only one thing better than 8 in a row...

Lowell should get some love at third base as well. That was a great catch, which saves at least one run, maybe 2.

[bsj]

DannyHeep, on Apr 25 2009, 12:02 PM, said:

Lowell should get some love at third base as well. That was a great catch, which saves at least one run, maybe 2.

Lowell has done that multiple times this season. Its really amazing how quick his first step in the field seems to be despite his obvious slowing on the base paths.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

I was watching the MLB network last night and they showed the hit that Luis Gonzalez got to end the 2001 World Series. When that happened, I recall thinking that this was basically the only way to beat Rivera. Get a sawed off bloop hit that lands barely over Jeter's head.

I wonder how many saves Rivera has blown like last night. Not with a couple seeing-eye hits, but with an absolute rocket from Bernie Carbo, err, Jason Bay. Bay wasn't up there looking to "keep the rally alive" and "fight off a good pitch" and "put the ball in play". He was up there to belt the living crap out of the ball. It was incredible.

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

LahoudOrBillyC, on Apr 25 2009, 12:25 PM, said:

I was watching the MLB network last night and they showed the hit that Luis Gonzalez got to end the 2001 World Series. When that happened, I recall thinking that this was basically the only way to beat Rivera. Get a sawed off bloop hit that lands barely over Jeter's head.

I wonder how many saves Rivera has blown like last night. Not with a couple seeing-eye hits, but with an absolute rocket from Bernie Carbo, err, Jason Bay. Bay wasn't up there looking to "keep the rally alive" and "fight off a good pitch" and "put the ball in play". He was up there to belt the living crap out of the ball. It was incredible.

Rivera's given up at least two other game-winning home runs to the Sox, Hillenbrand's in April 2002 in the 8th inning, and of course Mueller's in Aug. 2004 on Brawl Day. He also gave up a game-tying HR to Varitek in April of 2004, but the Yankees won that game in the bottom of the 9th.

I've always thought that the way to beat Mo was via right-handed batters. Unless he's really off on a particular day, that cutter is murder on LHB, and saws them off exactly the way he sawed off Drew last night in the 9th. RHB have an OPS of 638 off Rivera over the course of his career; LHB are at 515, with a minuscule .259 slugging percentage.

It's always doubly gratifying to beat Rivera because his career has been magnificent.

[LahoudOrBillyC]

Smiling Joe Hesketh, on Apr 25 2009, 09:30 AM, said:

It's always doubly gratifying to beat Rivera because his career has been magnificent.

He also handles himself magnificently whether he wins or loses, which is one reason he is still here after all these years. When Mariano pitches on Sunday, he's not going to be all rattled because of what happened on Friday.

Relievers who pound their chest or whine about the boos tend to come and go, while Mariano stays.

This post has been edited by LahoudOrBillyC: 25 April 2009 - 11:39 AM

[rembrat]

There was also this game where Vernon Wells hit an absolute monster shot to left center.

I'm just hoping we go through today without hearing that JD Drew tweaked something on that double off of Jeter's bat that sent him crashing into the wall.

This post has been edited by rembrat: 25 April 2009 - 11:51 AM

[Dogman2]

rembrat, on Apr 25 2009, 10:51 AM, said:

There was also this game where Vernon Wells hit an absolute monster shot to left center.

I'm just hoping we go through today without hearing that JD Drew tweaked something on that double off of Jeter's bat that sent him crashing into the wall.

Hometown scorer. That play should have been ruled an error as the ball was in his glove. Drew's AB in the 9th shows he is healthy, he had a couple decent swings but Rivera's cutter demolished him.

[j44thor]

Dogman2, on Apr 25 2009, 01:19 PM, said:

Hometown scorer. That play should have been ruled an error as the ball was in his glove. Drew's AB in the 9th shows he is healthy, he had a couple decent swings but Rivera's cutter demolished him.

No way was that an error, ball glanced off the tip of his glove as he was approaching the wall.
Pretty funny/sad that Drew's best play in the game was hitting the ball just weak enough so that they couldn't turn the double play in the 9th. If he hits that even 10% harder they likely hit into their 5th DP of the game and Drew leaves to a chorus of people not quite chanting his name.

[Nuf Ced]

Pedroia and Lowell made tremendous plays in the field, but so did Bay. His game tying HR in the ninth got alot of ink today, but he also made an important play in the seventh after Okajima had loaded the bases. Cano hit a line drive to left that could have cleared the bases, but Bay made a diving catch to hold the damage on that play to one run.