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| Yankees hope for El Duque-like magic from AJ (SI) |
Oh, I forgot to mention--the year is 1998.
Yup, the Yankees were in the exact same scenario in 1998 as they are currently in, though they had to climb back in Game 4 while on the road (they had home-field advantage but after having split at home, they lost Game 3 on the road). It's true that year they had a guy on the mound who inspires a bit more confidence in Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez--but it was still the same dicey situation since El Duque was truly an unknown commodity at that point as well.
The New York Daily News' Peter Botte wrote that day: "'It's gut-check time,' David Cone said after Andy Pettitte and the Yanks were thumped 6-1 here Friday night to fall behind 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS. 'It's a real character test for this team. We've got to get a big game from El Duque and get to the ball back to Boomer (David Wells), who's been our best pitcher all year.'"
The Yankees won Game 4 behind a great-pitched game from El Duque and then went on to win Games 4, 5 and 6 to take the series and then won 4 more in a row to sweep the World Series. 1998 was the last time the Yanks found themselves down 2-1 in an ALCS. Less than 5 hours to go until game time and whether you agree with starting A.J. tonight or not, you have agree that the key for the Yankees win tonight will be their bats awakening which, have been held silent except for one inning in the first game, much like the ALCS of 1998.
The last time the Yankees faced a "must-win" in the playoffs was Game 2 of the World Series last season. Burnett shut down a potent Phillies team that night to right the Yankees ship. Tonight Yankees fans hope he does the same.
3 wins to go for another American League Pennant and 7 more wins for another World Series. The Quest for 28 continues tonight.
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Only difference is that Andy Pettitte got rocked for four Cleveland home runs in that game and El Duque was quite the polar opposite of AJ Burnett. While Burnett has phenomenal stuff, El Duque always had good stuff by got by on guile and his ability to read hitters' weaknesses. El Duque basically defied all of the rules of pitching (too many examples to give, but throwing an ephus pitch with the bases loaded would probably count as one) where as Burnett baffles our mind with his inability to use his incredible abilities. Also, El Duque was coming off of a strong rookie campaign whereas Burnett is coming off of an awful year (statistically one of the worst by a Yankees starting pitcher).
ReplyDeleteHowever, he's the guy to go to tonight.
Ben makes a good point. Unlike El Duque, Burnett just finished one of the worst seasons ever by a Yankees starting pitcher. So it's not like Burnett had an up-and-down second half, or had an inconsistent outing in the ALDS. He has been downright awful over the past several months. He not only sucked in the regular season, but he also sucked in a *simulated* outing against his own team.
ReplyDeleteSo it's not like you don't know what you're gonna get from AJ. You know exactly what's coming -- Texas is going to hit him, and they're going to hit him hard.
By comparison, El Duque had a good season in 1998 (12-4, 3.13 ERA, 113 H in 141 IP, 1.17 WHIP). So you felt a little better about pitching him down 2-1 in the ALCS.
But I do agree that the Yankees need to start hitting. Even if Burnett gives us a solid game (say, 6 IP, 2 ER) we are going to lose if we can't scratch out some runs. Tommy Hunter is no Cliff Lee...
Revisionist History!
ReplyDeleteNo one had faith in El Duque in 1998. Everyone was bemoaning the end of the 114-win team. You can't look at what El Duque did since and say that anyone had faith in his that game.
I'm not saying that they had as much trepidation, but there was no faith.
Here was the New York Post from that day:
"There could be some rust spots in Hernandez' delivery tonight, because of his long layoff and because he is a control pitcher. The cold weather could also slow him down. There are plenty of question marks. This game could be a slugfest..."
Let's not exaggerate things here, Andrew. In that article, the Post appears to present some possible areas of concern: "could be rust spots" and "cold weather could also slow him down" and "could be a slugfest."
ReplyDeleteThose were valid concerns, I'm sure, going into Game 4 in 1998. But looking at them now, I wouldn't say, as you said, that "no one had faith in El Duque in 1998."
Contrast this with 2010. Maybe 3% of baseball fans would bet that AJ is going to have an strong outing tonight. Some are betting over/under on whether AJ can get six outs total. Even the talking heads who think Girardi is making the right move in starting Burnett are prefacing their columns (a la Verducci) with a rundown of just how horrible his numbers have been. The theme of today's coverage has been what a long shot it would be for AJ to pitch well, despite his lousy second half and the long layoff.
Everyone knows that Burnett sucks and that he's gonna blow this game. Deep down, Andrew, even you know that he's awful and unworthy of your trust. I don't think anybody in Yankees Universe feared El Duque even a quarter as much as we currently fear Burnett's tendency to pitch terribly.
I'll agree with your last sentence...though I think we had a lot more to lose in 1998 if we lost that series (114-win team, lost to Cleveland in the playoffs the year before, etc.) than this year. So I think the anxiety level was about even.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason, when I look back at game 4, I don't think I was worried about El Duque because I knew he was a good pitcher. Maybe it was because I was young and naive but for whatever reason I was confident that we would still win.
ReplyDeleteYet when I look back, it's clear that there were certainly some worries. But I also remember Joe Torre explaining after the fact that in typical El Duque fashion, the morning of his start, he was downstairs in the dining room of the hotel serving everyone breakfast. Torre for whatever reason knew that he could put his trust in the Cuban rookie.
And one final thing...be optimistic. Show some faith in the team and the pitcher. That's why we watch sports and get so emotionally involved in the game. We have faith in our team no matter what the odds or statistics show. Is our faith always proven to be valid? Of course not, but we show up year after year and put our faith back in our team.
ReplyDeleteSo for at least one night, I ask everyone reading this to put some faith in AJ Burnett and believe in him. I've spoken to several Yankee fans today, all of whom have expressed their displeasure with AJ Burnett over the course of the entire season, yet for whatever reason, they believe that he will put it together tonight.
Are the odds in AJ Burnett's favor? Of course not. But this is the postseason and there are plenty of moments when you can throw the odds out the door (would you have expected CC Sabathia to pitch as poorly as he did in game 1)?
Well said, Ben. For the record, even though I've been roundly criticizing the decision to start Burnett, I am fully committed to rooting for him to succeed tonight. I will muster as much faith in AJ as I can and hope that he delivers. Because, like Ben said, we are Yankees fans and we have to support each and every player, no matter how good or bad they're playing. The time for debating and theorizing is just about over, now let's hope the Yankees steal back some of the momentum they've lost over the last two games!
ReplyDeletePerhaps Freddy will pull off some magic to help Burnett get through this game unscathed :-)
Well said as well Jay. Hopefully the Bronx crowd will give him a nice hand when he takes the mound.
ReplyDeleteGO YANKS!!!
Also, not sure why but I see Swisher and Cano coming through with the bats tonight. The key for the offense is not to deviate from the approach they took last night. They were patient and actually did a good job of making Lee throw pitches. Lee simply didn't leave any mistakes for them to hit and everything moves within the strike zone (which is why he's so good).
However, against a rookie like Tommy Hunter, their normal strategy will work. He doesn't strike out a ton of batters (just over a 2:1 K:BB ratio), which means that they should see plenty of hittable pitches and/or be able to grind out at bats until they get something to hit.
One more thing. If you remember back to 2003, the Houston Astros no-hit the Yankees using a handful of pitchers. As my mother said, it was "rock bottom." The good news is that you can't do any worse than that. Naturally, the Yankees were able to ground out a late-inning win the next day, which ended an awful month of May and marked the beginning of a Yankee winning streak. Last night was pretty close to rock bottom. They got a gutsy effort from Andy Pettitte, but were manhandled by Cliff Lee and SHUT OUT in a postseason game for the first time in a long time. Things can only be looking up from here.
I am not worried because Micahel Kay told me in the game 1 postgame report on the YES network that the series was over. Therefore I am just a casual observer as to how the rest of the series play out and am already planning my snacks and beer selections for the World Series.
ReplyDeleteLOL...Alex, maybe what Mr. Kay meant was that by losing game 1, the Rangers were guaranteeing themselves the series. I'm sure if it works out that way, he'll say he was right.
ReplyDeleteI would feel a little better tonight if we had Ramiro Mendoza in the pen as the long man instead of Javy Vasquez.
ReplyDelete