The Yankee Clipper: Same Song, Different Verse in Game 2

Déjà vu all over again (as ESPN's Rob Neyer said: "this is what these Yankees do"). The Yankees seem to have a formula against these Twins: get behind, come back when the starter tires, add some insurance against the bullpen if possible, and then hand the ball to Mariano Rivera for the save. Jay had some great statistics earlier on how great Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte have been, but let's look at some of the rest of the Yankees:

The hands of Lance Berkman and A-Rod form a "V" for Victory (ABC)

1. Sir Lancealot. The debate about whether Lance Berkman is now a "true Yankee" will continue, but last night was sure a nice way to stick it to all those Berkman haters with a defining moment. Berkman hit a monster home run into the Twins bullpen and followed that up with a monster double into centerfield. With Marcus Thames hitting against lefties, they needed Berkman to step up against righties and going opposite field with that much authority was his way to announce that he has arrived. Acquiring fading stars at the trade deadline is a hit-or-miss sort of thing, but Brian Cashman's three this year (Berkman, Kerry Wood and Austin Kearns), have each played a roll in the 2010 team. Rebecca Glass of TYU says that Cashman was made to look like a genius last night. As Nick Swisher said last night: Pettitte and Berkman was the "Texas Two-Step".
2. Was that Frank Dreblin behind the plate? I kid about the Naked Gun umpire, but, really, the strikezone last night was just as bad. People point to what should have been a strike three call to Lance Berkman before his double (and they would be right), but the second pitch of the at-bat was called a strike when PitchFX shows that it was clearly outside. Yahoo's Jeff Passan says that the Twins misgivings are justified, but Joe Pawlikowski of FanGraphs says that the umpire was crappy no matter who you were rooting for last night. The Yankees got a rough call in the first game which seemed to signify to some that the postseason had truly begun, but the truth is that for all those calls for replay, things like strikes and checked swings (the bugaboo for Joe Maddon and the Rays) wouldn't be reviewable (though the only run from the San Francisco-Atlanta game last night that was a clear out would have been). Here's my solution to improving the blown calls: hire better umpires who adhere to a real strikezone. The rest of America had layoffs and streamlining and became more efficient--it's time that Major League Baseball did the same with its umpires.
3. Nasty, Knee-buckling Wood. As Steven Goldman of Pinstriped Bible wrote it was Pettitte and Mo last night--same as it always was. But in between those two was another Cash-money acquisition: Kerry Wood. He had a great inning, but no pitch more vintage Kerry Wood than a knee-buckling curveball to strike out J.J. Hardy to begin the inning. Larry from Yankeeist asks "how about that Kerry Wood?" Wood has a $11 million option for next year which the Yankees probably won't pick up, but he's been worth every dollar so far in 2010--and has become the set-up man for Mo. Christina Kahrl of Baseball Prospectus ended her post on yesterday's action with these two awesome sentences: "The Yankees just kept banging away, adding a third run to their lead in the ninth while throttling the life out of a mostly lifeless offense with another Kerry Wood-to-Mariano handoff. In an evening echoing with calls for machine-like efficiency, the Yankees gave us exactly that."
4. Better than American Idle. After one-hitting the Yankees through 3 innings, it seemed that former Yankee disabled list veteran Carl Pavano was going to deal again against his old team, but after chipping away with one in the fourth and one in the fifth, they finally broke through against a spent Pavano with two in the 7th to knock him out of the game. This was the second game in a row that Ron Gardenhire left his gassed starter in too long and it cost him, but nothing made Yankee fans more happy than to do it against Carl Pavano and his horrible porn mustache. 
5. Drinks with friends. Besides the win, the coolest part of last night for me was watching the game among friends from the blog and Twitter world. Present were Ben, Mike and Joe from River Ave Blues, Larry from Yankeeist, and @leokitty and @jaydestro from Twitter among others. It was a lively bar in general (with "Hip, Hip, Jorge" chants), but it was fun to watch it with a group of people who I've been "watching" games from afar for a while now. We got frustrated at the amount of runners the Yankees left on base, wondered why the Yankees weren't more aggressive on the bases, and :oohed and ahhed" at Wood's breaking ball. Good times, good game and good people.

One win away from another ALCS (which would be the 9th of the Derek Jeter era). The Twins home-field advantage is now erased and the Yankees are in control of this series with Phil Hughes in Game 3 and CC Sabathia waiting in the wings for a possible Game 4 if necessary. Two wins down, nine to go as the Yankees continue the Quest for 28 later today.