Three Wins and a Nice Comeback Won't Win You a Series

Boy, that was ugly. I don't know if would have been better ending 4-0. In the end, the Angels can breathe a sigh of relief because they can play another day and the Yankees are heading home to play in the Angels instead of getting ready to play the Phillies.

The Yankees went down 4-0 between "Bad Burnett". A.J. Burnett has times when he looks like he'll never get anyone out. Today was that day. He gave up four runs before he even recorded an out (tied a major league record). The Yankees bats stayed silent for a while but Burnett settled in and pitched an OK game. I'd give him a C+

It was just a matter of time before there was a bad managing move and Mike Scioscia was the first to make that. He took out a protestful John Lackey (who probably should have been out of damages way had it not been for a borderline ball call to Jorge Posada) and unbelievably turned over an elimination game to Darren Oliver. And he promptly let the Yankees right back into it. And more. Jesse Spector has some great details:

Darren Oliver became the first pitcher in playoff history to inherit a bases-loaded situation, allow all three runners to score and then give up three runs of his own without retiring a batter. The last pitcher to fail to retire a batter and get charged with a blown save in the playoffs was the Mariners’ Arthur Rhodes, who gave up four hits and a walk in Game 6 of the 2000 ALCS at Yankee Stadium.

It was a game that had many similarities of that 2000 ALCS Game which I will remember for a hoarse Michael Kay telling us all to get our tokens ready for the Subway Series.

But in the end, the Yankees could not hold on to the lead. First, Joe Girardi made another one of his curious bullpen moves. Instead of reverting to his formula of Joba/Marte/Hughes/Coke/Rivera in the late innings or even trying to extend Rivera, Joe decided to leave Burnett in the game for the bottom of the 7th. The first guy reached base and you had to feel like that was that for Burnett. But maybe due to being second-guessed for overmanaging so much in the past few games, Girardi decided to let him face another batter. And he too reached base.

Finally, he went to the bullpen and summoned the now-reliable Damaso Marte who did as well as expected in that situation, getting two outs and only allowing one run. So it was 6-5 and Phil Hughes, the set-up man extraordinaire during the regular season was on to face the meat of the Angels lineup (I won't kill Joe for not bringing in Mariano Rivera in this situation since Hughes really needed to get them one out, but with a potential to have close to a week off, he couldn't bring him on for 7 outs? ). Hughes walked Torii Hunter and then got Vladamir Guerrero to look silly on two breaking balls to get ahead 1-2 in the count. Hughes shook off Jorge once, twice, then three times before finally saying yes. Jorge asked for a fastball high. Hughes left one right down the middle of the plate that Guerrero #fisted into center for a tie game. The Angels would tack on another and lead 7-6.

Side note: can we not learn anything from the Red Sox failures? Jonathan Papelbon taught us how not to pitch to Vlad and yet we continue to leave him pitches to hit when he has two strikes. Why?

It would stay that way into the top of the 9th. Despite a great inning from Jered Weaver in relief, Scioscia decided to go to his 'pen and summon his sometimes-shaky closer, Brian Fuentes. Johnny Damon lined out. Mark Teixeira--who had finally gotten off the snide earlier with a huge bases clearing double--flied out to right. And with two outs and no one on in a one-run game, Brian Fuentes intentionally walked A-Rod representing the tying run (this was the first time in Major League playoff history). Hideki Matsui followed with a tough at-bat and walked. Robinson Cano was hit by a pitch.

It was all set up. Nick Swisher, the only Yankee starter to have yet to knock in a run in the series, the only starter who really hasn't gotten back on track was up at the plate. He fell behind early but fought back to get the count to 3-2 where he seemed to have all his counts during 2009. He got EXACTLY what he would have crushed all season when he was in the zone: a 90-mile-per-hour fastball right down the middle. But in the end, all he could manage was a pop-up to short and the game was over.

The Yankees and Angels will come back to New York. Mike Scioscia will escape blame for one day while Joe Girardi will be left questioning why he pulled a Grady Little. With a pennant on the line, it is a fair question (and "the rally monkey made me do it" is not a fair answer). Hopefully, unlike Little's Red Sox, the Yankees can find a way to still make it to the World Series. But boy have the two losses in this series been painful.

The Comeback Kids had a great comeback again tonight, but it's still a long way back to New York. And still a long way until the World Series.


River Ave Blues goes through the turning points of the seesaw Game 5. Steve Politi of the Newark Star Ledger believes that this should be the end of the at-bats Nick Swisher gets in the ALCS (also where graphic came from). Marc Carig of the Ledger writes about Hughes' disappointing performances. Tyler Kepner writes about how close the Yankees were to their 40th pennant.