Final Score: Yankees 4, Angels 3 (13)
1st and 2nd, one out, bottom of the 13th in a fascinating game that was 3-3, when Melky Cabrera bounced one to the left of 2Bman Maicer Izturis, who spun and threw to second -- or sort of in that general direction, wildly, allowing the winning run to score. Here's why it was such an exceptional bonehead play by Izturis, given that there was no chance for a DP:
The only advantage of getting the lead runner instead of just taking the routine out on Cabrera at 1B is having 1st & 3rd, instead of 2nd & 3rd, with two out. Either way the winning run is at 3B but not only that, twice already in this exact situation the runner has not been held at 1B and has jogged to second base uncontested. Had Izturis gotten the force at second, undoubtedly Cabrera would have trotted to 2B anyway.
But then we're talking about the team whose closer grooved an 0-2 pitch to Alex Rodriguez leading off the bottom of the 11th with two pinch-runners due to follow in the order, a team whose cleanup hitter has changed the use of the word "bad" in Bad Vlad (Vladdy stranded 8 runners tonight, 6 in scoring position), a team that returns to Anaheim in need of a heck of a rally monkey.
Great game overall. Fun, tense, interesting, sometimes even well played. See you tomorrow for Game 3 of the NLCS!
0 recs | 56 comments
Priceless
a great night for Schadenfreude
I’m thinking of watching Dodgers-Phillies in a sports bar tomorrow…anybody been to Meridian in Berkeley?
OaklandSi - October 17, 2009
there is an "E" in angel
OaklandSi - October 17, 2009
And two in YankEE!!
BERRYJO - October 17, 2009
two in jEtEr
Future Ed - October 17, 2009
Ironically, none in Cano.
Nico - October 17, 2009
OH I can fix that....CanoE
BERRYJO - October 17, 2009
But there's no 'slide'...
…in Giambi — Jeremy, that is.
LowcountryJoe - October 17, 2009
Halos Heaven
is truly a Hieronymous Bosch painting come to life right now, it’s must see-TV with nearly 7000 comments on the game only to crap the bed so Izturistically at the end, ruh roh. Let’s just say that if Brian Fuentes could somehow be digitally fed into HH right now via fibre-optic cable, they’d pretty much string him up and install Jepsen or Arredondo or Donnie Moore as the closer.
Where O where is Howie Kendrick, doesn’t he murder the Yankees? Haven’t seen him yet but his (notoriously terrible) defense can’t be any worse than Izturis’ has been.
emperor nobody - October 17, 2009
Don't they have someone else who can DH??
BERRYJO - October 17, 2009
Abreu
Mathews and his $50M in right
Future Ed - October 17, 2009
I have not been impressed with Vlad thus far in this series this series
he’s not having a good year…..stats are all down….injuries and all.
BERRYJO - October 17, 2009
Take a look at Vlad's overall Slugging in Postseason play...
Here’s the line, with nearly 100 ABs, 24 hits, 2 2Bs and 1HR: .250 / .339 / .302.
.302!!!! He hasn’t hit a homer since 2004.
Compare this to the much-maligned A-Rod, who may have sucked the last three years (only 1 HR in three years), but in 2004 with the Yanks went .320 / .414 / .600 with 5 doubles and three HRs. And he hit well enough in ’97 and ’00 with Seattle. With his performance this year, his total postseason line is .289 / .377 / .524
Halos Heaven is right. He needs to be sat for HK.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
Why would anybody pitch to Vlad in the post season from 2004-2009?
Its not that he sucks in the post season, the Angels offense is bad and you don’t let their best player beat you.
Future Ed - October 18, 2009
Well, he doesn't draw a lot of BBs...
Roughly, 1 for every 10 ABs, and that is not very different from his postseason totals.
Last night’s radio, if I remember it right, was joking once they had an 0-2 pitch count to Vlad, saying “Well, you don’t throw it over the plate since if you throw a ball, he’ll just go after it anyway. Maybe you just throw it in the dirt. But you can’t throw it in the dirt, there’s a runner on third who’ll score on a wild pitch.”
What happened? They threw it in the dirt, runner scores. I got a big laugh out of that.
But, the point is, that (by reputation? I don’t have stats, here) he swings at everything, so it’s not clear what it means to “pitch around him” if you keep the ball within a foot of the strike zone.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
I think if you literally throw the pitch around him,
you’re in pretty good shape.
Nico - October 18, 2009
We'll have to wait for the WS and Padilla for that... If the AngEls can shapE up.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
Too bad Figgins didn't get that ball cleanly
The runner would have been out at second since near third base is in the neighborhood of second.
DMOAS - October 17, 2009
Hi-o
Future Ed - October 18, 2009
The runner would have been out at home if he'd have collected the ball cleanly.
OldhamA - October 18, 2009
it'd have been close
but yes. it looked like the runner at 3rd hesitated just enough (and was had Frank Thomas-type of speed), that figgins could have thrown him out at the plate.
rollierollieOxenfree - October 18, 2009
I really don't get it
Angels are playing for a World Series bid and A’s fans are stuck here micro-analyzing their mistakes, rejoicing almost.
Meanwhile, all of Beane’s trades & moves will produce, according to plan, something in 2011. We don’t know what something is but it should happen in 2011. For me, I can’t wait until all these awesome minor league prospects are traded for more awesome minor league prospects. Then, in 2011, I can watch the playoffs and criticize the teams that are actually still playing.
truk - October 18, 2009
So we should sit around and bitch about Billy Beane all day, instead of, you know, actually watching baseball?
walk off bunt - October 18, 2009
Don't you know?
The only reason to watch baseball is so that you can then appeal to vague anecdotal gripes instead of actually researching your arguments.
It’s not like it’s entertaining or something.
PaulThomas - October 18, 2009
What should people be doing instead?
Flashfire - October 18, 2009
watch a 5-0 NFL team go up against a 4-0 NFL team?
…or, just watch the Raiders.
rollierollieOxenfree - October 18, 2009
how does one watch a raiders game?
assuming its at home and you live in the bay area
Future Ed - October 18, 2009
touche'
rollierollieOxenfree - October 18, 2009
gross 2 games for the Angels
I don’t like them, but I wish they’d play better baseball. It’s more like the Angels are losing than it is the Yankees are winning. It’s more fun to see teams win because of things they did rather than things the other team messed up (well unless it’s a beautiful thing like the sulk-off, of course). Ah well there are still plenty of games left! Hopefully there will be fewer defensive blunders in warmer weather haha
drmmerchk - October 18, 2009
Anyone else sick of Fox?
Would it kill Buck and McCarver to call the game evenly and not root for the Yankees? I am sick of these two, who ALWAYS seem to root for the favorite. I am pretty sure Buck wants to bl*w A-Rod.
oaklandfan89 - October 18, 2009
a three-some with Jeter as well
anytime a camera was free, they spun it to Jeter.
Isn’t it worth looking at one of the other 49 players occasionally?
MobiusKlein - October 18, 2009
Did you catch Jeter's error
Jeter’s error, allowing the runner to get on base in the 5th (or was it the 7th – I had the TV on half the time)? Hardly a scolding was ever mentioned on TV.
rollierollieOxenfree - October 18, 2009
Which one? The one where he completely botched the DP,
the one where he made a routine throw to 1B in the dirt, or the routine grounder where his throw pulled Teixeira 5 feet off the bag?
Nico - October 18, 2009
I don't have t.v., so I don't know what I would do, but...
… I LOVE listening to the games on RADIO! They are very exciting, the announcers rock (sometimes color commentary is weak), and I can do other things while i listen. I can’t imagine staring at a screen for 5 hours, 10 minutes last night.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
I was standing by the screen
before heading out to the garage when the E happened. Sure, I got a bit of a “schrad” moment for the Angels – well more than a bit, but damn, tough way to loose having gotten that far – and I well noted my green team has not gotten that far in three years.
ak_A - October 18, 2009
I haven't hear anyone talk about . . .
. . . Figgins’s second “error” on the last play. Yes, Izturis blew the throw to second but if Figgins picks up the overthrow cleanly, he’d have had Hairston out by a mile at home. Hairston had just rounded third when Figgins got to the ball, stabbed at it, dropped it, and then threw home. If he picks it up right away, they might still be playing (or at least it might have gone another inning or two before the Halos made another error to give the Yankees the game).
camperdog - October 18, 2009
it was still gonna be a tough play
Because he needed to plant and then throw. But yeah, it could have been made.
I’m sure McCarver will remark on Monday how Jeter makes that play all the time, and it shows the experience of the Yankees, or some such BS.
What got me was the DP non-call in the 10th. The Yankees won anyway, but his foot was so close to the bag. Between this and the Mauer call in the Twins series, it’s like the Yankees are getting the benefit of the doubt.
cuppingmaster - October 18, 2009
Nah it wouldn't have been close. Easy throw home if he collects the ball cleanly.
OldhamA - October 18, 2009
Are you talking about the Aybar thing?
that wasn’t even close. On a traditional “neighborhood” play the shortstop come in contact with the bag and moves off it as the ball gets to him and throws in one motion. This play like the DP earlier in the game, Aybar caught the ball flat footed by the bag, shifted his legs and threw. He never was in contact with the bag. There is no way cabrerra can be called out on that because at no time during the play did Aybar touch 2nd, not before the throw, not while he had the ball, not after he threw it.
I can’t even think of why he turns the DP that way. it seems to take more time.
Future Ed - October 18, 2009
I think it's to use 2B as a shield from the runner
Nico - October 18, 2009
there are other ways to do that while stepping on 2nd base
Future Ed - October 18, 2009
I just put a new post explaining my position on that call/play...
Nico - October 18, 2009
Huh?
The one genuinely obvious blown call turned a Yankees’ first-and-third-one-out situation into a third-two-outs situation.
[That’s not even mentioning the fact that the “non-call” of which you speak is a preposterous nullification of the actual rules of baseball (which in turn only exists because of ANOTHER preposterous rule, the one allowing takeout slides).]
PaulThomas - October 18, 2009
I agree that Jeter was safe, but it was so close
that I didn’t think it was a blatantly blown call, just the wrong one.
Nico - October 18, 2009
As I heard it on the radio...
… even watching the replay over again a few times, they couldn’t say with assurance if the foot was off the bag, and in such a case, there’s no real call to abuse an ump. (Am I right in thinking you’re discussing the play at first base?)
paris7 - October 18, 2009
Jeter's DP. But the issue was that Jeter beat the throw
It was bang-bang, but replays showed he just beat it.
Nico - October 18, 2009
I'm not saying it was an easy call to get correct on the field
I am saying that there was indisputable evidence that the call on the field was wrong, which is more than you can say for any of the other questionable calls.
“Umpiring difficulty” and “correctness” are different concepts (although obviously umpires will tend to get more difficult calls wrong as a general rule).
PaulThomas - October 18, 2009
Oh, 5th Inning Play, I didn't hear that one. Thanks for the clarification!
paris7 - October 18, 2009
I know these guys make millions, but...
… it was frackin 1:10 a.m., and they’d been playing in cold and some rain for over 5 hours. It’s too bad the Angels caved first, but you have to figure someone will cave eventually. Baseball, being the game of inches that it is, magnifies small errors into big bloops (referring specifically to Figgins, here).
This is very different than Fuentes trying to blow an 0-2 by A-Rod for a high strike, as Nico reminds us, with two pinch-runners due up next. Absolutely in-ex-cus-a-ble. But all due respect for A-Rod for muscling it 314+ feet.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
I still don't know why people keep assuming the ball was right down the line. It's not 314 plus a few feet where he hit it
It was still a cheapie, but anyway.
Flashfire - October 18, 2009
My bottom line, anyway, is that pitching in that ballpark,
to that hitter, with an 0-2 count, Mathis/Fuentes decided that a high fastball away would be a smart choice. They were wrong long before A-Rod swung the bat.
Nico - October 18, 2009
It ws definitely the wrong pitch to throw in that situation
Flashfire - October 18, 2009
I should have put the + of...
… 314+ in bold, as I didn’t know how best to estimate it.
paris7 - October 18, 2009
Ryan Sweeney could have caught that ball
A taller man in RF or someone with Michael Jordan-like jump ability could have snagged that hit.
rollierollieOxenfree - October 18, 2009
Halo Heaven
Wow, that’s some place to see! They are brutal. You’d think it was As fans talking about Crosby or something, the vitriol is so thick. Lots of discussion on Mathis calling that pitch and Fuentes just going along with him.
I wonder what they would say if they looked at our game thread from last night, and all the rooting going on. We sure did get dirty. I feel better this morning, showered and ready to root for the National League, for the rest of this year!
paris7 - October 18, 2009
Oh, wow.
Although, I’ve got to say, this picture on Halos Heaven is all kinds of awesome.
danmerqury - October 18, 2009
Priceless!
oaklandfan89 - October 18, 2009
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