WITHIN OUR GRASP

What do you get when you pit two teams with shaky bullpens but who won’t quit against each other?  Another nailbiter of a game which, fortunately for the Yankees, will qualify for Yankees Classics, as the Yanks took Game Four 7-4 with a clutch two-out, 3-run 9^th inning.

Joe Blanton did all that could be reasonably expected of him: he kept the game close, and gave his team a chance to win it.  When the Phils inched their way back to tie the game at 4-4 in the 8^th, the Phils had effectively neutralized the advantage the Yanks had by starting their ace, Sabathia, against the Phils’ #4 pitcher. 

In doing so, however, the stage for a showdown between the two teams’ bullpens had been set.  The Yanks have questionable middle relief, but the greatest closer in the history of the game in Mariano Rivera.  The Phils, by contrast, have fair-to-middling relief, and a fallen giant for a closer in Brad Lidge, who was so dominant in 2008, but has been such a liability in 2009. 

The Yanks’ bullpen faltered first in Game One, and then again last night when Joba gave up a game-tying homerun in the 8^th, despite striking out the side. 

But then with the game tied 4-4 and two outs in the top of the 9^th, it was the Phillies’ turn to have a bullpen nightmare.  In what looked at times like a surreal turn-of-events (particularly the part where Damon stole second and then third in the same play when he saw that nobody was covering it), the Yanks surged ahead 7-4, and yet another Lidge meltdown had plunged the Phillies into a 3 games to 1 hole. 

With no room left for error, and the dreaded Lidge meltdown still fresh in mind, it is possible that the Phils’ spirit is broken, and that they will go quietly tonite in Game Five, Cliff Lee notwithstanding.  But if their spirit is not broken, the Phils still have a helluva ball club; and every pitcher they face for the rest of the Series will be on 3-days’ rest. 

Still, with A.J. Burnett on the mound tonite and all the momentum going their way, the Yankees will be primed to end the Series in short order.  Like Blanton, all A.J. has to do is keep the game close.  And there’s nothing to say that A.J. just couldn’t outduel Lee; his stuff at times has been as good as anyone else’s in the game. 

With that in mind, I’ll make a bold prediction and say: expect the Yankees to jump out to an early lead.  I know Cliff Lee is pitching, and that he was great in Game One.  But baseball is a funny game, with momentum and inertia that is bigger than just one pitcher.  I expect that the Phils will put themselves into another hole tonite before they start digging their way out of it.  The key is for the Yanks to pounce and pounce hard, keep adding the runs, and never give the Phils a chance to get up.

View gormanb's Profile      Subscribe via RSS