Way to go Washington Nationals. After so much post-season heartbreak since 2012, this one was not just for those teams but also for their ancestor, the Montreal Expos of 1981 and the heartbreak of "Blue Monday." Now, Dodger fans will never forget Howie Kendrick as long as they live.
Well I took a roll of the dice on Game 4 being a day game, but I am stuck going to an 8 PM game Wednesday that I may not see the finish of (last train leaves 12:56 AM and I need an hour to get from the Bronx to Penn Station by the D Train). Had I picked Game 3, I'd have gotten the afternoon game. We'll see how things go (if the Yankees get swept I won't stay for the finish!)
Tanaka opens tomorrow in Houston and I like that move. Hicks and Sabathia will likely be back too.
Meantime, glad to see the Nats take Game 1 in St. Louis.
Aaron Boone flushes away Game 2 with his idiotic over-reliance on sabermetrics and overusing the push-button bullpen strategy and in the process not only loses a chance to put a devastating stranglehold on the Astros, he gives them a momentum shifter that could result in them sweeping out the rest of the ALCS.
I utterly despise what Brian Cashman has done in constructing a would-be championship team with zero starting pitching and tonight his refusal to get quality starting pitching for the Yankees bit them in the ass big time.
Aaron Boone flushes away Game 2 with his idiotic over-reliance on sabermetrics and overusing the push-button bullpen strategy and in the process not only loses a chance to put a devastating stranglehold on the Astros, he gives them a momentum shifter that could result in them sweeping out the rest of the ALCS.
I utterly despise what Brian Cashman has done in constructing a would-be championship team with zero starting pitching and tonight his refusal to get quality starting pitching for the Yankees bit them in the ass big time.
Eric, your reactions to Yankees losses remind me of the Vin Scully line, "Losing feels worse than winning feels good."
The next three games are at The Stadium, and while I don't forsee a Yankee home sweep, I believe the Baby Bombers will take two out of three there.
I'll admit I didn't like what I saw from New York last night, though; cracks in the armor, and too many Yankee pitchers on that current staff remind me too much of Phil "Home Run" Hughes--and that's never a good thing.
The slavish devotion of Boone and Cashman to Sabermetrics is what cost them. They were wasting better relief pitchers earlier in the game for no reason other than the stat book, which is why they bring in Ottovino in the 5th when Green should have finished the inning. Instead, Ottovino on his first pitch gives up the tying HR that began the endless torture afterwards. He wastes Sabathia for one batter only in what reeked of an All Star Game type appearance than a playoff one (if Sabathia is going to be on the roster I don't want him brought in to face one batter only) and then throwing rookie Jonathan Loaisaga in that situation was insanity. Here, they went by the stat book and overlooked the fact a rookie in that environment is not going to be up to snuff. Meantime, Cashman's failure to get either Patrick Corbin or Dallas Keuchel really exposes their weakness.
As if this wasn't bad enough I learn that Game 4 is likely going to be rained out and I have to rearrange plans (I have to get help from an agency to look after my father and all this jerking around doesn't help that).
Yesterday was dreadful for the Yankees. Ottavino stunk again and the team isn't hitting a lick in key situations. The Astros exposed the Yankees as a team that is much too one-dimensional in offense and their lack of starting pitching that can give six to seven innings reliably is going to kill them ultimately.
Rained out today so I go tomorrow.
Meantime, I'm glad the Nats buried the franchise curse that went back to Montreal and Rick Monday in 1981.
I went to an awful game in which the image of Sabathia's career ending seemed to be a metaphor for this team's fade-out.
Tonight they salvaged some dignity by sending it back to Houston and getting to Verlander in the only inning they had a chance to do so and making it stick. Paxton threw 112 pitches which not one Yankee pitcher had done all year long. Perhaps that will teach Boone something he hasn't learned.
Houston is still in the driver's seat. I'm not going back with any swagger but Houston I think has to feel just a tinge of unease since if the Yankees can steal Game 6, then Game 7 would be a free-for-all but Houston has the more rested bullpen.
A friend of mine who is a lifelong Yankees fan sent me this text: "No dynasty with Stanton and Sanchez...Sanchez is no Johnny Bench..." (we had been discussing the 1975-76 Reds)
That "dynasty" word keeps getting bandied about, but these players don't compare favorably with Jeter, Bernie, Posada, Pettitte, and Mo.
Stanton couldn't even DH or pinch hit? 300 million dollar bust; what a joke. Can the Yankees trainers not get this guy upright for one plate appearance?
Two consecutive 100-win seasons and no pennant to show for it. Heads will and should roll. Sanchez, Encarnacion, Gregorious, Stanton...all ugh.
1-The fact that Brian Cashman screwed up the hopes for the future after 2017 by firing Girardi who should have stayed as manager. The reasons he fired Girardi were because Cashman wanted a puppet slave to his BS Sabermetrician standards instead of a real manager, and because Girardi rode Sanchez hard. Well guess what? A coddled Sanchez has regressed completely the last two seasons and become worthless, whereas the Sanchez who was ridden hard DELIVERED in the 2017 postseason multiple times and was a legit threat in the order.
2-That Brian Cashman has lifetime tenure from a wimpy owner who doesn't want to be compared to his father and thus will never be man enough to fire someone.
3-That instead of wasting time getting deadweight like Encarnacion, Cashman didn't go full-press to get either Keuchel or Stroman and give the Yankees a legitimate starting rotation.
4-That Cashman has incompetent training and conditioning people who couldn't keep this team healthy.
5-That Cashman was clueless about the time bomb that was Domingo German.
6-That Stanton wasn't starting last night with the season on the line.
7-That Boone was clueless as to how bad Ottavino had become and then didn't realize that Green's gopher ball in Game 3 didn't make him an automatic against the Houston lineup any longer.
8-WHY THE HELL DID SANCHEZ BREAK CHAPMAN's RHYTHM BY GOING TO THE MOUND AFTER HE STRUCK OUT THE FIRST TWO BATTERS???? Right after that, Chapman lost his fastball completely and there went the game.
This is nothing more than a Sabermetric team designed to beat up Baltimore and win Rotisserie stat games instead of winning the WS. Cashman should have gotten pitching after 2017 and instead he loaded the Yankees down with another albatross contract even worse than Jacoby Ellsbury was (and HE is still under contract one more year!) And when he gets pitchers he never judges the talent right which is why we end up with crap like Sonny Gray instead of going for studs. He would rather take a scrap-heap pitcher and gamble that hidden Sabermetric formulas will make him a star than get a true ace. As long as he is the GM they will never win and I wish the ghost of George could resurface to fire him and get a real GM of the old school in place.
Completely agree with every one of your points. The Yankee fan at work and I had the exact same discussion regarding Girardi and Sanchez as well as the competence of the team training staff which is an aspect of professional sports we shouldn't even have to think about.
It's one thing to lose a series that's been well played by the players and well managed and conditioned. It's quite another thing altogether when there are so many screw ups and front office meddling and the result is another wasted year.
IIRC, Chapman threw that slider to Altuve...he should be throwing his best stuff (98 mph fastball). That last pitch was a belt-high hanger right over the plate; just awful.
As always, it'll be interesting to see what the Yankees do in the winter offseason; it's going to be a cold one.
If there is no ace starter acquired in the off-season and a legitimate rotation in place (I NEVER want to see the "opener" concept used again) this team will not win. It comes down to that.
This article summarizing all the pitching aces Cashman and Hal passed on in the last five years because of their luxury tax obsessions (fxxxing Jacoby Ellsbury cost them more than once!) is enough to make you scream. Instead, Cashman went for second-rate scrap-heaps like Pineda, Gray etc.
Eric, were there ever official books for the 1999-2001 World Series? I know about the ones from 1992-98 by Woodford Publishing. I've seen those Sports Illustrated Yankees books that were offered along with subscriptions to the magazine, but IIRC those are full-season recaps rather than specifically WS.
The defense was just incredible in this game. 
