Wow. Tonight, nothing happens. No beer gets thrown at the TV. No howls into the firmament. No pain. No torture. No feeling at all. Calm before the storm.
Enjoy it. Savor it. This could be the last enjoyable night of the 2018 Yankee season. And if so, if everything ends tomorrow, it will be remembered as a lost, torturous year.
So let's be happy tonight. If you think about it, the Yankees will be playing in a meaningful game on October 3, which means they have already outlasted the Giants and Jets. If you consider that the Knicks, Nets, Islanders and Rangers don't count, the Yankees tomorrow night will carry the entirety of NYC sports on their shoulders. Radio sports call-in shows need the Yankees to survive. Eli Manning isn't going to cut it.
So when Boston bros accuse you of being a fat-cat Yankee fan, remind them that Gotham - beyond the Yankees - is a desert for pro sports teams. I mean, jeeze, the most interesting NYC team in November might be Syracuse University football, which calls itself "New York's college football team." Take that, Fordham.
So... tonight, we chew our food, hug the kids, polish our juju totems and prepare for... tomorrow.
Tomorrow...
Apparently, Manager Boonie has made his decision, and he'll roll the 12-sided die with Luis Severino - a dungeon or a dragon. If that choice stands - (I don't believe anything until it happens) - it's a gut call.
It means Boone backs a pitcher who didn't last two innings in last year's Wild Card, and who wilted against Oakland just four weeks ago. On September 5, Sevy gave up 6 runs in 2.2 innings, including four in the first. An abomination. Boone must figure that Severino, his reputation on the line, will throw like a banshee. But the problem with such a volatile starter is simple: If he throws one pitch too many, it can be the game. And in the second half of 2018, he's become Doctor Severino and Mister Pineda.
It's as if the ghost of Pineda roams the Yankee clubhouse, occasionally stealing pitchers' bodies. Sevy can look unhittable through four, and retire the first two in the fifth, and - kaboom - we're suddenly down 4-0.
My guess: If Sevy gives us four solid, Boone goes batter-to-batter. If someone bloops a single, time to go. The fifth inning could be Mean Chad Green, our most dominating pitcher of late. The six would be David Robertson, who's been a crap-shoot. The seventh is - God help us - Dellin Betances, and then the still shaky Aroldis Chapman in the eighth. My guess is that Zach Brittain will close, because the last thing you want is Chapman throwing bombs to the backstop, with not even Chasen Shreve left to bring in and pray for a miracle. Someone has to get that final out.
Also, something tells me that if Boone need one game-on-the-line out, we'll see CC Sabathia lumbering in from the pen. If we're going down, let's go with the big guy.
And I cannot escape the terror that our vaunted Yankee lineup - solid from one through nine - will leave too many runners in scoring position.
Last year, we survived. This year, I think we're going down.
My prediction: Oakland 4, Yankees 2. Hope to God I'm wrong.
Tuesday, October 2, 2018
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OAK 3, NYY 5. Tie game at 0 until the fourth when The A’s jump on the board with a 3-run HR by Davis, effectively ending Sevy’s night.
Ice Cream Sandwich will start the offense in the 5th with a solo HR. Judge will follow suit with a solo HR in the 6th followed by a solo shot by American hero Luke Voit in the 7th to tie it up.
Our bullpen will be masterful. Tie game until the bottom of the 10th when American Hero Luke Voit steps to the plate with a runner on and hits a walk-off HR to win it, 5-3, his second of the night. He is Giambi 2.0.
Betances and Britton will be electric from the pen.
Stanton will go 0-5 with four K’s in his playoff debut, before absolutely turning it on in the ALDS. And leading the Yankees to a series win over Boston, along with masterful performances by Voit, Happ, Judge and Didi.
The rookies (Andujar and Gleyber) won’t wake up offensively until the ALCS and the World Series. Andujar will win WS MVP when the NYY roll over the Cubs in 5 games...:
Yesterday I stepped up to the plate and made 19 predictions. If Severino starts I am now 0/1. As any bonafide C+ student will tell you, I can still ace this.
Just in case I go 0/19 and my Baseball Seasonal Affective Disorder kicks in sometime tomorrow night I have loaded up on my Official Patron Saints of Winter, John (for his incomparable Wort and less than comparable basketball team) and Joseph (because at heart I am still a child - plus who doesn't like orange aspirin?)
I'm not ready to fill my evenings with binge watching some Netflix Original Series. (Although Big Mouth Season Two and Mrs. Maizel both return in Oct... NO!!! I'm not ready.
So Juju Gods, here's the deal... I'm good with being wrong about every one of my predictions but the last one. I can even be wrong about the score just not the result.OK? OK? Tap...Tap...is this thing on?
Doug K.
(screwed up on the hyperlink the first time)
If Boone starts Severino over Happ he is a bigger fool than even I think he is. This game will call for experience, maturity, an ability to control your emotions on the mound, and a little bit of guile. Sevy doesn't have that yet. He is a young power pitcher who thrives on swagger, and this is not a game for that kind of approach. It will play much better if the Yanks get into the ALDS, where the possibility of losing one game does not eliminate you (unless you're already down two games).
Just take a look at Happ's season stats as well as his stats with the Yankees, and tell me you don't think he should start. I admit I was not particularly overjoyed when the Yanks traded for him, but at this point, given his 2.1 WAR while with the Yankees, as well as Sevy's unpredictability, this is a no-brainer decision.
There is only one way I think Sevy starts this game, and that is if the strategy is to neutralize the two potent right-hand hitters in the A's lineup - Matt Chapman and Khris Davis. That leaves only Matt Olson to deal with (and maybe Matt Joyce) in terms of power. Trouble is, the As have a multi-faceted offense, and if Sevy gets wild and hittable, runs will be scored in many other ways besides dingers.
Any pitcher can blow up over one or two innings, but I think Happ has the better chance of withstanding adversity than Severino. It will be a bullpen game in the long run anyway, as I think no starter will go through a lineup more than twice. The biggest "wild card" in this game will be the bullpen, where I think the As have the advantage in terms of consistency. For the Yankees, offense has to win the day. 8-7 Yanks.
1. Luke Voit cannot hit a walk-off in an away game, as a previous poster predicted.
2. Agreed that Happy should start over Sevy, but when was Boone ever accused of creative thinking? Actually, this would be the common-sense move, starting Happ. Starting Sevy is very Joan of Arc.
3. Duque, I bow to your magisterial post today. It almost made me cry. Thank you.
4. I need to mention "scrotum" at least once a day for the rest of this season, but I will not say way. It has nothing to do with STDs, though. Just needed to put that out there.
5. The cold appears to be breaking, but I think I should lay low for another day. There is NOTHING like being sick to make you appreciate NOT being sick.
6. Let's keep the faith, brothers and sisters.
7. When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...
Severino is starting because they want the veterans pitching in the bandbox.
I'm still predicting a blowout in the Yankees favor. Or maybe I'm just hoping for that and ignoring reality. Some of the best times of my life have been while ignoring reality.
I'm also predicting they win the next series. Somewhat based in reality:
0-2 8.38
That's Chris Sale in the playoffs.
Happy anniversary Bucky Fucking Dent.
I’m with you, Rufus. Reality is highly overrated.
If we get by Oakland, we get by Boston. We make them cry in their green beer and wipe their noses on their button-down wife beaters.
Then it's Houston. Again.
Hey, ya never know. Starting Sevvy over Happ throws it all up in the air and likely in the dumpster.
Get well soon, Mr. Firefly.
One game crap shoot against a team that won 97 games! In a sport that any team can beat the opponent on a given night. If you think you know who is going to win your ego is bigger than your brain.
Good luck and go Yankees.
Oh! We know in our hearts! The kind of knowledge that one does not spake aloud lest is tweak the ire (or gonads) or the firmament of which the jUjU-ites. Their hope and grief inspiring castles of capriciousness built on the shifting clouds of competition to awe and confound and leave one broken and wracked with misery as winter approaches.
Oh, one knows. Truly one does. But one must not spake of it.
Ever.
ALERT!
MY BUDDY WHO IS A MONSTER BOSTON FAN (WHO HAS A HOUSE IN BOSTON AND GOES TO ABOUT 30 GAMES AT FENWAY A YEAR), HAS PROCLAIMED....
"THEY ARE GOING TO BEAT US, (THE YANKEES), IF WE PLAY THEM."
THEY ARE HORRIFIED TO PLAY US!!!
WE GOTTA WIN THIS ONE GAME!!!
SAY A PRAYER MY FRIENDS.
13 Bit,
1) It's a Yankee home game.
13,apoor,John M. I agree that it should be Happ. I was trying to figure out why and I think that if we win (AND IT'S A BIG IF) then Happ faces the Sox in the 1st game and he is our best pitcher vs. Boston. On one level it makes sense but you gotta win the game in front of you and Happ is the better choice.
Doug K.
The game is in New York, which last time I checked is home to the Yankees. FYI
Of course, they saved Happ to start game 1 and 5 against Boston. Yes, they have to first beat Oakland. But Sevy is well-rested and hopefully can give us 4-5 solid innings. He does have that ability. I just hope the game isn't scoreless into the seventh with Sevy given one more inning and then promptly walks a batter and then gives up a homer. Yankees lose type of games 2-1, stranding 10 runners on base and striking out in double-digits.
Will there be a chat room for this game like there was during last year's playoff run???
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