How did we do it? Blissfully, kindly - without bile or mean-spirited acrimony - let us savor the ways that our heroes vanquished our frat-boy, dickwad enemies.
1. The Yankees won with power. (And not just solo shots.) A Ben Rice grand slam. A three-run Bellinger blast. Devastating knockout blows. Ahh, to see the looks on those pitchers' faces...
2. The Yankees won with bunts. I am not hallucinating. Trent Grisham laid down a bunt so perfect that Boston - fully knowing what was coming - still couldn't handle it. Greatest bunt of the season.
3. The Yankees won with hustle. I'm thinking about Spencer Jones, who flailed at strike three, saw the ball squib away and actually sprinted to first. (Most batters merely jog.) Jones' speed caught Adley Rutschman off guard. He moved slowly, double-clutched, and it was over. Shades of Mickey Owens. It broke open the game.
4. The Yankees won with class. Nobody preened. Nobody showboated. When Boston finally got on the board, Wilson Contreras took 15 goddam minutes to round the bases. His booth apologist, Lou Merloni, suggested that Contreras was trying to rally his team. Huh? What a joke. What he did was piss off the Yankees. After that home run, there was no way Max Fried was gonna give up another hit.
5. The Yankees won with young, rising stars. For five years, we've heard about the looming waves of talent in the farm systems of Baltimore and Boston. Both have had MLB's top-ranked prospect (Jackson Holliday, Roman Anthony.) Thus far, in the name of Marcelo Mayer, neither has panned out. Meanwhile, the Yankees have Cam Schlittler and Ben Rice, legit MVP candidates, and Jones and George Lombard Jr. and - gulp - Anthony Volpe and maybe even the Martian? (Don't snicker, he's still just 23.)
6. The Yankees won with pitching, pitching, pitching. After Schlittler and Max Fried, Boone never even had to use Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Brent Headrick. Seriously, if somebody said the Yankees would beat Boston without even using Headrick, would you have believed it?
7. The Yankees won without acrimony. In the NBC booth, Merloni - Boston's Baghdad Bob - blathered on and on about the great Sonny Gray. At one point, they suggested that Babe Ruth would not have wanted to face Sonny. Yeah, Babe Ruth. They never mentioned how Gray failed in NYC and to this day claims to hate the place. Okay, I admit to wearing Yank fan blinders, and it's much easier to be gracious when your team leads by seven, but I thought Joe Girardi and Anthony Rizzo seemed to go much easier on Boston than the Redsocks deserved. This was a full-scale team meltdown.
All things considered, I suppose they had a better week than Cornell. But that's about it.
8. The Yankees won overcoming a nor'easter of unrelenting gale-force bile. I suggest you visit the Sons of Sam Horn to savor the today's cesspool of angry comments from the Fenway Nation. It will do you good. To me, reading a Boston day-after doomscroll is tantamount to running barefoot through a field of erect nipples.
9. The Yankees won without Stanton and/or Judge. And that may be how this whole thing has to be. I have a feeling that Stanton won't make the Tampa series, as Boone will add another pitcher and, if a pinch hitter is needed, it will be the Captain. I don't mean to badmouth Giancarlo. I'm sure he worked hard to be available for the postseason. But there is no role for him in Tampa, and the final roster spot should go to somebody, anybody, who had a greater role in getting the Yankees here.
10. The Yankees won without John. Forgive me here for breaking the vibe. But I wish John Sterling had lived to see this. He deserved a final championship, and the Yankees failed him. I guess you'd say, That's baseball, Suzyn. But that raises another thought: She's 80. Let's hope that they don't fail her.
Belli took his time rounding the bases. And Jazz stole 2d and 3d up 6 runs. Both were very amusing.
ReplyDeleteThose two games just felt great.
ReplyDeleteI don't need Calgon Bath Oil Beads after those.
Perhaps just a nice shower. Did you know that every bar of Dove is one-quarter cleansing cream?
Hey JM…
DeleteIs Cashman still a moron ?
AND IS
Boone still an idiot?
Cashman = moron
DeleteBoone = idiot
Hal = asshole
Players = Yankees
I appreciate you clearing that up for not only me but for people everywhere, Bitty.
DeleteDue to shrinkflation, Dove has now been reduced to only 1/8 cleansing cream. And don't even ask what the source of that "cream" is. Okay, I'll tell you: It's bull semen.
DeleteWell, at least it ain't dog semen. I like Dove. During winter, you don't even need to use Vaseline Intensive Care because of the moisturizer in Dove.
DeleteSuzyn was in the clubhouse drenched in champagne smiling like the world’s happiest human being interviewing the equally drenched, super giddy players…z
ReplyDeleteShe ain’t going no where
I'm with you, Duque, on Number 10, about John, and with you, AA, on Suzyn. Which is why, if I DO watch the next few games, I'm going to do the gameday thing with stick figures and use the radio for color. FUCK TAMPA BAY. FUCK BOSTON. FUCK HAL, BRIAN AND BOONE. LONG LIVE THE YANKEES!!!
ReplyDeleteSo what was Sonny Gray doing on the mound?
ReplyDeletehttps://x.com/Jomboy_/status/2105522712798175248
Things got a little messy with Sasha and she had to clean up a bit. Otherwise, I'd say she was cheating.
DeleteSasha's been messy in a lot of her movies.
DeleteSomeone commented that Gray has shit for brains and that the pressure of last night’s game caused a leak, so poor Sony had no choice but to constantly try to wipe off the dribble.
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pAtMwb66tR4&t=45s&pp=2AEtkAIB
ReplyDeleteCarmines fan gets pummeled by... a girl?
Love the quick reaction of security.
DeleteDid we watch the same video? 🧐
DeleteThat wasn't a girl. That was a goddamned woman.
DeleteA tough broad, as Frankie would have said.
DeleteWell that was fun!
ReplyDeleteRanger - Thanks for posting that. I have passed it on.
Also --
ReplyDeleteI would have liked to see Stanton pinch hitting instead of Goldy late in the game.
They were up by s lot and it was a perfect time to see if he could fulfil the role they planned for him. If not no big deal. Goldy made out anyway and it didn't matter.
Should have let him take a shot.
Yankees sweep ... hey, I wuz right! Before this series, after agonizing over it, I said I'll go with my heart and say Yankees sweep. Excusez moi whilst I pat mee-self on the old back .... [pat pat, pat pat, pat pat]
ReplyDeleteFor once, the Yankees did what I wanted and beat Boston like a fucking pinata. Even though we had to wait 'til the late innings for the beatdowns. Congratulations, Battlin' Bronx Bastards!
DeleteWilson Contreras - obviously, that was his first rodeo. A bloody virgin. If he ever gets another chance, let's hope he acts like he's done it before. Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThat game last nite was a nail biter, until the Yankees took a 3-1 lead. Really could've gone either way until then. Both games were nail biters, until the Yankees blew the roof off late. The final scores are kind of misleading. The series run totals are misleading.
ReplyDeleteEvery time there was a parachute or dying quail in to short center field, you had to hold your breath. Fucking Trent Grisham was "running" like he was pulling a goddamned boat anchor. Wow, that guy was running like an old lady earlier in the year. Last night, he was running like a 5,000 year old Egyptian mummy.
ReplyDeleteIf Grisham plays CF again in the Tampa series, Yankees will lose. Did ya'll see the Jazz Chisholm basket catch? Jazz was in fucking center field. Both Jazz and Lombard had to cover for Grisham out there. On the ball Eaton hit for a parachute double, Grisham took a step back, then started walking in, and the ball fell in, and Grisham was still walking over to it. Fucking unbelievable!
If fucking Cashman inks Grisham to another contract, I'm going to fucking scream. You know that famous painting, "The Scream"? Yep, that'll be me in that painting.
ReplyDeleteAgreed: Grisham should NOT be out there anymore. And what the hell was he point of having Stanton on the roster if you're not even going to bat him in garbage time?
ReplyDeleteIf the Yankees do somehow manage to win it all—which they won't—I'm sure that we will hear all about how he was a brilliant decoy, akin to Patton's fake army before D-Day.
The downside of the Yankees appearing or even winning the World Series is that Cashman will be awarded a lifetine contract.
DeleteCarl, he already has a de facto lifetime contract. The only way he's going out is via a hearse with his name on it.
DeletePretty funny and spot on, Duque. And yeah, the Sonny Gray stuff was complete nonsense.
ReplyDeleteThe broadcasters kept acting as though somehow "New York" had done Gray wrong, as if the fans had mistreated him....
They kinda did do Sonny Gray wrong. Before and after he pitched for the Yankees, he was a very good starter, Here's how they did him wrong:
Delete*Analytics and coaching, especially Larry " Do I have to get off my ass and visit the mound" Rothschild fucked with his pitching.
*Coaches encouraged him to throw more sliders and pitch similarly to teammate Masahiro Tanaka.
*He didn't like the staff's insistence of trying to command a slider he didn't naturally gel with led to poor spin, missed locations.
*Analytics determined that he should throw fewer curveballs. Gray felt forced away from his natural feel and preferred usage of his curveball and two-seamer.
Cam Schlittler is a power pitcher, so the coaches couldn't fuck up his natural talent. And he was smart enough to learn how to pitch by mixing in the curveball more often. But not with Sonny, who relies more on finesse and mixing pitch selection and location. If Greg Maddux were on the Yankees today, the analytics and coaching would lead to his career demise.
Yeah, great analysis, Carl! Very interesting, indeed. Bottom line, Yankee coaching doesn't know what the hell they're doing. They got lucky with Cam. It's definitely more difficult to fuck up a power pitcher.
DeleteVery true, Hammer. He's here until he or Hal dies.
DeleteIn fact, he was bloody awful throughout his time here—and especially awful at home.
ReplyDeleteHis total stats as a Yankees? 15-16, 4.51—the worst of all his stats in the 6 different major-league stops he's made (and I think it's not insignificant that he's made 6 different stops).
What's more, he was particularly bad at home, while in New York:
2017:
Home: 7-5, 3.90
Away: 3-7 3.11
2018:
Home: 4-4 6.98
Away: 7-5 3.17
In other words, he was absolutely awful pretty much every time he pitched in the Bronx.
I'd like to know exactly what fans would be fine with a new pitcher giving up about 7 runs a game at home.
But wait, there's more!...
Sunny Grey is obviously a piece of shit. Worse, a diarrhea bomb. Of course, he pitches great last night, since he's not pitching for the Yankees. Thank God that stupid Boston manager took him out too quick. Classless moron.
ReplyDeleteThe baffled broadcasters also acted as if those 2017-2018 seasons were the ONLY bad years the peripatetic Gray had suffered during his many travels up and down the major-league circuit.
ReplyDeleteAu contraire, mes frères!
Gray was 5-11, 5.69 with Oakland in 2016; 7-9, 4.19 with Cincinnati in 2021; and 14-8, but with a 4.28 ERA in St. Louis last year.
In other words, for whatever reason, Sonny gets blue—and bad—repeatedly, everywhere, and then is moved on. We can only hope it happens in Boston, too.
(Or maybe not, known Brian Cashman's penchant for trying to "prove" his ill-considered pick-ups are really great after all. Looking at you, Mr. Vazquez.)
The way they were talking him up, you'd think Sunny Grey was the greatest pitcher in the history of the game. It was disgusting and hilarious at the same time.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteSunny Grey was a pretty good pitcher. He threw harder when he was young. The gist of it is that he was good before he came here, he sucked when he came here, and then he was good after he left. "I K'd, I sucked, and then I K'd again."
DeleteLook, I'm no Sony Gray fan.Granted, he was horrible with Oakland in 2016, but Oakland was a putrid team in 2016 that finished last. Cincy in 2021 was jut barely over .500. Objectively, the years not mentioned, he pitched very well.
Delete2015-14-7 with 2.73 ERA
2019- 11-8 with 2.87 ERA
2020- 5-3 with 3.70 ERA
2022- 8-5 with 3.08 ERA
2023- 8-8 with 2.79 ERA
2024- 13-9 with 3.84 ERA
Cherry-picking records, not withstanding, he was not "bad repeatedly, everywhere."
I love ya, Horace, but his full history proves otherwise.
And just for the record, I don't say he was always bad everywhere; he usually pitched well. But the ERAs don't lie. Even with bad teams, ERAs like 5.69, 4.19, and 4.28 are not good.
DeleteFenway park is so disgusting. When I was young, at summer camp we went to a game there. Go to the men's bathroom, they have this pee trough and your are should to shoulder with men urinating. What's worse was that the sox fans would get drunk, and just urinate on the top wall of the bleacher section.
ReplyDeleteWatching our team avoid going to Fenway in the post season is all I need.
+1
DeleteThe NBC broadcasters were so pro-Red Sox last night, it was disgusting. I think Rizzo even said during the 1st inning something like "hopefully" the Red Sox score some runs tonite, or something like that. Wow, just fucking WOW!
ReplyDeleteThey finally stopped pulling for Boston when the ceiling started to collapse on them. But 'til then, it was even worse than during Game 1. Hey, bring it on! It was all the more sweet when they finally shut up about the Red Sox.
Sorry our posts crossed paths, Carl J. Weitz. Just to be clear, I don't doubt that the Yankees' pitching "coaching" hurt Gray, too, as it does everyone. But he was never the model of consistency they made him out to be...
ReplyDeleteWell, that much I agree with you 100%, Horace!
DeleteThe monumental error in acquiring him was that, reportedly, Cashman had a choice of Gray or Verlander. Once again misjudging the physical talent and not having a clue about the make-up of the players in question, Cashie simply traded for the younger guy.
ReplyDeleteThen he compounded the error by trading Sonny, who was still in demand, for all of Shedd Long. Great name, no talent.
There's an article on yardbarker that says Grisham has to come out of center field because he's too damn slow. https://www.yardbarker.com/mlb/articles/why_the_yankees_need_to_move_trent_grisham_out_of_center_field/s1_16754_44374057
ReplyDeleteAccording to this article, Grisham ran 23.5 ft per second on the Eaton parachute double. The conclusion is obviously 100% correct, but I don't know that he ran 23.5 ft/sec on that play. I would estimate that Grisham ran something like 2 ft/sec. Fucking Usain Bolt's 100 meter record is 9.58 seconds. Converted to feet, 100 meters is about 328 feet. Just dividing 328 by 9.58 seconds gives 34.24 ft/sec. (Bolt's actual speed halfway through the 100 meter race is certainly faster than that, because the total time includes the start-up time from a crouching position, not just the time at full speed running. But we can ignore that for the purposes of this calculation.) Seriously, it took forever for Grisham to get to that ball. Meanwhile, Eaton covered 180 feet. (Eaton actually ran more than 180 feet, because he ran an ellipse around 1st base, not straight lines.) Anyway, Grisham DID NOT run 70% as fast as Usain Bolt. That much is for sure. Grisham ran maybe 5% the speed of a Usain Bolt. 1/20th Bolt's speed. Which would be 2 ft/sec.
The yardbarker article also pointed out that, if Jazz Chisholm had not made that basket catch in a later inning, that ensuing home run by the Red Sox would have tied the game at 2. I remember thinking the same thing at the time. The Red Sox came that close to tying the game at 2. And if they had tied it, you never know what would have happened. Yankees could have easily lost that game.
Running through a field of erect PUFFY nipples.
ReplyDeleteOh! OHHHH! MY NIPPLES EXPLODE WITH DELIGHT!!
ReplyDeleteJohn would've loved Spencer Jones's hustle run even more than we did.
ReplyDelete💯 %
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