ALDS Game 4 Thoughts & Afterthoughts

(All smiles when you win.  Courtesy of Getty Images)

You know what the best part of writing this recap is?  I'm not nearly as hung over as I anticipated because I didn't have to drink nearly as much to make it through the game.  Thanks, A.J.!

- I started getting a bad feeling that the jinx was on with TBS in the 1st inning when Brian Anderson stated that between the 2 teams, "only" Justin Verlander had better stuff than A.J.  Ummm, CC Sabathia, anybody?  Dave Robertson?  Benoit?  Scherzer?

- That was a pretty nice gallop by A-Rod to catch Santiago's pop-up bunt in the bottom of the 1st.  Did you see that stride??? Majestic.

- The beer was flowing heavily when A.J. loaded the bases, forced the bullpen to get up, and had Larry Rothschild come out to talk to him in the 1st.  If I were Rothschild, I would have just poked him in the eye, punched him in the sack, and walked back to the dugout.  In a related story, I would have been a terrible pitching coach.

- I almost had a heart attack/shit myself on C-Grand's diving/jumping catch of Don Kelly's liner to end the 1st inning.  If he doesn't catch that, that's 4 runs right there and probably the end of A.J.'s night.  The catch later will get all the headlines (and with good reason), but the importance of that 1st inning catch should not be understated.

- This was one of the earliest comments I made last night on The Official AB4AR Facebook Page, but I'll say it again.  The 7 combined pitches seen by Cano, A-Rod, Teix, and Swish in their first at-bats was fucking pathetic.  Just bad times all around.

- After a bad A.J. cameo in the 1st inning, he and Rothschild went to the clubhouse to talk/look at video/do something, and we were treated to Good A.J. in the 2nd.  His mechanics were much sharper, his delivery was smoother, and he threw just 10 pitches, 9 for strikes, to get out of the inning 1-2-3.  Whatever happened between him and Larry between the 1st and 2nd really set the tone for the rest of A.J.'s outing.

- Jeter finally put a good swing on a hittable pitch to drive in the first runs of the game in the 3rd inning.  Porcello left a sinker up and Jeter was right on the pitch.  Bonus point for Russell Martin for the hustle to score from first AAAAAAND the great slide to avoid Avila's tag.

- After a flawless first 2 innings, Porcello started to drift up in the zone with his pitches in the 3rd and 4th, and it got him into trouble.  He also couldn't locate his fastball inside to lefties and hit Teix and Jorge trying to work there.  Halfway through the 4th inning it looked like the wheels could fall off for Porcello at any minute.

- The A.J. Burnett Experience was in full effect in the 4th inning after a solid 3rd- He lost the zone, fell behind Victor Martinez, gave up a HR to him, gave up a double to Peralta (Bad A.J.), then recovered to strike out Avila and Wilson Betemit to end the inning (Good A.J.).  The back-to-back curveballs to Betemit were FILTHY.

- As lame as most commercials usually are during the postseason, the Geico commercial with the guinea pigs rowing a boat to power the dude's computer is absolutely fucking hilarious.  When he's talking about how he had to train the guinea pigs?  "Such a simple word.  'Row.'"  That's good stuff right there.

- Joe Girardi could teach a college course on bad bunting strategy.  Top 5th, 2 on, 0 out, Porcello teetering on the edge of falling apart, and Joe sends Jeter up to sac bunt the runners over.  Did Joe not watch Jeter's previous at-bat where he took Porcello to the DEEPEST PART OF THE PARK FOR A 2-RBI DOUBLE?!?!?!?!?!  And it was a terrible bunt that didn't even advance the runners, which is the risk you run when you take the bat out of people's hands.  Fuckin' A, man.  So stupid.

- The Yankees still managed to score in the inning, though, thanks to an awful pitch by Porcello to C-Grand.  Fastball that was supposed to be in ran right back over the plate and Curtis ripped it into right for a double.

- And not for nothing, but the sac fly by The Horse that scored the 4th run probably would have been a double if he was healthy.  That was another bad pitch by Porcello that caught too much of the plate.

- HUUUUUUGE bailout play by Ramon Santiago, swinging at the first pitch in the bottom of the 5th and grounding into a double play after Jackson's leadoff single.  That could have led to another path down the Bad A.J. Trail, but it was immediately erased.  What the hell was up with Jeter's throw to first, though?  All the time in the world and he basically bounced the thing halfway between 1st and 2nd.

- Miguel Cabrera looked a little bummed out after lining out to Jeter to end the 6th inning.  Somebody should have gotten him a drink.  HIIYOOOOOOOOOO!!!!




- As much as I couldn't believe I was thinking it, I actually thought Joe should have stuck with A.J. to face Peralta in the bottom of the 6th with 2 outs.  He wasn't showing signs of slowing down or losing his mechanics, and if he couldn't put him away Joe already had Boone Logan ready to come in and face Avila.  But Joe played it safe (always a good strategy with A.J.) and went to Soriano.  And for once it was the right call.

- The only reason it was the right call, of course, was because Curtis Granderson is a superhuman center field beast master who can make the sun shine by smiling and cure cancer with each home run he hits.  Everything about that catch Grandy made to end the 6th was perfect: the read, the run, the dive, the extension, everything.  Hands down one of the greatest catches I've ever seen in a baseball game.  The hug he got from A.J. when he got back to the dugout was well deserved.

(Seriously, LOOK at the fucking catch!  Courtesy of The AP)

- Soriano also benefited from Curtis' great play and came back out to work quickly and easily through the 7th.  His stuff looked good and he was attacking the Tiger hitters, which was really important as at the time that 1-2-3 inning set it up perfectly for D-Rob and Mo to face the heart of the Detroit order in the 8th and 9th.

- I had to laugh at A-Rod and Teix's back-to-back lame hits to start the 8th.  A-Rod muscled a bloop single to left and Teix followed with an infield chopper that only was a hit because it hit the lip of the 3rd baseline and came back into play.  SLUGGERS!!!

- As it turned out, though, those 2 hits opened the floodgates and the rest of the inning was the kind of Yankee-like offense we've been waiting to see this series.  The patience, the fouled pitches, the stringing of hits together, and the punishment for every bad pitch made.  The game was blown open by The Jesus' 2-run single and the rest was icing on the cake.  In my preview post, I wondered who was going to take the baton and run with it for the offense and in the 8th it was everybody passing that baton to each other to hopefully break out and create some good offensive vibes going into Game 5.

- Speaking of The Jesus, he's batting 1.000 for the series if you're keeping score at home.

- Rough series for Al Albuquerque, huh?  Gives up the grand slam to Cano in Game 1 after entering with the bases loaded and then balked in a run, gave up a single, and walked Martin on 4 straight pitches to put the game out of reach last night.  I'd say bummer for the kid, but he's wearing a Tiger uniform so fuck him.

- 9-run lead and all, I still thought Joe should have gone with D-Rob and Mo to close out the game, if for no other reason than to keep them sharp with the off day today before Game 5.  Mo has only pitched twice in the last week and once this series, that being a 3-pitch close to Game 1 on Saturday.  D-Rob has also only pitched once in the series, albeit the previous day for an inning.  I understand wanting to get Hughes and Logan some work, but there's a fine line between rested and rusty, and I'd rather make sure my 2 best relievers aren't the ones becoming rusty as opposed to my middle-of-the-pack ones.

- I don't think many of us expected A.J. and Porcello to pitch as well as they did last night, and honestly both of them did pitch well.  Both did a good job of mixing their pitches and used their offspeed stuff to get swings and misses when they needed them.  But Burnett's curve was a little sharper than anything Porcello had, and he was able to limit the damage and get out of trouble when he put guys on.  Porcello couldn't do that, specifically the Jeter and C-Grand RBI hits, and that was the difference in the game.  Porcello blinked first and his team lost because of it.