And so it ends. The 2005 Yankee season came to an end last night amidst a series of mental errors and general futility at the plate in RBI situations. A marginal call from home plate umpire Joe West on Robinson Cano didn’t help matters either. The Angels, to their credit, played winning baseball and were the deserving winners of this series. Under manager Mike Scioscia, Angels baseball has come to mean grinding out victories through timely hitting, good defense and good pitching. All three of those aspects were in evidence last night as the Angels overcame the loss of Bartolo Colon and an early 2-0 deficit.
In retrospect, the early departure of Colon may have been the best thing to happen to the Angels on the night as he clearly didn’t have his best stuff. Ervin Sanchez came in and was shaky at first, but managed to wriggle out of the inning with only 2 runs surrendered, thanks in part to Yankee cooperation. Sanchez’s mates came back in the bottom of the inning to put 3 runs on the board and change the course of the game. The Fox broadcasting crew correctly identified the collision between Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield on Adam Kennedy’s fly ball as the turning point in the game from a feel perspective. The game felt like an Angels victory from then on and the Yankees never recovered from squandering the lead.
Reminiscent of games 4 through 7 of the 2004 ALCS versus Boston, the trio of Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui was AWOL in terms of run production in this series. The three sluggers combined for only 3 RBIs in the series. In contrast, both Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano had 5 RBIs each.
As I stated yesterday, losing this series is a huge disappointment and Joe Torre echoed that sentiment after the game stating that this was tougher than last year’s loss to the Red Sox. And as the season ends, so begins another off-season with more than the usual questions. Will Brian Cashman be back? Will Torre continue to manage this team? What to do with the pitching staff?
A further thought on Derek Jeter: is there any doubt now about who you would want to start a team with? A few years ago, the debate in these parts was, who’s better, Nomar or Jeter? Occasionally, someone would throw A-Rod in the mix of the conversation. My answer then and now is Derek Jeter. Of the three, he is the only obvious team leader type and he has been a consistent clutch performer in the post-season. Last night was a typical performance for the Yankee captain. He hit a home run in the 7th to close the gap to 2 runs and then led off the 9th with a single. Contrast that with Rodriguez’s performance last night and the fact that Garciaparra is toiling in relative obscurity for the Cubs, and you have your answer.
Note: With the Yankees out of the playoffs, I’ll start addressing other sports issues in the coming days.
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The second Lou Pinella left TB, one could see him in pinstripes. For NY folk, this may be a marvelous transition back to the wild days of Billy Martin. I mean, even Red Sox fans can't possibly truly despise the Torres, Jeters, and Williams of the world. Where is Martin, Jackson, Roy White, and Mickey Rivers???
I disagree about the Jeter/Garciaparra/Rodriguez comparison. While Jeter's contributions are greatly accentuated under the microscope of playoff situations, the magnitude of the production of the other guys over the 162 games of the regular grind is nothing to dismiss. In Garciaparra's case, the comparison is like bringing out Larry Bird to play against Shaquille O'Neal...tomorrow. Garciaparra is a shadow of his own self because of health issues. But at his prime, I would have taken him over Jeter for the sheer production.
Two points about last night: notice the names who pitched for Los Angeles as an emblem of how much this sport has changed. Hispanics literally dominate it. Finally, I estimate about five defensive plays that the Red Sox would not have been able to make. Unfortunately, at least one of them was made by their own ex-shortstop.
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