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Friday, October 30, 2009
Unless you were Jimmy Rollins, you had to believe that this World Series was going to be a long one, as closely matched as are the Yankees and Phillies. So while Philadelphia lost Game 2, 3-1, to a stellar pitching effort by Yankees starter A.J. Burnett, they scored a small triumph that may pay dividends as the series is extended: they chipped away at the seemingly indestructible nature of Mariano Rivera.New York manager Joe Girardi made the wise move to put a 3-1 lead into the hands of Rivera for the final six outs. As Rivera said after Game 2
Game 2 will not go into the Charlie Manuel highlight reel. It's not that he made poor decisions, but that his key decisions blew up, especially two of them.The first move was leaving Pedro Martinez in the game in the seventh inning, down 2-1. You know you're seeing Rivera the next inning, so keeping the deficit at one is paramount. Manuel sent Martinez back for the seventh with 99 pitches. It wasn't a terrible move, but Martinez should have been batter-to-batter at that point, especially because he revealed after the game that he has been weakened by flu-like symptoms recently, losing sleep and his appetite.
The second key move that didn't work for Manuel was not starting his runners with a full count on Chase Utley in the eighth inning. Rollins was at second and Shane Victorino was at first. Rivera was pitching with one out.
The Phillies have some major trouble at the bottom of their batting order. Pedro Feliz and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Ruiz are providing Yankee pitchers with automatic bailout innings, like National League baseball circa 1968, because of the poor quality of their at-bats. Feliz has made eight outs in seven plate appearances on just 19 pitches. Ruiz, though he does have two doubles, has made five outs while seeing only 21 pitches in his seven trips to the plate. For those of you scoring at home, that's 13 outs in 14 plate appearances while seeing just 40 pitches. It's the equivalent of a coffee break for pitchers.
Those were some funky swings Alex Rodriguez took in Games 1 and 2 in the World Series, looking nothing like the compact, balanced strokes he took in the ALDS and ALCS. His swing was at times lengthened and at times became very defensive, more of swatting for the ball or feeling for it than taking a quick path to it. It's almost as if he's a shooter in basketball whose stroke gets tighter with each miss; he needs something to go down to restore confidence.
The second key move that didn't work for Manuel was not starting his runners with a full count on Chase Utley in the eighth inning. Rollins was at second and Shane Victorino was at first. Rivera was pitching with one out.
The Phillies have some major trouble at the bottom of their batting order. Pedro Feliz and, to a lesser extent, Carlos Ruiz are providing Yankee pitchers with automatic bailout innings, like National League baseball circa 1968, because of the poor quality of their at-bats. Feliz has made eight outs in seven plate appearances on just 19 pitches. Ruiz, though he does have two doubles, has made five outs while seeing only 21 pitches in his seven trips to the plate. For those of you scoring at home, that's 13 outs in 14 plate appearances while seeing just 40 pitches. It's the equivalent of a coffee break for pitchers.
Those were some funky swings Alex Rodriguez took in Games 1 and 2 in the World Series, looking nothing like the compact, balanced strokes he took in the ALDS and ALCS. His swing was at times lengthened and at times became very defensive, more of swatting for the ball or feeling for it than taking a quick path to it. It's almost as if he's a shooter in basketball whose stroke gets tighter with each miss; he needs something to go down to restore confidence.
