Beaneater

I'm too lazy to actually do this, but I bet that if you extrapolate Belli's stats out as if he were a full-time player, his numbers would be pretty similar to Tek's. Just as an example, 9 HRs while playing every 5th game means that he'd [hypothetically] have 40-ish dongs for a full season. That's, um, a lot. Of course, this doesn't mean that he'd actually have 40 HRs if he were the full-time catcher, but it does seem to indicate that we don't lose a whole lot of pop when Belli is in the game. I say absolutely put him in for Game 1. Absolutely.

I'm going to sleep like a baby. Yeszir, I was just about as mad as you when Pedro came in. Let's see... Downside: 1) Lowe is mowing the Yanks' lineup down like John Deere 2) Pedro generally takes a couple of innings to get in the game 3) Gets NY crowd back in the game 4) Jeopardizes rotation for WS Upside: 1) Ummmm.... er... still trying to find one... still thinking... I was screaming at the TV and my wife was trying to calm me down. Look, obviously Francona is doing something right because we are going to the Series after completing one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. But every once in a while he pulls a tin-foil-hat idea out of some bodily orifice and really stinks the place up. Not that it is Pedro's role to do this, but sometimes I wish he would tell his manager to get a clue. 2003 ALCS, Game 7, Bottom 8th: Grady: OK, Petey, get back out there. Pedro: Are you out of your mind? I'm gassed. Put in Mr. Unhittable Mike Timlin [he was unhittable in the postseason last year] and then hand the ball to Williamson and we'll be drinking champagne in 40 minutes. Grady: Oh. Good idea. Yeah, we'll do that instead. 2004 ALCS, Game 7, Mid-6th Tito: Petey, start warming up -- you're pitching the 7th. Pedro: Tito, that is the single stupidest idea I have heard since this time last year. I'd rather shave my head with a cheese grater than go in this game right now. Keep D-Lowe in for at least one more inning, you dimwit. He's only thrown 69 frickin' pitches!!!! Tito: Hmmm... I, uh, I like the way that sounds. I hadn't noticed that Lowe was pitching effectively tonight. Good plan, Petey -- we'll just go with that. Yeah, like I said, that's not Petey's job, but he could sure save us some grief. But enough moaning. We are going to the World Series, and no one wants to tangle with our momentum right now. Life is good. :thumbsup:

Hmmm... on this site, I don't there is any possible voter fraud that would make the Yanks even close in this poll.

Francona hinted that Lowe is likely to get the call for Game 7, since he has more in the tank than anyone else. I'm not upset about that. Lowe will get the hook early if he's in any trouble and Wakefield will take over. If either of them is effective, we've got a shot. Same for Yanks. If either Brown or Vazquez (or Hernandez?) is effective, the game will stay tight. I can definitely see Brown getting roughed up early, though. That would be swell. Can't the Sox win a blowout for once? Let's have a repeat of Game 3 -- away team crushes home team into small quivering chunks. The beautiful thing is that Timlin and Embree have gotten the night off (though Timlin did warm up, I think). We have a little bit of 'pen left. Of course, Gordon and Rivera got the night off, too. And Foulke has got to be gassed out after 3 straight stress situations. It's going to be a barn-burner, folks.

I guess the point is that Yankeesrule has had a change of heart after his creation of the "YANKEES IN 6" thread. Instead of utmost confidence in his beloved Yanks, he sees the possibility of there being another, better way. There's hope for you yet, sir. The first step is admitting that you have a problem (namely, being a Yankees fan). There are some extremely powerful therapies that have been used to great effect for those who are courageous enough to admit Yankees-fandom. The next step must be a baby step. Try changing your screen name to YANKEESARENOTBAD and see how that feels. We're all here for you -- community can be a great help in overcoming these terrible psychological issues.

Oh, and as yagmaster pointed out, arguing the call afterwards nullifies any defense he might have had. No class at all.

That was a total gigantic loser move. I understand doing all you can to win, and I understand the heat of the moment, but it's telling that the wussy-slap is even in his repertoire. I think he knows the rules of baseball inside and out; he knows what he can and can't do when he's heading down the line. To me, it's just as bad as if he got caught with a corked bat or (if he was a pitcher) an emery board. OK, I guess he gets a microscopic slice of credit for the fact that it wasn't premeditated. But even that is pushing things a bit -- it was premeditated in that he didn't tell himself before the game, "Play hard, do your best, and stick to the rules." He's an electric donkey bottom wiper.

My random stat for the night: in Games 4, 5, and 6, we have scored 15 runs. 9 of them have been with two outs, including all 4 tonight. Yes, we have stranded truckloads of runners (or does it just seem that way to me?), but we have also gotten some clutch hitting. Very nice. Other stat: Ortiz was 0 for tonight. And we won. Heck yeah. Schilling gave us exactly what we needed not only to win this game but to give our relievers (Foulke excepted) some rest for tomorrow. What a stud. Will Foulke have anything at all left if we need him tomorrow? What a fantastic victory. Go Sox, and I'm sure els will forgive me if I am dreaming about that sweet sweet celebration that just might silence the Bronx tomorrow.

Thanks, els -- I gotcha. I'm ready for the crushing disappointment, though . I was watching in 1986 and in 2003, so any crushable parts of my soul have already been crushed (though it's true that those parts may have bounced back a bit in the intervening years). And if we lose Game 6 (or 7, or in the Series), then I will have had my little moment of fantasy glory. Hey, it's better than being a Devil Rays fan. Their moment of fantasy glory is splitting at home with the Blue Jays.

Els-- I know. I said so myself. But since when are we forbidden to think ahead to what might be? We all made predictions about this series -- "Sox in 6" or whatever -- and no one came on saying, "Hey, now, hold on to them there horses, boys." Obviously I realize that we have to win Game 6 in order to get to Game 7. But there's no reason I can't be happy about Games 4 and 5, worry about Game 6, and have glorious daydreams for Game 7, all at the same time. I'm a Sox fan, after all. Psychological flexibility is required. Maybe you're worried that I'm jinxing the team or something like that, but my thoughts and posts on Talksox really don't affect the game. If jinxes and superstitions were the key to breaking the so-called curse, we'd have won a Series in the last 85 years. I don't know -- why is it that we can't talk about what-ifs? That's a serious question, and to show that I'm not getting upset or tying to pick a fight, I will put a selection of smilies at the end of this post. :thumbsup: :shrug:

Els-- I know we haven't won yet. I know we need at least 6 strong innings from Schilling tonight to have any reasonable hope of even sending this one to 7, and in Game 7 who knows what we'd send to the mound. But even if we tank in Game 6, Ortiz has had a remarkable postseason. Last 3 Red Sox victories = 3 RBI hits in the bottom of the last from Ortiz. That is what I'm excited about now, not the almighty Red Sox juggernaut -- we still need 6 wins this season to claim that. And we all know that we're a looong way from that.

Ortiz for MVP? No, Ortiz for something bigger than that. I don't know what yet, but 'MVP' isn't big enough. I'll let you all know if I think of something.

Unlike many of the posters here, I really have nothing against Yankees fans. (That might be because I don't live in the Northeast.) Most of them just had the misfortune to be born into the wrong family, and it's hard to hold that against them. Of course, bandwagon fans don't get the same respect. But one of my best friends in the universe is a Yankees fan -- he grew up in Queens and he's an intelligent and devoted fan. Nothing wrong with that. But I have to say that this post is hilarious. "Yankees in 6." "They just wanted to win it at home." Too funny! Seems to me that before Game 4 they were saying "Yankees in 4!" Then it was "Yankees in 5!" Now it's "Yankees in 6!" Tomorrow night it will be "Yankees in 7!" And after that, it will be "Yankees in 2005!" The Yankees just got their souls crushed in 26 innings of 'whose-cojones-are-bigger?' baseball. I think all bets are now officially off.

All of the early posters who talked about depleted bullpens are eating their words now... But seriously, that was absolutely incredible. When Papi hit the little soft junkball into center and I realized that we had won, I let out a primal scream that probably woke multiple sets of neighbors. Incredible. And then there was the NLCS game. 2 hits total through 8.5 innings -- that's 2 hits for both teams combined. Some ridiculous D saving hits left and right for both teams. And a gigantic bottom of the 9th jack from Jeff Kent (who did his Papi impression as he rounded third and approached the plate). Between these two games, this was the best night of baseball I have ever seen. Of course, that Red Sox victory was several orders of magnitude more fulfilling than the NLCS game, but still... So what now? Schilling in Game 6. If he is on, then we are talking no-holds-barred UFC action in Game 7. I know it's too early to say this, but can any of you imagine the pure joy of seeing the Sox dogpile in the infield after a Game 7 victory in the Bronx? Yeah, I know, I know, we're a long way from there. But if Red Sox fans couldn't dream of glory, then we'd be an even more neurotic group than we are. Astros and Cards are both for real. So are Sox and Yanks, obviously. The Series is going to be a barn-burner. Hope we're there.

Did I say something about the big guns? OOOOOOORRRRRTTTTTTIIIIIIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ah, well, we have big guns coming up in the 12th. Let's hope it's still tied when they do.

Damon can't hit anything during this series, but due to 2 out bottom of 11th steal, he is also awarded Gigantic Cojones.

Dang. Cabrera had really come through in some clutch situations before, but that AB looked pretty bad.

Dave Roberts has gigantic cojones.

No, Yeszir, if they win they salvage a tiny, microscopic bit of dignity. And incidentally they keep their tiny, microscopic chances alive. But either one would be sufficient reason to win.

What kind of odds do think Vegas would have given me on this proposition: The Red Sox' best starter in the ALCS will be Derek Lowe. Well, it's a bit subjective so maybe they wouldn't have gone for it, but...

Well, at least one hopelessly biased person agrees with me!

I should have said that 2 runs were attributable to that bad call. Sheffield should have been K'd for the second out, then (assuming that all else remains equal) Matsui pops out for out #3 and Williams does not hit the 2-run double. Makes no difference in the final analysis though, except that psychologically it would have been different to go into the 9th down 1 instead of 3.

Call me crazy, but I'm not that depressed by this. This whole game was disastrous from the get-go -- Mussina was incandescent, Schilling was clearly not all there, eveything that could have gone wrong did through 6 1/2, and we still got within one swing of tying the game in the 8th and the 9th. (Indeed, in the 8th we got within about 5 feet of tying the game.) They slapped us around like the proverbial red-headed stepchild and we still crawled back in it. I know, I know, this is the Red Sox we're talking about. They're capable of repeated meltdowns, as 85 years of history tell us. But seriously, is everything going to break the Yankees' way for this whole series? What I saw tonight shows me that in order to beat us, the Yankees need 1) an insane pitching performance and 2) a titanic Red Sox collapse (a la Schilling). That is not going to happen every game. Afterthought: Did anyone else notice that the strike zone was smaller when the Yankees were batting? Sheffield got 4-5 strikes at least twice, and there were some questionable strikes called against the Sox (questionable enough that even the Fox crew questioned them). I realize that I am hopelessly biased, so I'm calling on some of you hopelessly biased people to confirm or disprove my idea. Not that I'm saying that we would have won with a better strike zone -- only 1 run that I recall was directly attributable to a bad call (Sheffield should have been punched out in the 8th, perfect pitch from Timlin that was somehow not called a strike, and he later came around to score). But it sure made me want to throw things at the TV (since the actual umpire was not within throwing range).

It's official. Whether we win this game or not, we have shown that we can spot the Yankees an 8-0 lead through 6.2 and still play them tough. This has totally deflated the momentum that the Yanks would have gotten from the arse-whooping that this game looked like early. Should be a fun series.