yankees228

Every single hitter has benefitted from a small strike zone tonight, except for A-Rod. Two really bad calls on him. This one didn't hurt, but the one in the last AB did.

It really is a mystery to me how Andy Pettitte has only given up one run tonight. I might be wrong, but I can only remember one swing and miss. Next inning may very well be his toughest, and his last.

Andy seemed like he got squeezed a bit, but he isn't out there with much tonight.

OK Buck Showalter.

What could the Yankees have done better? The ball took a bad hop off the wall. It's not like Gardner got too close to the wall, and it's not like he made a bad throw to the cutoff man. Anyway, Pettitte is behind everyone, and doesn't look sharp at all.

Pedro really did not look like he had much in the first two innings.

Andy's first was good, but, in this inning, he fell behind each hitter that gave him a chance to fall behind.

I know it's going to come across a biased, but Pedro did not look good in the first inning. Jeter hit a middle in fastball hard. The 1-1 pitch that Damon swung at was a good pitch, but he struck out on a high, hittable change up. And Teixeira just missed it off the end of the bat.

Oh my god! They came inside to Utley... And they actually got him out! What a concept.

Oh wow lol.

And I'm not even advocating hitting Utley. They could do that, but it's not even necessary. Just move him off the plate. Make him conscious of the inside pitch. He is treating pitches on the outside corner like they're right down the middle. The Yankees just cannot let him do that any longer.

And if the Yankees want any proof that doing something like that is acceptable, all they need to do is take a look at the opposing pitcher.

It would be appropriate if Rivera was asked to get the toughest save of his career to close out this series.

Haha, at first I was thinking, "What in the world does Jacko have to do with Len Bias...?".

I disagree, because, at that point it would have been irrelevant. He was responding to people criticizing the Yankees' mound visits. That would not have been relevant news after the series was over. Agree to disagree I guess.

And him and one of best friends was forced out by the Yankees. He has a reason to be angry at both teams. I do see your point though. I just think it was actually kind of a response to what the media was initially saying. The Yankees were drawing a lot of criticism for the unusual amount of mound visits in game four, and Bowa was offering a possible explanation. In my opinion, it's not an unreasonable assertion.

Yeah, but people want to here about that stuff now. He's just speculating, and makes it clear that it is anything but a certainty. And what do you mean by "the other team"? Larry Bowa isn't employed by the Yankees.

So am I. They're asking Andy to do something he hasn't done since his final start in 2006. I don't think anyone should care about a pitcher's past success on two day's rest, even though Andy's history is pretty decent. It's just way too small a sample size to make any kind of judgement based on it. Burnett had a fabulous history on three days rest... I do find something kind of interesting though. When Andy had to start game 5 of the 1996 World Series no one made a big deal about it. When Andy had to start game 2 of the 2003 World Series no one made a big deal about it. However, now it is a big deal. He's older, and has had shoulder problems, so I can understand that. But, we simply don't know what Andy is going to show up. It's total conjecture, simply because we would have nothing to support our claims. Someone who thinks it's not going to bother him at all has nothing to back that up. Someone who thinks it is going to bother him has nothing to back that up. None of us know the specifics of Andy's routine. None of us know how taking away a day from that routine is going to affect him. And none of us know the state of his body, and whether he is well rested enough to do it. We can be concerned, and we can speculate on how well he'll do, but I think it's useless to speculate on how pitching on three days rest will affect him.

What if he's right? He's not saying anything definite, just saying that he's heard speculation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The Giants knew what pitch was coming when Bobby Thompson hit "The Shot Heard Round the World". People in baseball used to think (and maybe still do) that the White Sox steal signs and relay them using that wheel that lights up towards the top of the stadium. Who knows.

If Pettitte was pitching on normal rest, I would be more confident in the Yankees winning this game than any other game they have played this postseason, with the exception of game one of the division series. Unfortunately, he isn't, so who knows what he'll bring to the table.

Well, the good news is that they accomplished what they needed to in Philadelphia. Taking two of the three in Philadelphia (where the Phillies were 7-0 last year and 4-1 this year) was going to be a very tough task. They accomplished that. Taking all three might have been a bit much to ask, especially when one of those games was going to be started by a rested Cliff Lee. In many ways the Yankees are fortunate to get back to New York up 3-2 in the series. However, the bad news is that, for the rest of the series, it will be Yankee pitchers on short rest vs. Phillies pitchers on normal rest. If the Yankee offense has indeed turned the corner, as I mentioned earlier in this thread, they're probably primed for a big offensive game. I believe tomorrow really sets them up for that. Now, Pettitte on short rest is definitely a concern. He had far from his best stuff in game three (Heyman actually tweeted that he told teammates he had nothing), but, according to Pettitte, that was mainly due to the rain delay. Apparently he was all ready to go, and then the rain delay came unexpectedly about fifteen minutes before first pitch, and he had to shut it down. I don't think what happened in game three will have any bearing on what happens in game six. Realistically, this could be Pettitte's last professional start. He has already started two games that clinched a championship for the Yankees, and hopefully this will be his third. And, as a700 alluded to, I hope he found a good vein for the HGH. They also have got to change their approach vs. Utley. He is ignoring the entire inner third of the plate, so pitches are the outside corner seemed like they're right in his wheelhouse. For the most part, the Yankees continue to stay away against him, and that is obviously not working. In his second at bat of game four, CC pumped two fastballs right in on his thumbs. Utley popped the second one up. They have to go back to that, simply because they have no chance to get him out with their current approach.