Chien-Ming Wang didn’t accompany the Yankees to Detroit because he wouldn’t be available until Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.
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I wouldn’t sweat it too much; worse comes to worst, the flight isn’t all that long.

From the NY Post Website
Chien-Ming Wang didn’t accompany the Yankees to Detroit because he wouldn’t be available until Game 5 at Yankee Stadium.

Even more important we get the win tonight, since it seems Joe won’t bring Wang back on short rest.

I’m one of the most pessimistic fans around, but Kenny Rogers coming up big for his team in the post-season? Now we’re just getting crazy.
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Eh, it’s the law of averages. I’m not expecting him to throw a 3-hit shutout, but to do decent in tonight’s game.

Hey, Jeff Weaver threw 5 shutout innings yesterday, anything’s possible.

I agree with your other points. Yanks had opportunities to score before the Damon HR, but didn’t execute.

Wow. It’s getting bad around here. I’m one of the most pessimistic fans around, but Kenny Rogers coming up big for his team in the post-season? Now we’re just getting crazy.

I wouldn’t be surprised if we lost this series — because of the Big Unknown (a.k.a. Unit) — but the Tigers are STILL the team we all thought we were going to sweep. They’re still free swingers. They’re still middle-of-the-road offensively. They didn’t exactly beat up on Mussina. It was more about the offense being unable to hit Verlander and that bullpen.

So I don’t know that the Yankees will win, but I’m not going to guarantee a loss, either.

Speaking of Zumaya: someone needs to teach this guy a lesson. Yeah, dude, you throw 102 and people can’t touch your fastball, but pumping your fist like that in the batter’s face is going to get your skull kicked in.

Kenny’s going to pitch his lone good game of the playoffs today
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I have that feeling too, for some reason. Having said that, this series is far from over. For either team.

Looking at the papers, you’d think ARod was the only one who had a bad day @ the plate…

Stats be damned, I guarantee ARod will look like the worthless fool he is tonight in Detroit. Kenny’s going to make his head spin.

The Yanks and their fans (me included) spent so much time talking about what they were going to do to the Tigers and yet it’s being done to them in return. Kenny’s going to pitch his lone good game of the playoffs today and then it’ll be nail-in-the-coffin time on Saturday with Jaret Wright getting worked over like a punching bag and Torre and the rest of the team looking on in that all-too-familiar catatonic state of “I can’t believe we’re really not as good as everyone says we are.”

It would have been nice to win yesterday simply because it puts more pressure on Johnson now to get the job done…I think game 3 is basically a crap shoot, I hope Johnson comes up big but I am definitely not going to expect much out of him

As far as ARod, he should do well tomorrow based on the history, so if he doesn’t do well, you know for sure he’s pulling another choke job…

Everytime I see Pujols get another hit for the Cardinals, I laugh to myself and wonder how anyone can say ARod is the best player in baseball, it’s not even close…I think most people expect a Pujol’s like performance out of ARod and when it doesn’t happen, people get upset…

Good points, bailey. I’d even take it one step further and say that Torre should treat tomorrow’s game like a must-win, i.e., if Randy slows after four or five solid innings, warm up Bruney – then bring in a combo of Proctor (for two?), Farns, and Mo. That would make Saturday House Money, which would take a good deal of pressure off of Wright.

Actually, most of the Yankees hit well against Rogers.

Damon is hitting .306 with two homers; Giambi is hitting .434 with four homers; Jeter is hitting .400 with one homer; Matsui has two hits in three at-bats (including a homer); Posada is hitting .500 with two home runs.

Oddly, the guy with lousy numbers against him is Sheffield. He’s a lifetime .176 batter off him.

On the one hand, you look at Rogers — a soft-tossing touch-and-feel lefty — and think the Yankees should maul him. On the other hand, despite those numbers, soft-tossers can give them fits (we’ve seen it happen time to time).

My hope is that Rogers does his normal choke job and we score at least ten runs off of him. Johnson is going to need that kind of run support. Neither Mo nor Farnsworth pitched today, which means they’re both available for tomorrow (and you know Bruney and Proctor can pitch again). So the Yankees basically need five innings out of Johnson (even knowing that Wright is going tomorrow).

Tomorrow is the critical game. I think Wright can beat this team, but we can’t leave the season in his hands. Win tomorrow and we probably win the series. Lose tomorrow, and it could get pretty depressing around here.

We’re the only team to win game one and not win game two, by the way. The Cards, Mets and A’s all took the first two games.