How Are These Yanks With The Chips On The Line?

I was at a family party yesterday, and, at the end, just as we were leaving, my wife’s uncle (who’s a Mets fan) said to me: “Your team is dead.”

My first reaction to this was: “I still think they’re going to win a game. At least one. They’re going to win at least one game before this series is over.”

The split-second those words came out of my mouth, I realized my mistake and said: “Well, sure, they have to win their next game or else there will be no more games to win. So, I guess what I’m saying is that they’re going to win tomorrow. They’re going to win at least one game. So, they’re going to win this next game.”

Afterwards, I started to think about how the Yankees have done, recently, in October “elimination games.” Here’s their record:

2002 ALDS – Game 4: David Wells implodes.

2003 ALCS – Game 7: Roger Clemens gets undressed. Mike Mussina and Grady Little save the Yankees.
2003 World Series – Game 6: Andy Pettitte is wonderful. Yankee bats can’t touch Josh Beckett.

2004 ALCS – Game 7: Kevin Brown and Javy Vazquez are terrible. Yanks bats do nothing.

2005 ALDS – Game 4: Big pinch-hit from Ruben Sierra. Good effort from Shawn Chacon.
2005 ALDS – Game 5: Mike Mussina spits the bit. Bubba Crosby and Gary Sheffield don’t have fun in the outfield.

2006 ALDS – Game 4: Jaret Wright and Cory Lidle fail on the mound. Yanks bats are pretty much asleep.

Well, that’s not a pretty picture. The last seven times the Yankees faced “win-or-go-home” in the post-season, they’ve lost five times – and it could have been six times if not for Grady Little.

Of course, if the Yankees go on to win their next three games in this ALDS, that would improve their “sudden-death” mark to 5-5 (since 2002). That does look a lot better than 2-5 or 2-6.

One game at a time now, right? Let’s hope that Roger Clemens is up for it today – and that the Yankees bats wake-up. And, Joe Torre better manage this one like it’s the seventh game of the World Series. After all, there just may be no tomorrow after this one.

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