October 8th vs. The Indians

Four-plus hours is way too long for a funeral.

Hey, congrats to the Cleveland Indians and to their fans. The Tribe out-pitched, out-hit, and out-played the Yankees in this ALDS. They deserved to win this round of the playoffs.

Now, if it’s not too much trouble, Cleveland, will you please promise to play the Red Sox in the ALCS this tough as well?

October 8, 2007 | Filed Under Game Commentary 10/07, LDS 2007

Comments

9 Responses to “October 8th vs. The Indians”

Straylightrise on October 8th, 2007 11:44 pm

well…we didn’t get swept like the phillies,cubs and angels.

Bye Joe. Been fun, but its time for a change. Goodbye Mussina, good riddance
Harry on October 8th, 2007 11:47 pm

Pettite, Wang, Joba, Hughes, and Kennedy.
Josh on October 8th, 2007 11:48 pm

Major choke job. Nice clutch hitting guys! Way to hit those solo HRs. Thanks for showing up DJ! So long Joe.

The Sox will walk through these guys.
jonm on October 8th, 2007 11:52 pm

~~The Sox will walk through these guys.~~

Not sure about that: Sabathia and Carmona are better than Beckett and Matsuzaka; Cleveland’s bullpen is much deeper than the Sox’; and the lineups are very close in quality. Indians in seven.
JeremyM on October 9th, 2007 12:06 am

Well, that sucked. For some reason I’m not as depressed as the last few years. Guess I’m used to it. If Cleveland goes out and gets punked by the Sox, that will definitely make things worse.

I’m disappointed in Alex Rodriguez, Byrd threw him some very hittable pitches and he did nothing with them. Still, I can’t help but feel that if they’re going to win it all, it’s going to be with him, not without him. We’ll see.

Torre is a very classy guy. His press conference was very well done. It hurts me to see him giving another losing press conference. And I don’t know that he’s the reason they’ve lost three straight division playoffs. But they have to try something else. Offer him a job upstairs and let’s move on.

Steve, thanks for an entertaining year of blogging, bring on pitchers and catchers reporting.
Steve Lombardi on October 9th, 2007 12:23 am

~~~Steve, thanks for an entertaining year of blogging, bring on pitchers and catchers reporting.~~~

Thanks - and, don’t worry, I’ll be doing this everyday between now and Opening Day 2008 too!
baileywalk on October 9th, 2007 12:25 am

Way to kick Mussina for no reason, Straylight. Yeah, he was really the bad guy tonight.

Three at-bats tonight: A-Rod striking out with two men on in the first (it changed the game); Damon popping up with the bases loaded and one out; Jeter grounding into that deadly double play with men on first and third. A-Rod got his home run tonight, but, boy, was that strikeout a killer. The other two at-bats were just as bad.

But while we’re focusing on the hitters, let’s be honest: the biggest goat of this series was Wang. There’s no way around it. Yeah, he’s a good pitcher and he’s been great these last two years. But he is the reason we lost. He got clobbered in game one and put the team out of it early. And tonight he was equally as bad. It was probably a mistake bringing him back on three days’ rest (though definitely not unjustifiable). (This isn’t to insult Wang; I like him very much, but it’s a fact: he started two of the four games and gave up 12 ER in 5.2 IP.)

I truly think this team will end its dry spell once Joba, Hughes and Kennedy are firmly in the rotation. That might not be next year. But soon. Pettitte will be back. And after that you might have a rotation that shakes out to be Joba, Hughes, Wang and Kennedy.

Until this team establishes some real pitching that shows up in the post-season, we’re going to have more years like this.

Once Joba and Hughes ground themselves, things will turn around.
JeremyM on October 9th, 2007 1:07 am

I have to agree, the most crushing blow to me was seeing Wang turn into Kevin Brown. A-Rod not getting the job done, among others, hurts as well, but it was certainly a team effort to lose.

It’s going to take me awhile to get over Paul Byrd showing up with nothing, and getting the win. Other than that, take care of business this off-season (yes, that includes bringing back A-Rod), and bring on 08.
snowball003 on October 9th, 2007 11:34 am

Moose actually did a pretty good job. I hate when he toys with my emotions like that.

This “A-Rod not getting the job done” crap is what really gets me though. He struggled mainly against Carmona. He struck out twice on 6 pitches last night, which is awful, but then came out of it. And when he made outs, he got only himself out. Jeter hit into at least 2 inning-ending, absolutely awful rally-killing double plays.

I would rather the media didn’t get on anyone for their struggles because it doesn’t make them better, it just makes the situation worse. But if your’e going to get on A-Rod for his struggles, you have to get on Jeter too. But no one’s going to because he’s Jeter. And a lot of people are going to disagree with me and say that Jeter shouldn’t get crap–he’s a Yankee, he’s the Captain, but to me, his DP last night was the worst.