In fact, with man on 2nd, and a tie game in the bottom of the 9th, you wouldn’t guard the line in most cases, because a single to the outfield probably ends the game anyway, and the single to the 56 hole is considerably more likely than the double down the 3rd base line.

Unless…you’re trying to bury the FB inside to a right-hand hitter. In which case, cheating over to the line a couple of steps is the right play, and the shortstop is supposed to move to his right to cover the 56 hole. When Robertson and Posada decided to go after Peralta that way, someone should have told A-Rod to take a couple of steps to the line. Or Jeter should’ve signaled him from short (open mouth or closed mouth).

I would have let Wang pitch the 9th, but in the end the Yanks had to opportunities to end this game and they couldn’t come up with a hit. I expect to be let down by our bullpen, not by our bats.

No sense in guarding the line with a man on 2nd…..a single will most likely end the game so they are not worried about preventing a double.

And Arod, once again, was not guarding the line. What’s with that?

I’ll never understand this tie-game-on-the-road stuff
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Nor do I. It all has to do with restricting the number of innings worked by your closer. Apparently, you want to keep your relief ace to under 80 innings pitched for the year. Hoffmann hasn’t logged in 80 innings since ’97, Rivera had one season with 80 IP as a closer (80.67 in 2001), and Jonathan Papelbon has never put in 70 innings. Heck, in 2008 K-Rod had 69 save opportunities with less than 69 Innings all year!
The problem with this is that if your 5 man starting rotation is only giving you an average of 6 or so IP a game it leaves a whole lot of innings—between 300 and 400—to be filled in by relievers other than your closer. That’s 2 to 2.33 IP—and 2 to 3 middle relievers—on the average per game.

He should have used Mo in the bottom of the 9th. If you get out of it, you’re tied with Cleveland having dumped out the best in their bullpen. Maybe you have a big inning in the top of the 10th and the kids can close out the game,

I’ll never understand this tie-game-on-the-road stuff.

Fans like to say “let the kids play”. Well, sometimes the kids do not perform consistently. This is one of those days. It’s hard to learn on the job with this franchise.