Si Si Sabathia

A pulverizing pinstriped-pitcher silenced the Los Angeles Angels in his second stint this American League Division Series. Left-handed stud, C.C. Sabathia built on his post-season tear by tossing eight innings of one-hit ball in California Tuesday night. He did so with seriousness and austerity. C.C. is a real professional whenever he takes the mound. The New York Yankees are now just one win away from the World Series after hanging ten against the Halos in 10-1 game four final. Manager Joe Girardi didn’t have to make any abrupt advances to tax the bullpen this game. Sabathia was too good to come out and never skipped a beat as this game unfolded.
Sabathia outlasted southpaw newcomer, Scott Kazmir, in the arms department. Kazmir crumbled in his second post-season showing for the Angels posting four walks and barely making it through as many innings. Sabathia was the hurler going on three days’ rest, but Kazmir looked the more exhausted and tired arm. The Angels’ starter worked slowly and kept the Yankees scoreless through three innings. Kazmir fired a wild pitch in the top of the third but struck out Mark Teixeria to end the inning. Teixeria has really been struggling at the plate for New York. Aside from his homerun against Minnesota in the ALCS, he hasn’t been particularly productive at the plate. It’s a good thing the All-star first baseman makes up for it in the field. Teixeria’s defense is truly second to none.
Kazmir yielded a single to Alex Rodriguez in the top of the fourth. Bomber backstop, Jorge Posada, then laced a double off the lefty. Posada reached third on a failed fielder’s choice, and Rodriguez scored. ARod slid safely underneath Howie Kendrick’s high throw to the plate. Posada recorded the Yankees’ second run on Melky Cabrera’s slap to left field. Cano also scored on the play to give the Bombers a three run edge. Cabrera finally broke out of his hitting slump in game four. Melky had three hits in four trips to the dish to carry the bottom of the paltry-this-post-season New York order.
Rodriguez mystified the home crowd in California with another deep drive in game four. ARod nailed a two-run fifth inning long ball to make it three straight games with a homerun. Rodriguez was so in the zone, scoring three runs and unchaining three hits. Jason Bulger was the reliever on the receiving end of ARod’s smack. The MVP went yard on just the second pitch thrown by the 30 year old Angel. The Yankees put up a two spot in the eighth inning off Matt Palmer. The raw reliever surrendered a homerun to the more polished slugger, outfielder Johnny Damon. Damon is starting to swing at his capabilities too. The whole New York lineup had much better at-bats than in the previous three games. Hideki Matsui and Nick Swisher were the only two Bombers not credited with one of the team’s 13 hits Tuesday. Four Yankees clubbed doubles and two hitters stole bases. However, two runners were also caught stealing. In fact, the Yankees used poor judgment on the base paths last night, but caught a lucky break. The umpiring was horrendous last night and has been an issue all season in my opinion. Even the baserunning this year has been ridiculously bad. Tim McClelland and Dale Scott blew three calls in game four. Scott errantly called Swisher safe on a pickoff play at second base. Nick was clearly tagged on the hands. Replays showed McClelland was wrong for calling Swisher out for leaving third base early later in the game. The umpire definitely took away a Bomber run with that oversight, but his largest lapse occurred when he awarded Cano third base when he was blatantly standing off the bag and was tagged out. It’s a good thing last night’s miscues didn’t occur at a pivotal point. The bad play calling became moot because the Bombers owned the Halos. The Angels scattered five hits. Their only run came off Sabathia’s solo mistake in allowing a solo shot by Kendry Morales. The hefty hurler faced thirty batters and was replaced by Chad Gaudin in the ninth. Gaudin shut down all three batters he faced to give the Yankees a two game lead in this ALDS.
Rodriguez is hitting .407 this post-season and is tied with Lou Gehrig and Ryan Howard for the longest post-season RBI streak, with eight. ARod has not gone more than seven at-bats in the playoffs without a homerun. The All-star has already planted himself in Yankee lore and earned that essential mystique necessary to be considered one of the franchise greats. Should the Yankees win Friday night and advance to the Fall Classic, it’s safe to say ARod is a shoo-in for MVP. That’s if the Angels don’t extend this to a seven-game series. In that case, Sabathia’s turn in the rotation will come around for a third time. And that will be something to Si Si.

Parting Points: I’m listening to some Stevie Wonder with a little Take That thrown in.
There are some very interesting stories about Terrelle Pryor in the news. Perhaps I will get to the matter tomorrow.