Well last Friday's Pettitte/Matsuzaka matchup never happened because of the rain, but the following day a Pettitte/Wakefield and a Burnett/Matsuzaka did. The first game was another classic matchup between Boston and New York, whether the Red Sox have the replacements playing, or minor leaguers, it doesn't matter, all games subject to go extra innings, which both did on Saturday. Andy Pettitte scattered 9 hits and 3 earned over 4 innings. While it wasn't the picture perfect playoff-like Pettitte, it was still a grind-it-out performance. Pettitte kept the Yanks in the ballgame, and allowed the Yankee offense to go to work on the knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Wakefield can either throw a shutout over 7 innings, or give up 7 runs in 7 innings. This time Wakefield let up 5, in 5 innings. By the 7th, it was 5-3 Yanks with the big guns ready to go in the bullpen. The Yanks' bullpen would end up faltering, allowing a run in the 7th and 8th innings behind a compilation of Logan, Chamberlain, and usually Mr. Automatic Kerry Wood. Phil Hughes would come on in relief and got a well-earned 18th victory of the season. Brett Gardner would score after stolen base, after stolen base on a Jeter chopper. Small ball has been doing the trick for the Yanks as of late. The legend Mariano would get his 33rd save in the bottom of the 10th.
Game 2 was the same and different. There couldn't have been worse guys to go to for the back-end of a double header than A.J. Burnett and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Both pitchers threw a ton of pitches early and got in jam after jam creating picket fences on both halves of innings. 4-3 Yanks going into the 6th somehow, but that's where Burnett does what he does best, letting the Red Sox tie it right back up and then hand it to basically the Scranton (minor league) bullpen. Yanks would get 2 more runs in the top half of the 7th off of reliever Scott Atchison who looks like he's 57, but they would give those 2 runs right back in the bottom of the 8th thanks to a first in second jam Royce Ring left for rookie Ivan Nova. This was Nova's audition for a relief role in the postseason, and failed, not miserably, but did fail. Ivan Nova does not have it in the stretch. He is a completely different pitcher with runners on base, for the worse. This was a perfect storm, 1st and 2nd, 1 out, first relief appearance. He would let up 4 hits, walked 3! Got out of the inning tied somehow, and this led to another extra inning game in the same day where they would lose behind Ivan Nova himself, giving up a near homerun which ended up being a double, (would've been a triple if he didn't admire it) and the walk-off base hit to Eric Patterson, younger brother to Corey.
The worst part about the second game is that I left homecoming at Rutgers to go home and watch it. That makes me pretty awesome right? With that loss and a Tampa win, the Yanks lost control of their own destiny. Going into Sunday the Yanks would have to win behind Dustin Moseley and Tampa would have to lose to Kansas City (Sean O'Sullivan the starter) for the 3rd time in a 4 game series. In fact, neither happened. The Yanks would drop Sunday's game to Boston 8-4, while Tampa came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in extras.
The Yanks will be going in as the Wildcard after what looked like another division clinching season. It isn't neccessary to be a champion but it does mean the Yanks have to travel to Minnesota instead of coming home and playing Texas, and if the Yanks and Rays advance past the first round, they would have to go to Tampa, but it is what it is. Cue up the excuses and get ready for Liriano/Sabathia on Wednesday.
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