Yet Another OOTP6 Dynasty, Year 2: One Flew Over the Pale Hose

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by Jestor

welcome back, Craig.

Thanks. It is a pleasure and an honor to be back.

And we head into game 5 of the ALCS, tied 2-2...

[cknox0723]

I've written hundreds of thousands of words on this fake baseball team. I could write hundreds of thousands more on this game.

Sometimes words just don't do it.

		1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9    R   H   E
New York (A)	0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  7    7   8   0
Chicago (A)	0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0    1  10   0

What is there to say about that?

[ifspuds]

I'll give you one word: ouch.

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by ifspuds

I'll give you one word: ouch.

If you take the eighth inning score of one-nothing, that sums the game a hell of a lot better than the final score of seven-one. But if you look at things a little deeper, it's like sticking your head in the oven and turning it to 350, which I have actually done and do not recommend at all. AT. ALL.

It was one-nothing after eight, but it could have been so much more. Ace Mark Buehrle pitched a one-two-three first. Our first two hitters singled to start the home half, but leadoff man Vazquez and LF Podsednik, our speedy gonzales and roadrunner, were left stranded when the heart of the order couldn't get the ball out of the infield. The next run scoring threat comes with out in the third, same two guys on base, this time at the corners. But "Roadrunner" gets nabbed trying to steal second, and #3 man Ordonez flies out to left. First run of the game comes in the next frame, when a booming double by CF Vernon Wells is followed by a single by 1B Catalanotto.

Next time things get interesting is the bottom of the seventh.

You'll notice none of these occurances are coming with Yankees at the plate. That's because the left-hander Mark Buehrle is not only outpitching his counterpart Javier Vazquez at this point but perhaps anyone else who could have taken the mound that day. Through seven he'd allowed three lousy single and a base on balls, allowing one single Yankee runner to reach second. That was the pitcher Vazquez of all people, after his two-out hit to right was followed by a walk to 2B Marcus Giles. LF Bronson Sardinha struck out to end the threat.

Bottom of the seventh, Buehrle's the second man up. How can you take him out there? You can't...so after Adam Kennedy flies out to left, of course the pitcher who's a career .176 hitter deposits a soft liner into the emptiness of right center field for a hit. SS Vazquez follows with his third hit of the game, a liner to left-center. Up comes the "Roadrunner," swinging a 5,000 pound bat, and he cracks a hard one down the third base line. But 3B Rodriguez makes a hell of a stop and gets over to the bag in time for the force. #3 hitter Ordonez flies out again, this one snagged maybe 75 feet behind second base, the kind of thing the struggling to hang on rookies get sent to AAA for.

Buehrle strikes out the side in the top of the eighth.

That deserved its own line. Their ace reliever Scot Shields flies through the bottom of the inning and the Pale Hose are three outs away from heading back to the Empire State just a win away from some kinda crazy World Series trip.

And then THIS happened:

		1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9    R   H   E
New York (A)	0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  7    7   8   0
Chicago (A)	0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0    1  10   0

So many things have to go wrong for a seven-run inning to happen.

Do I really got to go there?

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by cknox0723

And then THIS happened:

		1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9    R   H   E
New York (A)	0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  7    7   8   0
Chicago (A)	0  0  0  1  0  0  0  0  0    1  10   0

So many things have to go wrong for a seven-run inning to happen.

Do I really got to go there?

I guess I don't have to go there, but may as well, it's over now. It's painful to think about how close we were to a 3-2 series lead, but it would feel worse to pretend it never happened and have it happen again, even on a smaller scale.

With a shutout through eight, having struck out the side the previous inning, ace southpaw Buehrle came out for the ninth. First mistake? If your best reliever is worse than your best starter when he's close to gassed, probably should have traded for a reliever at the deadline, not two outfielders. And if you can't trust your best reliever to protect a one run lead, just what the hell kind of bullpen do you have?

I still can't help but shake my head at this team making the ALCS. Traded for two outfielders at the deadline, a reliever, a utility man. And still, so many holes...in the bullpen, on the bench, at the back end of the rotation. But in lots of games, this team was plenty good enough. You can be imperfect, I guess, but sometimes those flaws look damn ugly.

Their #2 hitter LF Sardinha singled up the middle to start the inning. Any rational man would have taken Buehrle on a batter by batter basis and with that first guy getting on, brought the closer Roa in. However I am not a rational man. Buehrle's first pitch to number three hitter Rodriguez would escape the catcher Torrealba, putting that tying run at second. Any sane man would yank him then and there, **** his confidence, there's a game to be won, and besides the guy makes ten million a year, this is no Steve Blass here. I guess I was afraid Buehrle would lose 26 games next year if I yanked him.

But Rodriguez would strike out. Two outs away. However Buehrle would walk the next batter Jeter after a long nine pitch at bat.

At this point the closer Roa comes in. It's not a platoon thing because CF Winn is a switch hitter and a .300 hitter from both sides of the plate. So, what the hell was I thinking? Couldn't tell you.

The center fielder proceeded to do what he does best, making enough solid contact on a sinker to dink it over the infield. Everybody runs like hell once they see the ball's gonna drop, Sardinha rounds third and RF Ordonez throws home...

Let's stop for a second here. Throwing home, how many times do you actually get that runner trying to score from second, especially if he's got some legs and isn't a catcher or fat first baseman? Ten out of 100? Twenty? Thirty seven? I'd love to know, or maybe not, because Ordonez's throw sure didn't do much good. It was late, both runners still on the basepaths moved up, and that was the start of everything getting completely out of control.

The next batter Giambi (the little one) would crack a single over closer Roa's head, and that 1-0 lead had magically turned into a 3-1 deficit. Out of mercy right hander PJ Bevis would come out of the bullpen but I guess it was mercy for the poor Yankee batters, at least the ones who weren't creamed in the legs by Bevis's ninety four mile an hour heat. The final score gives you a good idea of how effective the side armer was. So do these two numbers, 27 and 9. That's the number of pitches PJ threw, and the numbers of strikes.

So there's a catastrophe of a ballgame. Probably worse than any nightmare you could've dreamed up when we headed into our home stadium up two games to none. Now it's back to New York, where we won the first two...but now it's either do that or go home 'til next year.

[cknox0723]

So here's how you take a really, really bad team and in two years get to game seven in Yankee stadium, one win away from the Series:

.....

.....

Not gonna lie, couldn't tell you how this all went down, let alone what you should take from it. Just one of those crazy things. Life works like that a lot if you stop and think about it.

I can't tell you how to get from game one to game seven because I can't really make sense of what happened in these seven games myself. Just look at the scores...

1. @NYY W 6-3
2. @NYY W 6-0
3. vs NYY L 5-2 (10 innings)
4. vs NYY L 7-5
5. vs NYY L 7-1 BECAUSE OF A SEVEN RUN NINTH INNING

What's the next two numbers in that pattern? I don't know, there is no pattern. It could be 3 badillion to 4, it could be 4-2.

It happened to be 6-4, and here's how:

.....

.....

[cknox0723]

The Yankees go for the series win by throwing their 22 year old prodigy Tyler Clippard, a kid who's already won that many games in the bigs at his young age. AL batting average leader Ramon Vazquez starts the ballgame off with a single. After LF "Roadrunner" Podsednik whiffs, #3 hitter Magglio Ordonez goes to the opposite field with a single, putting runners on the corners for our cleanup man. CF Wells cracks one to the right side, and 2B Giles has to just knock it down before he can do anything with it. The throw to first is late, and Vazquez is home safely with our first run. 3B Munson hits a soft tapper back to the pitcher for out number three.

Our right-hander is 35 year old Esteban Loaiza, brilliant with a 13-9 and 3.33 ledger a year after losing 16 games and posting an ugly 5.32 ERA, particularly brilliant in the playoffs so far with two sharp seven inning outings. His first at bat is ugly, uglier than even that past season in which I took to calling Loaiza "The Art of Suck." He leaves a wanting fastball out of the plate and Derek Jeter crushes it into a sea of jubilant fans in the loud, LOUD right field seats. Tie game. After CF Winn bounces out to "Speedy Gonzalez" Vazquez at short, 3B Rodriguez comes out of his ALCS funk with another loud, long bomb that finds a bleacher seat, not a glove. So much for a tie game. That's the scoring for the inning, all of it, but there's too much of it for my tastes. That's all the balls that get out of the infield, so maybe that's a good sign, but it sucks looking for the brightness in dark clouds when you NEED a win or the season over. These clouds better part and quick or we're done.

Top of the second inning goes one-two-three for the 22 year old Clippard. 1B "Shrunken" Giambi singles to start the bottom half, followed by a single by light-hitting catcher Lunsford, who's done nothing all series. The baby-faced pitcher lays down a perfect sacrifice bunt, and being careful with "Clutch" Jeter with two runners in scoring position, Loaiza lets him go with a walk. Bases loaded, one out, team at bat already with a one run lead. The floodgates could open real quick right here, with a .300 hitter in CF Randy Winn followed by the heart of the order of a team with a hundred and something million dollar payroll.

Loaiza responds with one sharp and perfectly placed offspeed pitch followed by another, getting ahead 0-2, and then the adrenaline or manufactured hormones kick in and he blows a fastball by Winn. That's big time. Of course there's still an out left to get, three runners out on the bases, and a guy who's hit, oh, 500 or so home runs in his career in 3B Alex Rodriguez. One bad pitch and that big time strikeout is gonna be irrelevant because...



Because the game's gonna be in the Yankees hands anyway. Loaiza throws that one bad pitch, just leaving one out over the plate a little too much, and Rodriguez crushes it way, way out there into the open skies...

His first inning blast landed in the left field seats. This one's out towards the middle of the outfield, so instead of clearing the bases by hitting a wall or a seat, there's space and time for Vernon Wells to track it down, keeping the score 2-1.

Doesn't do a damn thing for our offense, hitless again in the third, which wastes a two-out opportunity after "Speedy Gonzalez" draws a walk and swipes second. Loaiza takes the bump in the bottom of the inning and LF Matsui leads off with a frozen rope to the left-center field gap, good for a two-bagger. 2B Giles plates with a softer hit to the same area, putting the game again in a dangerous place where things could get out of hand quickly, but Loaiza gets a reprieve by mowing down the lighter-hitting bottom part of the order.

Cleanup man Wells leads off in the fourth and strikes out swinging. 3B Eric Munson pops out to the catcher Lunsford in foul territory. 1B Catalanotto strikes out looking. How's no balls in play for an offensive black hole?

A Jeter double followed by a Rodriguez single stretches the home team's lead to four to one after four full innings. Though that one run is all they get in the fourth, this constant parade of hits and baserunners is stickier than ticker tape.

If it's still four-one after five, a deep bullpen like theirs can probably hold that lead for 4 innings, especially since only one club's putting the round bat on the round ball and hitting it square, and it ain't the Pale Hose. All that would mean we're going home 'til next year. But 2B Adam Kennedy draws a leadoff walk, giving us a baserunner without any outs for the first time since the first inning. Then we get a ball hit square. As luck has it sometimes, this ball gets hit square at somebody. But even though C Yorvit Torrealba one hop rocket down the 3rd base line is snared on the dive by "Game 6 Hero?" Rodriguez, and his bullet to first nails the slow-footed catcher by a step or two, it's a ball hit hard. It's not watching a parade of hits by the other team, or three quick outs made without a ball getting hit in fair territory, or our number three or four or five hitters making weak little outs. There's a runner in scoring position with less than two outs, and maybe there's even a pulse as the number nine spot in the order comes up.

A pulse! The pitcher Loaiza sneaks a little liner past the infield, Kennedy rounds third and beats no-armed CF Winn's wimpy throw and the deficit's down to just two little crooked numbers. Speedsters Vazquez and Podsednik make two more of those quick little meek outs to end the frame without any more fireworks, but being down 4-1 entering the sixth seemed a lot scarier than being down 4-2. Maybe all runs are created equal, but probably not in the playoffs when you're facing a bullpen that could kick some serious ass if all it's got to do is get through four innings.

Loaiza marches through the fifth, no hits, no messes, a runner that reaches on error quickly erased by a caught stealing. In the sixth it's the heart of the order for the Pale Hose and the home starter Clippard stays in. RF Ordonez hits a two-hopper to third. CF Wells pops out to left.

Then left-handed hitting third baseman Eric Munson blasts a no doubt about it long ball to right-center, longer than either of the two home runs hit earlier, and just like that the lead's down to a single run, 4-3.

1B Catalanotto rolls over an easy grounder to second to end the inning.

Home backstop Lunsford might be putting himself in Yankee lore with a single to left to start the bottom of the sixth, his second hit of the game.

Silly computer mistake but let the pitcher bat, or more accurately try to bunt, though I'm sure I've done things that are just as silly. He can't bunt or hit, and strikes out. SS Jeter pops out, but CF Winn gets plunked by an errant pitch and that brings up 3B Rodriguez, two out and two on, and he is just killing the ball today.

Loaiza gets ahead in the count, at-bat ends up a strike out looking. Believe there's a chance yet for the season to keep going? Just a chance?

Batting: Chicago (A), top of 7th.

Pitching: Tyler Clippard
2B Adam Kennedy:
DOUBLES down the right field line.
C Yorvit Torrealba:
SINGLES down the left field line.
A. Kennedy to third.
Kennedy scores.
Torrealba to second.

How about now? And that was just the first two batters of the inning.

That duo at the bottom of the order is a huge reason why a kind of lame and weak little team can string together some runs, provide some offense for a decent pitching staff. Sort of stumble their way into a game six, and all of a sudden end up back in that game when things looked like they were going to hell in the second.

But Clippard rebounds, striking out pinch-hitter Enrique Wilson. SS Vazquez smacks one in the area of short, and Jeter makes a nice stop but kicks it around after that, and the speedster beats his throw into the bag. It goes in the books as an error. Maybe if Vazquez was a fat catcher, that fumble or two would have given him the base, but "Speedy Gonzalez" can outrun almost any baseball.

LF Podsednik was acquired for a king's ransom at the deadline and then his bat completely went to hell down the stretch. He was "LDS Jesus" for a day, almost single-handedly winning the clinching game of the ALDS with three hits including a home run, but this at-bat is more like all of those disgusting September ones. Strike one! Strike two! And with his back to the wall, a lunge, a bad hack, and...back to the dugout.

That ends Clippard's day, and right-hander Travis Harper comes on to face the heart of the order. It doesn't end like all those other at-bats in this game, like all those pitiful outs in all those other games. RF Ordonez singles to center. CF Wells singles to center. It's 6-4 before Eric Munson grounds out to second to end the inning, and this team carried by pitching isn't going to cough that up. Akinori Otsuka pitches a scoreless seventh, pitches us into the ninth with a one-two-three eighth inning...

And Joe Roa gives up a leadoff hit to Randy Winn. Joe Roa, who's saved 37 Pale Hose games in the last two years but blew a tie game in extra innings in game 3 and a save opportunity in game 5, suddenly he could blow one more and Alex Rodriguez is lumbering at the plate. Roa loses him quickly, five pitches and just one in the strike zone, and now one swing of the bat could end it all. Is that really how it's supposed to go?

Not this time. LF Matsui hits a hard bouncer towards first base. 1B Catalanotto stops it, gets the force at second. One out and men on the corners for 2B Giles, who takes a ball and then swings when he shouldn't have, at a sinker burrowing down towards the ground. He rolls it right back to Roa, who pivots and tosses it to second. SS Vazquez catches it cleanly, and with all his momentum going over the second base bag and towards first, fires one down to Catalanotto. Game over.

Game seven, here we come.

[ifspuds]

That's my man Yorvit!

[cknox0723]

ALCS game 7 against a way better Yankees ballclub coming up tomorrow afternoon, rain sleet or shine. Wish I could give an exact time if you are insane or bored or want to follow along inning by inning. I'm gonna go with 2:00 EST but that's just a guess. Either way bust out the peanuts and cracker jacks, it's gonna be a blast, at least for me it will be. Gonna spend the rest of the night throwing little preview posts on here. Winner goes to the Series against the other, better Chicago club, loser goes home.

How the hell are we playing for a World Series bid? Unbelievable.

[gordyhulten]

[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by gordyhulten

Peanuts and cracker jacks, too. And maybe bananas? It's great to see you around here again, friend.

If it comes down to pitching here's what we're looking at for this winner take all game:

RHP Jon Garland (0-1, 4.91 in the postseason) and RHP Kelvim Escobar (NR)

There's a lot more numbers at my fingertips.

Garland won 4 games and lost 15 two years ago, those are probably my favorite two to pull out in a moments notice. Since then he's gone 24-20 with an ERA to match, going from almost out of the league to about the same as any other right-hander who doesn't throw that hard. Might show that even at 26 there's still some growing up to do. I hope so for my own sake!

Escobar's career has gone the other way the last few years. He was 17-9 and 16-9 three and four years ago for Anaheim, but hurt his shoulder towards the end of that 17 win season before coming to the Empire state. Last year was mostly a wash between the hurt shoulder and later the elbow, but this year the veteran won 14 games, showing above average control and a stinginess with home runs. Maybe not displaying the fastball of a few years ago, but who says you need a heater to win a playoff game? I'm not sure I'd bet on the 31 year old to still be pitching at age 35, but all the chips are raised on just this one game, at least for the moment.

Garland pitched two solid seven inning outings against the Empire this season, including one in this very series which you can read all about if you search this thread and "spontaneous combustion." No lie. The stat line was prettier then his offspeed stuff but he gave us a chance to win.

Escobar will do the same for the home side, at least if his 2-1 record in 3 starts against a Pale Hose offense is any indication. I dont think it is, especially since the offense he faced in April, May and June resembles this offense in name only.

But I am sleepy and there's only one way to find out. Tune in tomorrow afternoon, kiddies! 2:30 eastern, 1:30 central, 10:30 ? Greenwich mean time. I dont know about you, but I'm excited.

[cknox0723]

I wish I had some nachos or something.

ALCS game 7 lineups and postseason averages:

Pale Hose
(bats left) SS Ramon Vazquez 14 H in 38 AB, .368 avg/.372 obp/.395 slg, 6 runs scored, 2 SB-2 CS
L LF Scott Podsednik 10-35, .286/.359/.400, 1 HR, 8 RBI, 4 BB-10 K, 2 SB-3 CS
R RF Magglio Ordonez 10-38, .263/.364/.395, 5 BB-7 K
L 3B Eric Munson 8-35, .229/.282/.514, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 3 BB-6 K
R CF Vernon Wells 10-40, .250/.279/.375, 1 HR, 9 RBI
L 1B Frank Catalanotto 8-34, .235/.297/.294, 3 BB-5 K
L 2B Adam Kennedy 7-35, .200/.263/.229, 3 BB-6 K
R C Yorvit Torrealba 12-35, .343/.361/.486, 1 HR, 5 RBI
R P Jon Garland pitches, doesn't hit, bunts like a girl

CF Wells usually bats fourth but their moundsman Escobar has a pronounced split against lefties, and Munson's power bat has been on fire recently anyway.

Yankees
SS Derek Jeter .429/.487/.629 in 35 AB, 3 steals, 2 home runs, seriously baseball gods is this a joke?
CF Randy Winn .243/.282/.297 in 37 AB
3B Alex Rodriguez .278/.366/.750, 5 HR 11 RBI
LF Hideki Matsui .189/.211/.378, 2 HR 6 RBI
2B Marcus Giles .200/.317/.343
RF Brian Giles .273/.333/.318 in 27 AB
1B Jeremy Giambi .323/.417/.452 in 31 AB (73 at bats in the regular season)
C Trey Lunsford .125/.152/.188 in 32 AB (ouch)
P Jason Schmidt pitches, doesn't hit...

So much for that lineup taking advantage of Kelvim Escobar and his split against lefties. Instead it's the 19 game winner Schmidt on the mound on three days rest, just like game 4 in which he got the win. Crazy computer? Crazy like a fox, maybe. I rip up the lineup card after I see theirs but wind up going with the same one because what other lineup is there to write, really?

NOBODY hit Schmidt this year, his ERA was just over two, and he won the Cy Young last year. We managed four against him last time and still lost because Ryan Franklin gave up three runs too quickly and Wade Miller coughed up some more in early relief.

This guy is a Cy Young winner but only three days removed from a 114 pitch outing, and up to 270+ innings for the second consecutive season. There's your hope.

It's up to Jon Garland and a bullpen with all hands on deck, including ace southpaw Mark Buehrle on two days rest, to try to outduel a guy who has piled up 43 wins in the last 2 seasons. 2:44...first pitch coming up...

[cknox0723]

Ramon Vazquez leading off, winner take all to face the Cubs in the Series. Partly cloudy, temperature in the fifties. First pitch from Schmidt is a fastball high for a ball, second pitch is a fastball rapped neatly back to him. Toss to first and there's one away.

[ifspuds]

Here we go, Pale Hose, here we go! *clap clap*

[cknox0723]

Schmidt's got a hell of a slider and a changeup that can give batters fits, since he throws pretty hard and with a lot of movement on the fastball and slider. He's relying on the fastball so far, missing with the slider to give Scott Podsednik the early advantage in his first at-bat. An overthrown fastball bounces past catcher Trey Lunsford to swing the count to two balls, no strikes. Needing a strike, Schmidt delivers a fastball on the inside half, Podsednik takes a decent hack but gets under it, lofting a pop fly to center field. Can of corn for CF Randy Winn, two away in the top of the first.
Pale Hose 0, Yankees 0

[cknox0723]

Nice to have company up in here!

Schmidt's missing the zone with a lot of his pitches, so if there's one thing that'd drive you crazy watching this game, it'd be a first pitch hack. Wanna make those struggling pitchers work harder, you know?

But his first pitch to #3 hitter Magglio Ordonez is a fastball that's mostly straight, and Ordonez turns on it like those professional hitters do so well and whacks it on a line into left for a clean single. That pitch was Schmidt's highest radar gun reading at 93 mph, but don't matter how far you can dial it up when it's mostly straight.
Pale Hose 0, Yankees 0
Man at first, two outs top of first

[cknox0723]

Usually it'd be Vernon Wells batting at this juncture. But 3B Eric Munson batted cleanup for half the year before the center fielder came on board and his power approach at the plate has been working the last few games, while Wells isn't hitting much.

With Ordonez leading off first just a few steps for show, Schmidt fires in a first pitch fastball and Munson takes a big cut but comes up empty. Nothing and one. Next pitch is a slider down far too low to tempt the big third baseman, and a little off the plate as well. 1-1 offering is another fastball in the ninety-one mile per hour range, just off the outside edge for ball two. The two-one's up above Munson's head and catcher Lunsford has to spring out of his crouch to grab it and not be propeled backwards. Big 3-1 pitch since a ball puts a runner scoring position, and Munson will be hacking at any strike that's not decent, but Schmidt snaps off a beautiful slider that curls right on the black of the outside corner to run the count full and get the home crowd even more louderer.

Payoff pitch is another fastball, down by the knees and moving in, Munson tops it and hits a slow grounder to first. Giambi takes it in and jogs to the bag and everyone heads back to the dugout. No runs, one hit, no errors, one man left on.
Pale Hose 0, Yankees 0
Bottom of the first coming up.

[cknox0723]

Jon Garland's on the mound for the visitors, 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in 3 postseason starts, having walked 6 and given up 13 hits (two home runs) in 11 innings. When he's snapping off curves and complementing his average fastball with an above average changeup, Garland can rack up the easy fly ball outs, but a little lapse of control can lead to those balls getting blasted over the fence real quickly.

Between May 24th and July 27th this season, Jon Garland went 10-0 over 13 starts, in part due to dumb luck and in part due to keeping the ball in the park, walk numbers down and baserunners out of scoring position. It's a simple game but it sure ain't easy.

Come on, Jonny boy!

[cknox0723]

First pitch to Derek Jeter is a fastball that "Calm Eyes" all but ignores, even though it's right over the plate. Strike one.

Garland goes back to the well again for his second pitch, but Jeter lines it over shortstop and into the outfield for a one-bagger. Not to get ahead of things here, but...all of a sudden, I'm thinking, will they steal? Hit and run? Randy Winn's coming up and he's due, hasn't hit all postseason. Alex Rodriguez is on deck after him. These are the Yankees, and what the hell are we doing here again?

Come on, Garland, let's see some el strikos!

Pale Hose 0, Yankees 0
Man on first, bottom of first

[cknox0723]

The way a guy like Jeter approaches the game (at least in my head), you see him hustling down the line and it just feels like you should forfeit, right there. So he's leading off first base and all I can think is, "Ohno ohno ohno oh no **** **** ****."

Luckily Jon Garland's not blessed or cursed with my head. All Jeter does is lead off first for the entire second Yankees at-bat, scratching his butt while dawdling back to the bag after Randy Winn pops up a 1-2 fastball into the seats to keep the count alive, clapping his hands while the count runs to 2-2 and then 3-2, and staring ahead when Garland fires a fastball past the center fielder for a swing and a miss strike three.

One away, and here comes Mr. Clutch himself.
Pale Hose 0, Yankees 0
Man on first, bottom of first