"Angels Looking for a Prayer Against The Yankees"

I want to first of all thank Lisa and Stacy for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this blog. I love to talk baseball with people that love the game and KNOW the game and I can say without a doubt that these two ladies KNOW baseball :)

I have been a baseball fan ever sice I can remember and everyone that knows me knows my favorite team is the New York Yankees and so I want to share my heart about Game 4 and this year's ALCS.

All is well once again in Yankee Universe. Gone are the memories of a heart breaking extra inning defeat in Game 3 that found the Yankees lost on the basepaths and Girardi as front page news fodder. Gone are the memories of being 0-24 with RISP in this ALCS. And I dare say, gone is this so called "mystique" the Angels have had over the Yankees this past decade. This IS NOT the same Yankees teams that has been the Angels patsies over the past 7 years. The Angels had the Yankees number since 2002, but this year, it's totally different. What are those numbers? The Yankees are outhitting the Angels in this series after 4 games .278 to .201 with A-Rod (.375, 3 HR, 5 RBI) leading the way. The Yankees pitching staff has a 2.16 ERA in the ALCS with their starters having a combined 2.20 ERA with CC Sabathia dominating to a tune of 2-0 with a 1.13 ERA.

Not only did the Yankees defeat the Angels Tuesday night, but they put away any hopes the Angels had of even attempting to win this series. Advantage in this series took a HUGE swing the Yankees way Tuesday night. Sure, the Angels could win Game 5 but what are the odds that they will win 2 in Da Bronx facing Pettitte a 2nd time and CC for the 3rd time, but this time on 4 days rest. The Yankees did exactly what they needed to do in Game 4, and that was to be aggressive at the plate AND on the bases. Even though Jeter was thrown out on his steal attempt to begin the game, the tone was set at that point, the Yankees were ready to play and do what it took to score runs, and not just by the long ball either. It was obvious at the beginning of the 1st inning that Girardi and the Yankees clearly wanted to go for the jugular, and that they did. And CC was huge (no pun intended) in this game, proving to be in my opinion, the Yankees Co-MVP this post season along with A-Rod. One of my keys to the game last night was that CC needed to have a strong performance and except for a shaky 5th inning, he dominated the Angels batters with only one mistake pitch of the night, that being a solo home run to Morales to make the score 5-1 New York, but the Angels clearly were never in this game, Kazmir looked like a deer in the headlights once he saw the aggressiveness of the Yankee hitters, and like a shark, when the Yankees smelled fear and saw blood, they attacked. And what was even better was that CC's performance kept Jumpin Joe Girardi from visiting the mound last night, a place he has visited quite frequently in the past 2 games.

Even in this win, there were still some signs of poorly used at bats where a sacrifice fly or a sac bunt would advance a runner and also some mental errors on the bases, especially with the poor base running by Posada and Cano. The Yankees have to cut back on the mental errors because every game is not going to be a blowout and those mental lapses that costed runs in Game 4 could be huge in the World Series. But overall, I was very impressed by the performance Tuesday night and hopefully if they keep this up, thanks especially to CC and A-Rod and Jeter and Teixeira's fantastic fielding, and if the other Yankee hitters follow suit, then I believe that championship number 27 is well within their grasp.