ALCS: Rainy days and (maybe) Mondays
The decision by MLB to postpone tonight's scheduled Game 6 at Yankee Stadium would appear to be to the advantage of the Los Angeles Angels, who would be in a position to bring back ace John Lackey on Monday if they can defeat Andy Pettitte tomorrow night and extend the series.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi has decided to stay with Pettitte in Game 6 instead of going back to C.C. Sabathia, even though the Yankees ace would be back on regular rest. This way, Sabathia gets an extra day after pitching on short rest in Game 4. Lackey would be on short rest if he gets the opportunity to face Sabathia on Monday.
Perhaps a case can be made for moving Sabathia up and trying to avoid giving the Angels a chance to build some more momentum, but it would have been a tough sell when you consider that Pettitte owns a share of the major league record for both series-clinching victories (4) and total postseason victories (15) and could take sole possession of both marks with a victory tomorrow night.
Comments
Pete, The team helped most by the rain out is the Phillies. If the ALCS goes to a Game 7, it will be a pitching match up of Sabathia and Lackey, meaning that the defending champions won't face either ace for Game 1 or Game 2 of the World Series and that could be huge in determining the winner.
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Pete's reply: You're absolutely right. Just another reason to root for the Angels in Game 6.
Posted by: Ken Francis | October 24, 2009 10:17 PM
The Angels have hit Pettitte hard this season. He last beat them in 2007.
On Monday night, the Angels will defeat the Yankees 6-4 with Kendry Morales getting a big 2-run home run.
The Angels then will go on to defeat the Phils in 7 games. Torii Hunter wins the Series MVP.
Posted by: Barry | October 24, 2009 11:21 PM
Postseason victory records (and series-clinching victory records for that matter) are meaningless.
The top six on the postseason wins leaderboard (Pettitte, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine, Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux and Curt Schilling) all played for the Yankees, Red Sox or Braves in the division series era.
Smoltz won seven division series games. Pettitte won six. Maddux won five. Clemens and Glavine won four. How's that for padding your scores?
You know how many of those guys are ranked in the top 15 in World Series wins (the only postseason wins category that really counts)?
ZERO.
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Pete's reply: All the postseason records are skewed badly one way or another. Obviously, with the three-tiered postseason, the great players of the past are basically shut out. But, on the other hand, most of the World Series records have long been skewed toward the Yankees, because they have been the dominant franchise for 90 years or so.
Posted by: b | October 25, 2009 12:29 AM
Peter, the reason the Yankees are so dominant is that they have to go out and buy their championships. This is why MLB needs to have some sort of salary cap. But I know it will never happen. If it does happen, it will on another planet. I will always root against the Yankees no matter what.
Posted by: Dave | October 25, 2009 4:10 PM
Dave -
Only six of the Yankees 26 World Series wins have come since the dawn of free agency.
And since they started going crazy, signing Mike Mussina and Jason Giambi and assuming the contracts of Rogers Clemens, Kevin Brown and Alex Rodriguez earlier this decade, they haven't won a darn thing.
Posted by: b | October 25, 2009 6:19 PM