Comeback

Hi everybody. Back from a long cold winter, I will try to revitalize my blog. At the end of last season I was fed up with baseball. I’ve seen more than 240 games live or on demand and after the Yankees had been kicked out by the Rangers for me the season was over. I haven’t even seen the decision in the World Series.

But now it’s a new year and a new season is going to start, so the passion comes back. I think, I won’t watch so many games as in last year, instead I will watch some games live. No, not in the US – I’m sorry, but my budget is to small to come around and visit the big leagues. But I will watch some games here in Germany! Yeah, you’ve read right, we also have baseball leagues and teams here. Baseball played in Germany isn’t very well known even not in our own country. For that reason I won’t write so much about the Yankees as I did last year, instead I will tell you more about our favorite sports here in my home country during the next weeks and months. I think I will enjoy it – and maybe you will too.

To be continued…

ALCS 1

I knew it would be hard to face the Rangers but I really haven’t expected such a bad start as tonight. For another time the Yankees had a pitching disaster and I’m really sorry that this time CC was affected. Especially the 1st inning made it a horrible night for him and the rest wasn’t much better. On the other side C.J. Wilson made a great job for at least 7 innings nearly pitching in a Cliff Lee way.
But on the other side things increased for the Yankees when Dustin Moseley took the mound. He made a good job and that seemed to be the starting signal for the offense to work. And they did it in an unrivaled way, taking the lead from the Rangers in the 8th. In that inning they did all their best without exception, starting with that hustling dive to 1st of Brett Gardner. And then it was Yankee business as usual: good running and hot fire in the bats wrestled the Rangers down and so finally Mo shuts the door for another time.
This first game of the series was an excellent start for it. The Yankees can’t feel to safe with this victory but it provides a basis for more. On the other side the Rangers should look forward, there are enough possibilities for them in the next games. Tension is mounting!

Rangers win

What a finish for the ALDS! No victory at home in 5 games are really exceptional but when you look at the numbers for the Rays through the regular season this seemed to “usual”. The key for the Rangers victory was the good base running, all runs were products of the exact game observance at that special moment. And the rest was made by Cliff Lee. Perfect!

And now we’ll see what will happen in the ALCS against the Yankees. Postseason history told us about the three victories against the Rangers in the late 90s but now it’s a new game and the look at the regular season gives you something to think over, especially playing in Arlington. I’m totally curious about it right now.

Surprise, surprise!

Whow! I’m still impressed of the Bombers win last night against the Twins. After the last games in September I hadn’t expected that clear predominance. Maybe someone has the idea to ask whether that numbers of losses at that time were only show to mislead all others over their real strength? Or were the Twins simply too weak to endanger the Yanks? Well, who cares right now! It was an awesome show they presented and together with their experience in Postseasons they are back to be named as favorite for the title.

In contrast for that purpose are the Rangers. After the two wins at Tropicana Field their way seemed to be easy. But it happened just the other way and the Rays stroke back twice unerringly. So all 4 games in this series wasn’t won by the home team – I hope that will happen the same way in game 5.

Another 2-0

What I’ve written about the Rangers in my last entry is now almost the same to write about the Yankees. They played patient, they played cool, they get the runs when they needed it. Tonight’s thanks especially go to Lance Berkman who made a pretty good job. But for another time in his career the big boy to rely on was Andy Pettitte. A friend of mine and Mets fan (Hi Mike. I hope you’re well?) wrote to me during the regular season that in his opinion the Yankees go as far as Andy takes them. Yeah, man, it looks like you’re right. And it was a good feeling to see my favorite player Brett Gardner running pretty well to give the lead the last safeness before Mo shuts the door. Coming up to Yankee Stadium, I hope that Phil Hughes will finish it.

Surprised???

I’m sitting here in front of my PC and can’t take the grin off my face. For sure, I’m not a prophet. And also for sure: I’m not a Rays fan at all. But this two games weren’t typical for them. When you take a look at the dugout it seems to be a look on a bunch of kids who were invited to a big party and they don’t know how to celebrate, totally not in the right ballpark. Now look at the Rangers – the contrast could hardly be starker. OK, everything is possible, even more in baseball. But does someone really believe that this series will return to Tropicana Field? I don’t.

Game-day 1

First game-day of the 2010 Postseason – and (nearly) everything happened as desired.

First game: what a great start for the Rangers. Cliff Lee did a marvelous job giving the Rangers the necessary support to hold the Rays down. The one run in the 7th didn’t do any harm to him. Another reason for me to believe that the Rangers are my lurking favorite.

Second game: the Phillies aren’t a lurking favorite, they are an odds-on favorite – at least for the National League. Respect to Doc, great show!

Third game: Well, again the Bombers had a little trouble with their pitching but this time they didn’t drop the ball. Good job by Teixeira, the home run was just in time to give the team the lead, and good job by Mo to do what he can do best: save the game. 

Postseason

Before the last game of the regular season I wrote to a friend that I don’t believe the Bombers will defeat their title this year because the don’t have the stability and the intentness to do it. I only named a little glimpse of hope when they would get the Twins in the ALDS. And now that’s the exact case that happens. We’ll see what will happen further.
But I still don’t believe in defending the title. My secret favorite are – the Rangers. I couldn’t fix it on special criteria but that’s my gut feeling. I would like to get a lot of comments here…

Entering October

Again game 1 tonight was an extremely thrilling match between the Yankees and the bloody Sox. And again our pitching was the trouble spot of our game. Andy didn’t seem to be as fit as wished from all of us. Since coming back from the DL he hasn’t found back his steadiness as before. But the rest of the bullpen isn’t very much better at the moment (maybe except of David Robertson) and so we are depending on the quality of our batters and runners to face wins.
This was right until the 9th inning when Phil Hughes entered the mound and pitched pretty well. It was a good idea from Joe Girardi to let him throw, he brought back the safeness into the team. After the Sox made an error in the 10th which allowed Speedy Gardner to score, Mariano continued Hughes way of reliability and made what he can do best: save wins. This is a good start into October, so let us forget that ugly last month. The postseason is reached, let’s play ball!!

The disaster continues

Now this seems to be the time of the season when really nothing went right. Last night six home runs aren’t enough to win against the bloody Sox and tonight got even worse. No hit until the 6th inning, then we got 2 but weren’t able to score a run. Ok, I agree with the risk to send Austin Kearns and try to score the first run. It doesn’t work, that could happen. But then the disaster continued with back to back home runs in the 7th for the opponent and that confirms me in my opinion that Chad Gaudin isn’t suitable to stay in the big leagues. His throwing isn’t variable, strong and good enough to become a reliable pitcher who gives a team the necessary durable support to earn a win. Sure, Ivan Nova wasn’t good tonight also but he seems to have the ability to compete well consistently.
The trouble continues in the 8th although Granderson hit’s a two-run homer. But that was all, nothing followed. Instead the Sox scored another run in the 9th and therefore all hopes were gone although A-Rod made his 611th career home run, but that was only a little cosmetics on the result. 4 losses at home in a row – great job, Bombers!!

A big congratulation to the Texas Rangers for winning the division title in the AL West, they made a great job tonight and through the whole season. I hope, Josh Hamilton will become better soon so that they can play at the playoffs in full strength.