Brian Fuentes comes on to pitch for the Angels in the ninth, trying to save a 7-6 lead.
Update: Damon lines a shot right at Morales at first for the first out.
Update: Teixeira flies out to right. Two down.
Update: Wow. They are intentionally walking Alex Rodriguez! If Matusi homers, Scioscia deserves a heap of scorn.
Update: Guzman runs for Rodriguez.
Update: Matsui walks, and the tying run moves to second.
Update: Gardner runs for Matsui, and Cano comes to the plate.
Update: Fuentes hits Cano in the back. That brings up Swisher, batting .125 in the series with no RBI.
Update: Swisher grounds to third, but the umpire calls it a foul ball. Very close. Strike one.
Update: Swisher falls behind 0-2 with another foul ball. Nick’s strength is walking, he should try to draw one here.
Update: Swisher evens the count at 2-2.
Update: Swisher works the count to 3-2.
Update: Swisher pops up the 3-2 pitch to short, and the Angles win 7-6. There will be baseball Saturday night in the Bronx.
We saw a lot of Guts, Heart and DeterminationTM in that game. Burnett had a bad start, but kept the Yankees in the came until they came back in the six. Lackey pitched great, and didn’t want to come out in the sixth, and given the results he might have been right.
The Angels however, came back with three runs in the top of the seventh to win the game. Great relief pitching by Jered Weaver and Mariano Rivera kept things tight late. Mike Scioscia’s decision to walk Alex Rodriguez with none on and two out in the ninth almost backfired as Brian Fuentes became wild. In the end, however, he got the save, and the Angels live another day. Joe Saunders and Andy Pettitte face off on Saturday night.
Posted by David Pinto at 11:18 pm | League Championship Series | Permalink | 3 Comments
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October 22nd, 2009 @ 11:47 pm
I don’t know, I think you had to walk A-rod there with a 1-run lead with 2 lefties coming up. No point pitching around him in case Fuentes makes a mistake. Can you imagine the scorn that would’ve been heaped on Scioscia if A-rod had tied the game there.
October 23rd, 2009 @ 3:17 am
Scioscia had Bonds walked a bunch of times in 2002 – he was not going to let arod tie up the game. Fuentes just didn’t follow through by getting the next guys out easily, but at least he got the win, and this series is not over.
October 23rd, 2009 @ 7:08 am
The IBB did pay off, but I agree with David that it was a dumb move. Swisher could have given the Yankees the lead with a single! Or a Cano single to tie it, or a Matsui double. Lots of scenarios, none of them especially unlikely, all make the IBB costly. Scioscia got lucky.