ALDS Game 1

So What?

Happens every year it seems that the Yankees have a pitching meltdown in the post-season. It really sucked when it was Javier Vazquez and Esteban Loaiza in 2004. Randy Johnson was pretty craptacular in both 2005 and 2006. People may recall my headline: Screw You Randy Johnson ...and the Horse You Came Riding In On after his dismal showing in last year's ALDS.

While I am not a forgiving guy, I can live with it if Chien-Ming Wang has one bad outing fo several reasons. He's been good this year; good enough to deliver the Yankees to the ALCS. He's also one of the homegrown guys. When they fail, you live with it. It's the mercenaries who took lots of money that you hate to see pitching a clanger.
Anyway, here's today's clanger:

It is only one game, of course, but what a game it was for the Cleveland Indians. They used four home runs to crush the Yankees, 12-3, in Game 1 of their American League division series on Thursday. The Indians battered Chien-Ming Wang, got four runs batted in from Kenny Lofton and four nearly perfect innings from their bullpen.

“With what we had to deal with pretty much all year, especially since we dug a hole for ourselves, we understand that we can’t feel sorry for ourselves,” Manager Joe Torre said. “If somebody beats us up, you tip your hat to them and come back the next day.”

The Yankees recovered from a 21-29 start to reach the playoffs for the 13th season in a row. To escape the first round for the first time since 2004, they will need to take better advantage of their scoring chances.

They made C. C. Sabathia throw 114 pitches in five innings, yet scored only three runs. Sabathia tied a career high by walking six batters, yet none came in to score.

“We were doing a good job — sort of — on the offensive side,” said Johnny Damon, who hit a leadoff home run just inside the right-field foul pole. “We got his pitch count up, but he knows how to pitch out of tough situations.”

Wang is the Yankees’ ace, but he tied a career high in runs allowed. He gave up eight in four and two-thirds innings, walking four and hitting a batter. He said his sinker was up, which forced him to throw more sliders and changeups.

“Today, I feel no good,” Wang said. “Lots of hits, lots of runs.”

Wang gave up his first run when Ryan Garko punched a two-out slider to center for a single in the first. He gave up a leadoff home run to Asdrubal Cabrera on a changeup in the third.

The pitching coach, Ron Guidry, said the Indians resisted Wang’s sinkers, knowing that they end up too low to be called strikes. That forces Wang to throw the pitch higher in the zone, where it can be hit. When he tried to freelance with his off-speed pitches, he paid for it.
“If you have to go away from what always works best, it’s almost like a learning experience,” Guidry said. “The only problem is, in a postseason game, you don’t want to try to learn something new.”

Ugh. What can you do? The Indians were up to Wang's Worm-Killin' Ways. They clobbered him for 8 runs in 4.2 innings. It was so depressing watching the game unfold on the Yahoo game-thingy, I didn't bother calling my folks. Maybe they'll do better tomorrow.