ALDS Game 1

A Moose By Any Other Name Is


Mike Mussina showed his stuff for 98 pitches and led the Yankees to a 4-2 win over the LA Angels (of Annaheim). For weeks we've been saying we don't know what we're going to get from the elbow-affected Moose, but there he was, walking nobody, challenging the hitters and he came up big with the win. A win in the pocket in the ALDS is big, especially in the away game.

Al Leiter made his post-season debut as a LOOGY, and star rookie Robinson Cano had his first post-season hit, a 3-run double that all but decided the game in the first inning - but that's 20-20 hindsight.

And so the Yankees face John Lackey on the mound tomorrow, sending Chien-Ming "Tiger" Wang to pitch. How the contact hitting Angels deal with extreme ground-baller Wang is going to be very interesting. So is Game 3 back in NYC with Randy Johnson, but that's getting way ahead of ourselves.

Meanwhile, the Chisox clobbered the Bosox behind the efforts of the Bronze Titan Jose Contreras. Why couldn't Jose pitch like that for the Yanks? it would've saved them going to Esteban Loaiza in the ALCS last year. Rhetorical.
Gotta say, I am happy for Contreras.


Almost Gratuitously, Here's Cap'n Derek Jeter, Above


Jeter had 2 hits and walk, scoring a run. He did okay. Better than St. Jeter was the rookie Robinson Cano:
Meet Robinson Cano, the future of the Yankee organisation, ten years on from Cap'n crunch, a Yankee position player has come u from the minors and earned his pinstripes, which is probably the best thing since Alfonso Soriano. Like Soriano, Cano is a latin Free Agent who has come up big for the organisation; like with Soriano, people complain about his lack of walks, but he can flat out hit for average and power as his September showed. So I guess we're pretty pleased with Mr. No.22 next to Mr. No. 2.

People are comparing him to Miguel Tejada, Rod Carew and Roberto Alomar. Those aren't ordinary run of the mill names there, and one suspects it's not hype. The best news of 2005, win or lose in the play-offs is that Cano proved the critics wrong and the Yanks most definitely have answered the 2nd base question for some years to come without spending that customary fortune for duds.