Baseball

Before Game 6 of the American League Championship Series was postponed just after 6 pm ET on Saturday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had said that in the event of a rain out, scheduled starter Andy Pettitte would still start if the game was pushed back a day and CC Sabathia would start a possible Game 7 on Monday.

While Pettitte is a veteran pitcher capable of closing out the ALCS for the Yanks, starting Sabathia on Sunday would be a better choice for two reasons.

Despite playing just over half of the season, Joe Crede managed to be Minnesota's second most-valuable infielder. That's obviously not saying much—considering how Matt Tolbert and Alexi Casilla combined for 454 plate appearances this season—but for a guy who appeared to be his own voodoo doll, it's quite the accomplishment.

Scott Sizemore, a top prospect for the Detroit Tigers and heir apparent at second base, fractured a bone in his left ankle during Thursday's game in the Arizona Fall League.

In 2007, John Lannan came out of nowhere.

An 11th-round afterthought in 2005, Lannan climbed the minor league ladder quickly, going a combined 12-3, 2.87 before finishing the season with the Nationals where the 22-year-old went 2-2, 4.15.

Playing at home is a bit like having the serve in tennis: It confers a distinct advantage. As between two evenly matched contestants, the one with the home field/serve will win most of the time.

The Yankees "held serve" for two games at home, and then "broke the serve" of the Angels in the middle of three games played in Anaheim. It is this fact, and not the 3-2 tally, that suggests that the Yankees are the better team.

(If Los Angeles was leading 3-2 by virtue of their homestand, it would be far less clear they were the better team.)

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The Florida Marlins often seem like a hot-bed for young prospects with considerable upside, so it’s no wonder their latest child prodigy, right-fielder Mike Stanton, seems to be on the cusp of making it to the big leagues.

Trust me, Yankees fans, it’s going to be fine. This is not 2004, this is not history repeating itself—or as Yogi Berra would say, “Déjà vu all over again.”

There are so many differences between this team and the one that will forever be synonymous with being the only (probably first at some point) team to blow a 3-0 series lead, it is preposterous to think this team is going to or should fold because that one did. 

To me the most obvious difference is in the starting pitching that the Yankees will be having in Games Six and Seven. 

As I watch the New York Yankees fight the Los Angeles Angels and Mother Nature for the chance to win the American League pennant and advance to the World Series, I realize something, albeit elementary.

This Phillies team knows how to win. More succinctly, the find another gear when playing in postseason baseball.

During the past two years, the Phillies have gone 18-5 in postseason play.

Carlos Ruiz, a .255 regular season eight-hole hitter for the Phillies, is batting .385 in the postseason with one home run and 4 RBI.

They don’t win championships in Philadelphia. If they do, it’s a fluke—something that someone pulled over on God.

Every three decades or so, one of the teams will screw up the ecosystem and snatch a title out from under fate’s nose.

What’s happening now is a travesty. The Phillies are in the World Series for the second year in a row. What’s worse, they actually won it last year.

This is all wrong. Philadelphia is a city full of miscreants and crabapples, with a fan base so jaded and tormented that it makes John McEnroe look like Dale Carnegie.