<p>m3s- I heard your whisper…say hit to Andy for me…it would be really nice to see him add to his postseason record…I STILL miss Bernie!</p>
<p>Karma came back to bite Davey Johnson. My Mets were within a strike of losing in 1986 against the Red Sox when Davey was their manager. It’s taken 26 years, but the baseball gods got him back with what happened to the Nats last night. </p>
<p>Closers have not been very effective this postseason.</p>
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<p>Add one more to the tote board. Valverde strikes again…and the Tigers have to scratch and claw to win a game they had completely in hand until Leyland decides to experiment with “Papa BlownSave”. Fister struggled early but dug himself out of the hole he created. Obviously, Valverde’s shovel only works in the downward direction. I had no problem with Valverde coming in with a 4 run lead to see where his head was at, but once Ichiro hit the 2-run shot the experiment was over…and it was a failure. Leaving Valverde in was absolutely idiotic, and had the Tigers lost that game I could see the players losing faith in Leyland as much as they have in Valverde. It’s only by the grace of God (and Austin Jackson’s speed) that Benoit isn’t right in the fire with Valverde. </p>
<p>I understand a manager having a sense of loyalty to his players, and to a certain point it’s a good thing. Unfortunately, Leyland has taken it to an extreme…and beyond. A lot of people in Michigan have been calling for him to go given the lackluster performance of the Tigers during the regular season, and if Valverde sees the field again this post-season I’d have to start agreeing with them. If Leyland wants to impress people, he can show us how he manages with an understaffed bullpen. Valverde should spend the rest of any games they have left picking lint out of his belly button…and Benoit can help him. Use Albuquerque as the setup guy and Dotel as the closer. Please. I’ll sleep better at night.</p>
<p>Hate to see Jeter’s season end that way. He’s a class act. Hope he comes back healthy next year.</p>
<p>How do you break an ankle on a play like that? So weird. It’s really unfortunate, and I say that as a Yankee-hater.</p>
<p>Ibanez is out of control. I think he is now in permanent intentional walk territory if he is up in the 8th or 9th.</p>
<p>My best wishes go out to Jeter. Heartbreaking to go out of the season like that. He’s done a lot for west Michigan and he has a lot of hometown fans, even if they hate the Yankees lol.</p>
<p>With that said, last night was yet another tally mark against Valverde and Leyland. I’m sick of losing sleep due to the two of them >.<</p>
<p>Not a Yankees fan but also very sorry to see Jeter get injured. </p>
<p>I really like the pitch location graphic that TBS is using on every pitch. I’ll bet the umpires, and union that represents them, HATE it! It can really make them look bad. Was really noticing late in the Tigers/Yanks game where the ump would call a pitch in the strike zone a ball and then on the next pitch call a pitch out of the strike zone a strike.</p>
<p>That graphic doesn’t appear to be particularly accurate to me, based on what I see compared to what it shows.</p>
<p>Jeter has been playing for weeks with a badly bruised lower leg/foot. Does anyone know if this is the leg/ankle that he broke?</p>
<p>Yes, Tom, it was his left. He was clearly in a lot of pain on an earlier play, so that may have played a part.</p>
<p>My wife believes his bone bruise may have really been a stress fracture</p>
<p>And Jeter must be in pain additionally to see his team losing AGAIN.
I bet he’s been in pain for awhile but would never let himself be taken out of the line up at this point. Sooooo very sorry for him after the terrific year he has had.</p>
<p>Just how many men have the Yankees left on base in these last two games?</p>
<p>Did you see that blown call? Just terrible officiating</p>
<p>nyustern…I’m a Tigers fan, and I agree with you completely. It was a terrible call. I hope the additional runs that came as a follow-on to that call don’t come into play. Sanchez and Kuroda put on a pitching clinic and they each deserve a ton of praise, and I’d hate to see the story of this game become the blown call.</p>
<p>Even if they don’t score, it changes the whole mindset. I’m a Yankee fan and i’m getting sick of this offense</p>
<p>I fell asleep and missed the call. They’ve been talking about it, but no replays :(</p>
<p>you could see the replay on gameday</p>
<p>I feel really sorry for Ibanez. He must think he’s somehow robbed every other Yankee of their offensive skill.</p>
<p>Say the replay finally. Definitely a blown call. I hate winning or losing on blown calls- sucks both ways.</p>
<p>Luckily (for MLB’s sake) the blown call didn’t affect the outcome of the game. I don’t buy the whole “mindset” comment that Girardi made, but at least he didn’t directly try to blame the umps. With the exception of Ibanez their offense has been non-existent. If the Valverde/Leyland combo in Game 1 wasn’t so inept/moronic we’d probably be looking at back to back shutouts. You can’t blame that on the umps. If anybody’s mindset should’ve changed after that call, it would be the Yankee hitters. A little sense of desperation might help them at this point.</p>
<p>Hopefully the Tigers learned something from the series with the A’s about putting away a team when you’ve got them on the ropes. If Verlander has another strong outing on Tuesday with Scherzer waiting in the wings…could be a good week in Motown!!</p>
<p>On the other coast, the Cardinals pick up a Game 1 win. Let’s go Cards!</p>