And the winners are ….

not the teams I picked. Well not all of them.

The Detroit Tigers were my pick and the Orioles swept them. I also picked the Dodgers and the Cardinals beat them, 3-1. On the other and, the Royals swept the Angels. Giants and Nationals, who I didn’t really care about, went 3-1, with the Giants advancing.

Next up the championship series. And the teams in it are, Kansas City Royals versus the Baltimore Orioles (Series starts 10-10). In the national league it’s the San Francisco Giants vs the Saint Louis Cardinals (Series starts 10-11).

My picks are as follows, Royals over Orioles. I don’t want the Royals to win as much as I want the Orioles to lose. Giants over Cardinals. Again I want the Cardinals to lose more than I want the Giants to win, the Cardinals were supposed to beat the Red Sox last year and failed. So they need to suffer defeat again.

After this series it will be the World Series. If things go the way I want, it’ll be a Royals vs Giants competition. I’m looking forward to it.

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The Post-season begins now

The ALDS starts tonight with games between the Tigers vs Orioles (at Oriole Park, Baltimore MD) and the Royals vs Angels (at Angel Stadium, Anaheim, CA). My picks are Tigers for reasons already stated and Royals. I picked Royals for the Wild Card and am sticking with them.

The NLDS starts Friday, October 3 with the Giants vs Nationals ( at Nationals Park, Washington DC) and Cardinals vs Dodgers (at Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles CA). I had already picked the Dodgers and for the NL wild card I picked the Pirates who just happened to get shut out by Bumgarner. A rather amazing feat when you consider he also batted (NL = no DH). I am once again conflicted with my pick. The thing is I don’t follow the NL and have no particular likes or dislikes concerning either of these teams. The Nationals also have an amazing pitcher who in the very last game of the regular season pitched a no-hitter. Even though I said I would pick, I think for this game I will lean back, put my feet up, pop open a cold one and just enjoy watching baseball.

This series is a best of 5. I’ll be back when one team wins 3 if not before.

Yankees are out but baseball is still alive

The regular season is over and the post season is about to begin. Even though the Yankees are out of it, I am still baseball obsessed and will be posting my thoughts about the games ahead, including who I have decided to root for this post-season.

Most years, I root against the team that kept the Yankees out of the post-season, or beat them in the post-season, for instance if they didn’t make it past the ALDS or ALCS. Or the Red Sox. It’s always good to root against the Red Sox. This year however, the team that kept the Yankees out of the post-season was the Yankees. They just didn’t win enough games. There are some teams that I absolutely won’t root for, like the Braves, who aren’t in it, and the Orioles who are, but don’t have the most wins in the American League. An important fact that I had to bring out.

The final teams haven’t been decided, since they now have this stupid 1 game Wild Card playoff. The fourth team is YTBD. The teams competing are: Kansas City Royals and Oakland A’s (9/30) in the AL and Pittsburgh Pirates vs. San Francisco Giants (10/1) in the NL. I like the Oakland A’s, they were Hunter’s first team but they have Lester, which makes me want to hate them, but the Royals have Shields, which makes me want to root against them. I have the opposite problem with the NL teams. Pirates have Russell Martin, who is adorable, I mean a really good catcher and longtime favorite player of mine. The Giants have Buster Posey, who is also a really good catcher and fun to watch. The minuses here are the Giants are ORANGE and the Pirates are YELLOW. Also Russell has gone from being clean-shaven to a scruffy little thing. Since I promised to pick one I am going with the Royals (can’t get past the Lester dislike) and the Pirates (Russell is my boo!).

For the ALDS series between the Tigers and Orioles (starts 10/2), I am going with the Detroit Tigers, because, well Baltimore. The NLDS between the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers (begins 10/3) is also hard, normally I would go with the Dodgers because they are the blue team, and the Cardinals failed to beat the Red Sox last year (the rivalry is alive!) and they have Don Mattingly. But they are LA soooo, all right, I talked myself into it, my pick is the Dodgers.

So there you have it. After the Wild Card is done, I’ll be back to pick my teams for the rest of the Division Series.

Some people call him Big Stoppa

And that’s what he did, stopped the Tigers, kept them from scoring. Of course that led me to post on a social network, CC Sabathia > J Verlander. Not saying that Verlander isn’t an ace, just that today, CC was better.

~~ Yankees 7, Tigers 0 ~~

Today I had tickets to a hockey game so I couldn’t watch the baseball game. As I was getting reading to leave for the game, I kept checking twitter and all I saw was, “Sabathia throw strikes.” Yet when I went to MLB at Bat, it was showing 3 runs for the Yankees and 0 runs for the Tigers. From my twitter feed I expected it to be the other way. I really don’t understand people. CC’s line for today was 7IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 3BB, 4K, 0HR and his ER is 3.00, he threw 114 pitches 68 were strikes, making 59% of his pitches were strikes. Well now I understand my twitter feed, that’s not a great ball to strike ratio. But if you remember, CC always is a little rough in the spring. Kasey says it looks like the team has growing pains, we have so many new players. Which is what I was thinking.

As I look at the scores of the other games, I see things that make me happy and sad, Toronto lost, that makes me happy but the Red Sox won, that makes me sad. Yes I know one team has to win. Minnesota won, Cleveland won and Oakland won, those things all make me happy. Texas Rangers won, that makes me sad. Seattle and Chicago White Sox, I’m indifferent.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 6
Yankees 2-4 (0.333)</span)

Phil Hughes has a rough outing

~~ Tigers 8, Yankees 4 ~~

Being a fan is not about the numbers. It’s about staying true to your team, which is why I am back here writing a blog post when I really can’t think of anything to say. At least not anything that won’t sound like an excuse. All I can say is, it’s still early in the season, there is plenty of time to turn this around. Remember 2009?

A funny story, I left before the end of the game to go to the store and get some dinner. I came home and looked at my computer, at first glance I thought the Tigers had scored 17 runs. I almost threw up, I left during the bottom of the eighth how did they score that many runs? Oh wait no, that’s hits. Panic over.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Game 5
Yankees 1-4 (0.200)

Please don’t hit our batters

The Yankees fall to the Tigers but all I can think of is “You hit NUNEZ! You jerk.” Time to make a Doug Fister doll. I’ll then have a set, Doug Fister and Prince Fielder. Vindictive, ME?

~~ Tigers 8, Yankees 3 ~~

Now is not the time to panic, I don’t want to hear people saying how the Yankees have ‘lost it’, it’s the 4th game of the season, lots more baseball to play, small sample sizes work both way. Time to be a true fan and have faith in your team. That is all.

Ivan Nova was not sharp this game, he didn’t even last 5 innings, then Boone Logan comes in and gives up a home run. The first of three, yes I am feverishly making a Prince Fielder doll. I don’t know why I haven’t before this, a mistake on my part. Kevin Youkilis got the only homerun for the Yankees bringing in the only runs the Yankees got. Nunez got plunked and now is day to day. David Robertson was perfect.

I’m not trying to sound like a whiney fan here, but the Yankees played a night game in the Bronx then a day game in Detroit, I’m not going to use it as an excuse because I know the Yankees aren’t, but seriously, who makes up these schedules.

Today Phil comes off the D.L. and makes the start for NY, that means Phelps goes to the pen. I don’t have a problem with that, it means he’s available if Phil implodes and starts giving up home runs.

Game 4
Yankees 1-3 (0.250)

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

They got the split

It wasn’t pretty, not like an Olympic gymnast’s split, and speaking of gymnastics, (it took me all day to figure out how to get gymnastics into a baseball blog, give me points for effort) I got slammed for posting a gif of McKayla Maroney flubbing up her vault. She was the favorite for Gold, she just had to make her vault, she didn’t, she landed on her butt. And I put it on Google+, so what? What impressed me was she jumped up, took her bow before the crowd and left the mat. No drama, no crying her little eyes out and getting tear stains on her pretty pink leotard. She got up and moved on. She is a champion. Much like the Yankees.

The Yankees were up 9 games in the AL East, then they hit a slump, ‘fell on their butts’ so to speak, they had a 4 game losing streak and saw their lead began to shrink down to 4.5 games. What were they going to do? They got up, dusted themselves off and moved on. The Tigers had an 8 game win streak at home when the Yankees came to town, it stretched to 10 and then the Yankees broke it, Yankees 12, Tigers 8. The Yankees called on their ace, and CC delivered. I watched this game, on and off, went in the bathroom when Dave got in trouble and then, boom he was out of it. When the Tigers got within one run I ran down to get a Perrier, because, “THE YANKEES DON’T WIN ONE RUN GAMES!” In the end, it was a win.

~~ Yankees 4, Tigers 3 ~~

Today I was at work, to be honest I didn’t even know the game was on until I saw a tweet about Stewart throwing the ball quick, (oh he threw out Omar Infante at 2nd, and turned a double play so of course that makes him a better catcher than Russell Martin [I’m practicing my sarcasm]). Kuroda was the starting pitcher and gave up 3 runs in the 5th but since he had such terrific run support, (how am I doing?) he didn’t get the win, Clay Rapada gets the win and the Yankees actually won a game by one run.

It’s wasn’t without its nail-biting moments. When I turned on MLB at bat Game Day on my phone and saw Yankees 4, Tigers 3, OK good then, it’s the ninth and Soriano is pitching and men on the corners and no outs. I got that little strangled feeling in my throat and yes, I closed the app. Waited for the text message the one that says:

V.MLB FINAL
Yankees 4, Tigers 3,
WP: C.Rapada (3,0)
LP: J.Benoit (1,3)
HR: M.Teixeira 21,
A.Avila 7. (AP)

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Over the slump

The Yankees and I have both been in a slump, there is no reason, I just haven’t really felt like writing here. As you can see I haven’t even written about the games I have been to, my last post was on May 6. I went to the game on Thursday, May 10 by myself and ended sitting next to a creeper. I didn’t write about it because I didn’t want that to dominate the post. I was so annoyed and yet I’m sure that while I was still annoyed he had completely forgotten he had even talked to me. I had bought those tickets because I was buying tickets from a new source so Kasey and I could go to the game Saturday, May 19.

We already had tickets for the next Tuesday, so I don’t know why she wanted to go Saturday. It turned out to be a good thing because Tuesday she was sick and couldn’t go. Kasey left Saturday because she had a nail appointment. Yankees were behind and as soon as she left they started scoring runs. Not enough it turned out, but it was kind of fun to watch. Tuesday I asked Col to come since Kasey couldn’t make it, “PHIL IS PITCHING!” She was thrilled I had thought to offer her the extra ticket, she wanted to see Phil pitch. And he got the win bringing his record to 4-5. “He won for you,” I teased her.

Then Wednesday Sarah want to go to the game, that was a pretty amazing game, one time when A-Rod hit a foul, I said “Alex, that way!” and pointed to Monument Park. He responded by hitting the ball into the bleachers, not Monument Park, brat. Then he went on to hit another home run next at bat. The way the Yankees just kept scoring runs.

Now the Yankees are out of their slump, hopefully I’m out of mine too.

Catching up

Once again I am behind, I was going to write about the game I went to, by myself which the Yankees won (yay!) but I forgot, then the Yankees came back from a 9-0 game against the Red Sox which I had a great post written (in my head), which never made it to my fingertips. So just going to pick up with Saturday’s game against the Tigers.

~~ Tigers 7, Yankees 5 ~~

Tom invited me and it was him, me, his sister and nephew. Joe and Joan were also there, but he has different seats this season. They both still have tickets to the Audi Club and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar.

Freddy was pitching, he was pretty bad. He lasted less then 2 innings and 6 runs. Tigers were hitting him hard, even the outs were hard hit balls. The balls were going in the corner in right field where Swish couldn’t get them and he was scrambling after them Rapada, then Phelps and Eppley ended the game. Eppley gave up a home run. The Yankees came back to score 5 runs, it wasn’t enough. Garcia is going to the bullpen, Phelps is going to get a chance to start.

Still had fun, I like it when I’m at the game, and even in the Clubs I scream loud, like when Swish gets a home run, he hit two and Curtis hit one. And the ticket I got has Don Mattingly on it and “EIGHT game record tying home run streak begins July 8, 1987”. Little bit of trivia for you. I also got roped into invited to a barbecue at Tom’s next weekend. Kasey will be in the city, but D will be with her since it’s their anniversary. I couldn’t come up with a reason to say no, other then I despise barbecue …… more on that later.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛

Red Sox Lose

On Twitter I tweeted that one of my favorite things is hearing “Saltalamacchia strikes out.” Not just because he’s a Red Sox, but also because I love saying his name, it’s kind of musical. Saltalamacchia gets a hit, isn’t nearly as musical a phrase.

One of my other favorite things is hearing, the Red Sox Lose. Doesn’t matter who they are playing. Today it was the Tigers. Red Sox tied the game in the top of the ninth (thank you very much Valverde you fat clown) and then the Tigers loaded the bases (thank you Aceves for hitting a batter) and got a man in.

This brings up a rule about baseball that I never understand, I mean I understand the rule, I don’t understand the reasoning behind it and it seems blatantly unfair to me. It is also one of the reasons that wins are not a true measure of a pitchers greatness, or lack thereof.

Justin Verlander started the game, he pitched 8 innings of shut-out ball, 2 hits, 7 strikeouts. Then Valverde comes in top of the 9th, 3 hits, 2 runs, blows the save and since the game is tied Verlander no longer gets the win. Then the Tigers get a run in the bottom of the ninth, and …. wait for it …. Valverde gets the win. Not only did he not ‘win’ this game, he tied it and is the reason the Tigers had to play the ninth inning! He almost lost the game and he gets a win on his record. I wonder if he danced off the mound when he got the last out.

Rant over. Yankees opening day is tomorrow, home opener a week from tomorrow.

~~ Questo è tutto, dice la principessa ~~ 😛