For the 2nd week in a row the 45 Yankees swept a DH, but it sure wasn't easy!


Both games were against the Dodgers this past weekend and game one featured a classic pitchers duel between Eric Samarija for them and Darrin Ambridge for us...
It didn't start that way though as in the top of the first, Dodgers manager and lead-off hitter John Corrigan ripped a double over Lex's head in CF only to be followed by a screaming HR off the bat of Bob Altobelli, as man can that guy hit! After a 20 year lay-off he has come on only to lead the league in HR's this year and if I had a vote for all-league, he'd certainly garner one. He's a lefty and you can see the fear in the right side of the infield when he comes to the plate... A monster at the dish for sure...

Anyways, Darrin settled down after that (except for another laser Bob hit later in the game which knocked our RF over sideways as he caught it) and pitched one of his finer games of the year... NO walks, ZERO... And those were the only runs the Dodgers would get off of him as he had only 3 K's, but was masterful in throwing the ball to contact and giving us mostly easy plays to make in the field... He's gotta be the top contender for the Bill Jones (Cy Young) Award as sheesh, considering we are 13-1 and he pitches almost every game, it seems pretty obvious really...

However, guess what? Eric Samarija was pitching an even better game! He held our Yankee line-up to 1 run through 6 and had us all off balance with his lefty movement on the ball... Considering we'd scored at least 6 runs in every game this year, I'd say that was quite the pitching performance...

And so, 2-1 Dodgers heading into the bottom of the 7th, I led off with a walk... Which would have been a good start except that everyone in the 518 area code knew I was going and I made the cardinal mistake of baserunning 101... Yep, I jumped early on the lefty and Eric picked me off. No excuses as that is just pitiful in a big situation where the one thing you can NOT do is exactly what I did...


But here's where it get's good! On the next pitch, Dean Little picked us up with a No Doubter down the LF line that tied the game at 2, WOO~HOO!
Nevermind it should have been a walk-off, we had new life and Dean allowed us to breathe a sigh of relief as we celebrated his big HR...
But there was still more work to do as Rich Royka continued his fine season at the plate with a single to RF, only to be followed by Donnie Dunham continuing his torrid season in the batters box as well by singling Rich over to third. After Donnie promptly stole 2nd, that set the stage for the heroics of another fine new addition to our Yankee line-up this year, Johnny T (Timpano)...
The Dodgers and Corrigan made the call to replace Eric here and after working the count to 2-2 against I believe Chuck Sohl (correct me if I'm wrong John), John hit a PERFECT dribbler past the mound towards 2nd base that plated the winning run and set off a jubilant Yankee celebration on our walk-off 3-2 win...

And Then game 2!

This again featured a pitchers duel most of the way as Ralph Caputo was equally masterful in taming the Yankee bats most of the game as he also held us to one run through 6. Jack Griffin had ended up catching most of the DH and had led off the 2nd inning with a single, stole 2nd, and scored on a screamer up the middle by my RAKE R074... And well, that's ALL we had off Ralph until the 7th...

In the meantime, Dean Little had followed up his big HR with an absolutely awesome pitching performance of his own, allowing just 1 run to the Dodgers through 5 2/3 before tiring a little in the 6th. John Cortese got the big Dodger hit as Ralph had singled to help himself and gotten to third when David Reed doubled him to third, then John roped a single to left which plated them both and gave the Dodgers a 3-1 lead...
John Kalinski got the call and then came on to squelch the Dodger rally by getting a BIG 3rd out and send the game to the 7th with the Yankees AGAIN down, but this time 3-1 instead of just 2-1...

Then to the top of 7 and out last chance ~ AGAIN!

John Kalinski (lots of John's, huh?) led off and got it all started by reaching on an error after hitting a hard grounder to 2nd... He stole 2nd before Jack Griffin roped one back to the mound. Ralph got a glove on it as he reacted to the hard hit ball, but it trickled away far enough for Jack to reach first safely with John holding safely at 2nd... Next was Kevin Jackson who then got the biggest hit of the game as he smoked one into the gap which short-hopped the fence for a double and brought John home to make it 3-2 with him at second, Jack at 3rd, still no outs, and me at the plate... After scorching the liner for a single earlier and also smoking another one up the middle that Ralph snagged to double off Kevin earlier in the game, I had my confidence level back up even after the pathetic base-running incident... And swung at the first pitch which blooped just about perfectly over SS and into LF to plate the tying run and make it 3-3... Funny game we play, huh?
Kevin had to hold at 2nd and make sure it dropped, so we still had no outs...
The hero at the plate in game one and on the mound in game 2, Dean Little, then came up but made an out (seriously, I don't remember how ~ I'm losing it as it's been a few days now, sorry!)
But next was Rich Royka and he promptly delivered another nice swing on the ball to drop another single into LF as Kevin raced home with what turned out to be the winning run and giving us the 4-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 7th...

The Dodgers had the meat of their line-up coming up to face John Kalinski, but he disposed of them 1-2-3, highlighted by a flat spectacular flat laid-out, diving, game ending catch in LF by Jack Griffin... And him doing that after catching most of the day and collecting a couple big hits (just another day at the park for him)...

So yep, there ya have it... It all means nothing if we cant get the job done against the Giants next week though as while we play ANOTHER DH (yeah, 3 weeks in a row), the big game that is literally for all the marbles is game 2 against the Giants... The winner takes the regular season championship (note the little c) and gets the #1 seed outright, despite what happens in our first game... Err, actually, if the Braves beat the Giants in their first game (they play a DH as well), then I guess we get it automatically unless we also lose game 1 against the Royals... So maybe it's not quite as clear cut as us against them for it all as of now, but we'll all know before the first pitch exactly where we each stand... Or sit, as the case may be...
Thing is, if we lost both and the Giants lost the only the first, AND the Reds won their game against the Marlins, well, then there would be a 3-way tie for first and I have no clue what the tie-breakers would be then as it would be more complicated for sure...

So plain and simple, we just need to win!

Good luck to all as it is exciting to have it boil down to this last weekend and everyone playing for something as pretty much all the seeds are on the line and to be crystallized this weekend... And who knows what happens in the playoffs as we surprised everyone 2 years ago in making the finals, so it can and does happen...
But first things first...
And let's all end the regular season on a good, positive note...

Again, best of luck to everyone and we'll see ya'll out there!

That's what I'm saying, JC. When things start going right for you guys, with the talent you have as mentioned, as well as others, the Dodgers are definitely going to make a run at the title. Up till now, you've been snakebitten. When healthy, you have as much talent as anyone.
Good luck and enjoy!
jk