Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Mid-Spring Classic
Put one more check mark in the "remarkable" column when it comes to the Celtics-Bulls series. At a time when the word "classic" has been watered down and de-valued, this series is quickly becoming made-for-DVD. Three overtime games in the first five contests, and enough story lines to keep the scribes busy for days in Boston and Chicago. In fact, as Bob Ryan pointed out this morning in the Globe, it's the first playoff series in NBA history to feature three overtime games. And we still have Game 6 and (a likely) Game 7. I mean, how could this series not go seven games?
Beyond the twists & turns within the individual games, there are also the various subplots that have sustained since the start of the series: the emergence of Rajon Rondo as one of the best players in the NBA, not just point guards, and his match-up with ROTY Derrick Rose; the intensity from both teams, both sides of the ball at all times (sans Chicago in Game 3); the unending stream of clutch shots by both teams. Last night it was Paul Pierce delivering a trio of step-back jumpers from essentially the same spot on the floor that were the decisive blows. We were two Brad Miller free throws away from going to double-overtime for the second consecutive game, which I'm certain I've never seen in the playoffs.
The regular season in the NBA is so long and so irrelevant & tiresome, you forget how great the sport the can be when it's played full-tilt with everything at stake. If this was the Conference Finals or better, there would be talk that this was one of the great series in playoff history. It's been that good.
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The Yankees had one of their "bully games" last night, handing Detroit an 11-0 whipping at Comerica Park. New York seemingly had a slew of these games last season, i.e. blowout victories that would help to balance out their run differential in the midst of poor stretches of the season.
Last night was a little different, however, in that for most of the night the game was anything but a foregone conclusion. Scoreless through six innings, the Yanks planted a 10-spot on the Tigers in the 7th and it was game, set, match. Jose Molina hit a grand slam for crissakes . . . it turned out to be that kind of night.
More newsworthy was the performance of Phil Hughes, back up to the bigs and taking Chien-Ming Wang's spot in the rotation. Hughes v3.0 didn't come with the expectations levied on him in '07 and '08 as a wunderkind, but the pressure was no less intense to provide a positive sign for the staggering Yankees. From Goldman on Tuesday:
Hughes responded with one of his best performances (6/2/0/0/2/6 -- look a palindrome!), matching zeros with Edwin Jackson and giving the offense sufficient time to place their overdue breakout.
I don't know if this will last, but for one night it was a much-needed stabilizer and a hint that maybe "Phil Franchise" will reach his fabled potential after all.
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In un-Sox-like fashion, the Red Sox gaffed away an easy opportunity for extra innings and saw their winning streak end at 11. With a runner on 2nd and two outs in the 9th in a tie game, Youkilis made a nice back-handed grab in the hole and made a textbook flip to Lopez covering the bag. Unfortunately, Lopez took his eye off the ball to check his feet and never caught it. As the ball rolled on the ground, Mark DeRosa scored the winning run.
The Sox had leads of 5-1 and 7-3 in the early innings, but couldn't hold it as Brad Penny (8.66 ERA) had another poor start. Both teams' bullpens did admirable work allowing only three total runs after the 3rd inning.
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The Rays lost a road game in the 9th inning as well. Tampa is now 8-13, 6.5 games behind Toronto.
Speaking of the Jays, Neyer addressed them in his blog on Tuesday. After noting, among other factors, the over-performance to date of the top two guys in the line-up (Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill):
Rob also chimed in on the Joba Bullpen Thingy, which was resurrected after the Boston series by the Yankee beat writers. As tiresome as the topic is, Rob's not the first to mention a possible injury as an explanation for his drop in velocity. Goldman mentioned it already this week:
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Six years ago tonight, I was rockin' in the free world.
Put one more check mark in the "remarkable" column when it comes to the Celtics-Bulls series. At a time when the word "classic" has been watered down and de-valued, this series is quickly becoming made-for-DVD. Three overtime games in the first five contests, and enough story lines to keep the scribes busy for days in Boston and Chicago. In fact, as Bob Ryan pointed out this morning in the Globe, it's the first playoff series in NBA history to feature three overtime games. And we still have Game 6 and (a likely) Game 7. I mean, how could this series not go seven games?
Beyond the twists & turns within the individual games, there are also the various subplots that have sustained since the start of the series: the emergence of Rajon Rondo as one of the best players in the NBA, not just point guards, and his match-up with ROTY Derrick Rose; the intensity from both teams, both sides of the ball at all times (sans Chicago in Game 3); the unending stream of clutch shots by both teams. Last night it was Paul Pierce delivering a trio of step-back jumpers from essentially the same spot on the floor that were the decisive blows. We were two Brad Miller free throws away from going to double-overtime for the second consecutive game, which I'm certain I've never seen in the playoffs.
The regular season in the NBA is so long and so irrelevant & tiresome, you forget how great the sport the can be when it's played full-tilt with everything at stake. If this was the Conference Finals or better, there would be talk that this was one of the great series in playoff history. It's been that good.
----
The Yankees had one of their "bully games" last night, handing Detroit an 11-0 whipping at Comerica Park. New York seemingly had a slew of these games last season, i.e. blowout victories that would help to balance out their run differential in the midst of poor stretches of the season.
Last night was a little different, however, in that for most of the night the game was anything but a foregone conclusion. Scoreless through six innings, the Yanks planted a 10-spot on the Tigers in the 7th and it was game, set, match. Jose Molina hit a grand slam for crissakes . . . it turned out to be that kind of night.
More newsworthy was the performance of Phil Hughes, back up to the bigs and taking Chien-Ming Wang's spot in the rotation. Hughes v3.0 didn't come with the expectations levied on him in '07 and '08 as a wunderkind, but the pressure was no less intense to provide a positive sign for the staggering Yankees. From Goldman on Tuesday:
Only Phil Hughes can save the Yankees' season, or so it seems on the eve of his first start of 2009. It's a dramatically unfair place for a 23-year-old to be, but somehow, some way, the Yankees need to get this season started. It's ironic that the Yankees bent over backwards to make Hughes unnecessary this past offseason. They didn't want to depend on him. Now, until they see consistency from their other starters, not to mention anything at all useful from Chien-Ming Wang, they'll feel lucky to have him to depend on.
Hughes responded with one of his best performances (6/2/0/0/2/6 -- look a palindrome!), matching zeros with Edwin Jackson and giving the offense sufficient time to place their overdue breakout.
I don't know if this will last, but for one night it was a much-needed stabilizer and a hint that maybe "Phil Franchise" will reach his fabled potential after all.
----
In un-Sox-like fashion, the Red Sox gaffed away an easy opportunity for extra innings and saw their winning streak end at 11. With a runner on 2nd and two outs in the 9th in a tie game, Youkilis made a nice back-handed grab in the hole and made a textbook flip to Lopez covering the bag. Unfortunately, Lopez took his eye off the ball to check his feet and never caught it. As the ball rolled on the ground, Mark DeRosa scored the winning run.
The Sox had leads of 5-1 and 7-3 in the early innings, but couldn't hold it as Brad Penny (8.66 ERA) had another poor start. Both teams' bullpens did admirable work allowing only three total runs after the 3rd inning.
----
The Rays lost a road game in the 9th inning as well. Tampa is now 8-13, 6.5 games behind Toronto.
Speaking of the Jays, Neyer addressed them in his blog on Tuesday. After noting, among other factors, the over-performance to date of the top two guys in the line-up (Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill):
If the Blue Jays wind up being real contenders, it would be a great story, and would send a lot of us back to our slide rules to figure out how it happened. But one month into the season, I'm not convinced that what we thought on Opening Day isn't still true.
Rob also chimed in on the Joba Bullpen Thingy, which was resurrected after the Boston series by the Yankee beat writers. As tiresome as the topic is, Rob's not the first to mention a possible injury as an explanation for his drop in velocity. Goldman mentioned it already this week:
Indeed, in Chamberlain's dozen starts last year, he posted a 2.76 ERA and struck out 74 batters in 65 innings. Relegating a guy like that to the bullpen would be off-the-charts crazy unless he could, year in and year out, give you 100 innings of sub-2.00 ERA relief.
That was the context of the offseason discussion (though it often was not). Today, though? In 16 innings as a starter this year, he has struck out 11 batters and walked 10. So, yes, if he continues on this path -- say, another eight or 10 starts like this -- the Yankees will be forced to consider making a move, at least if Chien-Ming Wang is back in action.
Here's the thing, though -- why would we assume that moving to the bullpen will magically cure whatever is ailing Chamberlain? Isn't it likely that the same qualities that made him a dominant starter contributed to him being a blow-'em-away reliever?
Maybe Joba's not healthy, and maybe it's because he's starting. But the Yankees need to be real sure about what's going on before doing anything rash. Because it's rapidly becoming apparent that they won't have a great margin for error this season.
That was the context of the offseason discussion (though it often was not). Today, though? In 16 innings as a starter this year, he has struck out 11 batters and walked 10. So, yes, if he continues on this path -- say, another eight or 10 starts like this -- the Yankees will be forced to consider making a move, at least if Chien-Ming Wang is back in action.
Here's the thing, though -- why would we assume that moving to the bullpen will magically cure whatever is ailing Chamberlain? Isn't it likely that the same qualities that made him a dominant starter contributed to him being a blow-'em-away reliever?
Maybe Joba's not healthy, and maybe it's because he's starting. But the Yankees need to be real sure about what's going on before doing anything rash. Because it's rapidly becoming apparent that they won't have a great margin for error this season.
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Six years ago tonight, I was rockin' in the free world.
