ALDS: New York Yankees vs. Baltimore Orioles

[Young Steinbrenner]

anyone have some stats for the Orioles starting pitchers against us????

[Battingly]

I was thinking that too before the game. Can't believe Buck got away with using his 5th starter for the WC game.

Its awful for us, he didn't even have to use his 3 or 4 starter much less his 1 or 2

Now they are all available for Game 1 or 2, he can set it up any way he pleases, especially because this one game was sandwiched between two off days.

[DiMaggio5CF]

The big worry about the Yankees all season is that their offense is all-or-nothing and won't be able to hit the homeruns against good pitching in the postseason. Fortunately, the teams with that good pitching -- the Rays and the Angels, specifically -- didn't make it to the postseason. The remaining teams have solid pitching, but outside of maybe the Tigers, it's far from unhittable.

The O's don't exactly have the dominant pitching that should shut down the Yankees' offense, and -- on paper, at least -- the O's shouldn't be able to outslug the Yankees if it comes down to a battle of the offenses.

The Yankees just have much better talent than the Orioles, and there doesn't seem to be any legitimate reason for the Yankees' talent not to perform well in this favorable matchup.

Anything can happen in a short series, and the O's do seem to have a special run going, but I think the gap in talent will prove to be too much for them. I think the Yankees take the series in four games.

[Battingly]

Excellent post, dimag ... but the Yankee offense has to show up.

If we hit the way we are capable and our big guns don't go in the tank, this is a series we should win.

What we can't have are those 2 for 19's from Tex, Arod or even Swish.

These guys gotta BRING IT

[AJW]

On paper...this is a Yanks sweep. But the Orioles just have had lady luck on their side all year. I see a 5 game series that can go either way.

I agree. I wish I can be more optimistic like some of you other guys. Our team has been very inconsistent even though we won the division.

[enozlac]

Chris Dickerson has tweeted that he is not on the ALDS roster

I just hope Andruw Jones isn't in........I pray please God , no Jones....

Probably means Gardner is.

[Black Sabbathia]

Its awful for us, he didn't even have to use his 3 or 4 starter much less his 1 or 2

Now they are all available for Game 1 or 2, he can set it up any way he pleases, especially because this one game was sandwiched between two off days.

Honestly, does it really matter what order their pitchers go in? They don't have a true ace, and they don't have any pitcher that I'm worried about seeing our lineup against.

Does Gonzalez scare us? Hammel? Chen?

No disrespect to their pitchers, who have performed well this year, but I don't think it makes any difference who we face and in what order

[grizy]

The big worry about the Yankees all season is that their offense is all-or-nothing and won't be able to hit the homeruns against good pitching in the postseason. Fortunately, the teams with that good pitching -- the Rays and the Angels, specifically -- didn't make it to the postseason. The remaining teams have solid pitching, but outside of maybe the Tigers, it's far from unhittable.

The O's don't exactly have the dominant pitching that should shut down the Yankees' offense, and -- on paper, at least -- the O's shouldn't be able to outslug the Yankees if it comes down to a battle of the offenses.

The Yankees just have much better talent than the Orioles, and there doesn't seem to be any legitimate reason for the Yankees' talent not to perform well in this favorable matchup.

Anything can happen in a short series, and the O's do seem to have a special run going, but I think the gap in talent will prove to be too much for them. I think the Yankees take the series in four games.

This is a huge misconception. The better the pitcher, the more of his ERs come from HRs, although better pitchers also allow fewer homeruns.

There is a lot of variance from pitcher to pitcher but over large samples there is statistically signficant higher reliance on HRs to score runs vs. better pitchers. At the extreme, once upno a time, the best chance anyone got to score off pedro was a lazy flyball down the right field line or over green monster (1.74 era wirh 0.7 hr/9 in 2000 means nearly half of his ERA were off HRs.)

The issue isn't the hrs... the issue is offense gets fewer baserunners, making obp and outs all that much more valuable on offense.

[madjack]

5 home games for the Yankees.

[LIYanks]

5 home games for the Yankees.

Let's hope it doesn't go five. I want to sweep the O's so bad.

[madjack]

Let's hope it doesn't go five. I want to sweep the O's so bad.

You know what I meant.

[pleasepassthesoup]

You know what I meant.

Except it isn't true. Oriole fans will show up. It's not the same as when they were awful.

[enozlac]

i agree with the pedroia avatar guy.

there were quite a few Orioles fans at the game in Arlington tonight. I guess they are hopping on the bandwagon.

[OlgMvp]

Time to end this fairly tale garbage.

I wish this was facebook so I could like and unlike this so I could like it again.


Enough of this story. Time for the reality check. Good night Whorioles.

[coachtsurfing]

Haha... The O's fans in Texas are already starting the Yankees suck chants... I really hope we take them out. While its extremely infuriating that we start on the road, all we need to do is split the first two and be in fantastic shape for the rest of the series.

agreed i hate the 2-3 format. i hope next year they go back to 2-2-1. you're right we walk out with a split we'll be in good shape.

[YankeePride1967]

I actually don't mind the 2-3 format. Puts the pressure on the O's to win both home games.

[rajah]

Probably means Gardner is.

Definitely means that. And it probably means that Jones is as well, unless Nix is ready to return. I still can't see them carrying 12 pitchers and Cashman said as much.

[SLURPEE]

This will be a quick series.

[JSG]

I hope i'm wrong, but from both the MLB and ESPN schedule sites, it looks like all 3 NYY home games have NOON starts. now, i HOPE these are just default TBD game time placemarkers, as this would be BRUTAL. if anyone has better info, PLS post it, THX !!

http://espn.go.com/mlb/schedule

10/10

Orioles
vs
Yankees

‎-12:00 PM (ET)‎-Tickets

10/11

Orioles
vs
Yankees

‎-12:00 PM (ET)

[Messerwhitescooter]

This will be a quick series.

How can you say that? Baltimore tied us up in knots all year long?

[ymike673]

I hope i'm wrong, but from both the MLB and ESPN schedule sites, it looks like all 3 NYY home games have NOON starts. now, i HOPE these are just default TBD game time placemarkers, as this would be BRUTAL. if anyone has better info, PLS post it, THX !!

http://espn.go.com/mlb/schedule

10/10

Orioles
vs
Yankees

‎-12:00 PM (ET)‎-Tickets

10/11

Orioles
vs
Yankees

‎-12:00 PM (ET)

That would NEVER happen. Yankees always generate the highest ratings. I would guess at least two games will be prime time (definately game 5) and one might be a 4 PM start.

[JSG]

That would NEVER happen. Yankees always generate the highest ratings. I would guess at least two games will be prime time (definately game 5) and one might be a 4 PM start.

i suspect you are right, that's why the specific noon listings and the first slot in all the ESPN schedule listings shocked the [XXXXXXXXX] out of me. i'm hoping this is just a default time slot with actual time TBD. the home games actually appear as TBD on the official NYY site so hopefully that's the case. ALDS day games give me the willies >> shades of rained out game 2 ALDS 2006 vs Det.

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/mlb/s...?y=12&c_id=nyy

[LIYanks]

I actually don't mind the 2-3 format. Puts the pressure on the O's to win both home games.

Wouldn't it also force the Yankees to win at least one in Baltimore to avoid coming home on the brink of elimination? I don't like this format because it actually gives the WC team the HFA.

[teknetic]

Wouldn't it also force the Yankees to win at least one in Baltimore to avoid coming home on the brink of elimination? I don't like this format because it actually gives the WC team the HFA.

Asking a team to win one out of the first two games isn't really that big of a request, especially when that team has the better record.

[NYIndian2005]

Wouldn't it also force the Yankees to win at least one in Baltimore to avoid coming home on the brink of elimination? I don't like this format because it actually gives the WC team the HFA.

It's an advantage to them if they win both games. It's an advantage to us if we take 1 of 2. I guess the HFA team has two shots at this. Either we steal 1 in their park and come home to take 2 of 3 at least or we are expected to win all 3 at home. I think it will boil down to the tone Sabathia sets in the first game.