PHOENIX, AZ -- At 1:39 a.m. EST, I was more than excited to turn of my television set after the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Chicago Cubs 8-4 in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.
JoJo had to sit there and watch me fall asleep and wake up more times than ever during the game because I was dead tired from my run that afternoon and watching baseball all afternoon really takes it out of you.
The Cubs took a 2-0 lead on Geovany Soto's two-run home run, but that's the last time things would be happy in Cub-ville.
The next inning, rookie lead-off hitter Chris Young pulverized a three-run home run to left field that the second he swung, I yelled out, "GONE!" It was instantly confirmed when Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly threw a temper tantrum by taking off his glove and slamming it into the ground. It was poetry in motion for a Cardinals fan.
I wish someone in the Associated Press would have taken the sequence shot of Lilly slamming the glove down because it's what everyone rooting for the Diamondbacks or against the Cubs wanted to see.
As it was, the ball sailed about 20-25 rows into the left field stands and silenced the Cubs fans in attendance. The one thing you can be certain of, you couldn't see a shot of the crowd without seeing a Cubs fan somewhere.
When Jose Valverde recorded the last out in Arizona, the series would shift to Chicago for one, maybe two games if necessary. Here's my problem with that. The Cubs play at home at 6:00 p.m. If there was ever a team who should play day games during the playoffs, it should be the Cubs. There wouldn't be a problem getting fans to come out for the game, as they sell out regular season day games all year. However, in 2003, the Cubs played six home games during the playoffs, all at night. The Marlins played five home games that year in ass-roasting hot Florida and two were during the day and one mid-to-late afternoon.
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Watching this game was a perfect start as both teams went to the longball early. Troy Tulowitzki homered in the first to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead. Jimmy Rollins came back with a solo home run to lead off for the Phillies in the bottom of the first.
Eventually, the Phillies took a 3-2 lead, but that was quickly silenced when Kaz Matsui golfed a grand slam into the right field bleachers off Kyle Lohse.
Listening to the Phillies fans boo their team at their mistakes and an inning later be going wild makes me wonder if the Phillies don't have a traveling team psychologist just to ease the minds of being a Phillies player.
The Rockies started to turn Citizen's Bank Park into their own personal driving range, banging shots all over the yard and taking a 10-4 lead. I went out for a run in the bottom of the seventh. About 32 minutes later, I came back and saw the games was in the bottom of the eighth and the Phillies had the bases loaded down 10-5.
Rockies reliever Brian Fuentes walked Tad Iguchi to load the bases and Clint Hurdle went to closer Manny Corpas. Corpas went right to work putting away Carlos Ruiz, who really had issues with Corpas' curveball.
Eventually the Rockies won 10-5, taking the series back to Denver for two games. The worst enemy to the Rockies is an off-day. So far, the Mile High boys have won 16 of their last 17 games, which blows your mind!
The Phillies are struggling, but maybe they need to get out of town in order to focus on playing baseball again. It has been 14 years since they last made the playoffs. The Rockies were in the playoffs two years sooner than that.
CLEVELAND, OH -- This game had a familiar ring to it if you were from Ohio. A first play explosion followed by a complete and total butt kicking after. Reminds me of the 2007 National Championship game between Ohio State and Florida.
Johnny Damon led off the game for the Yankees with a towering solo home run to right field. The initial call was that it went foul, but after the umpires convened, the ruling came back from crew chief Bruce Froemming, home run. Damon, for the most part, was in shock and kept running around the bases regardless of the umpire's opinion.
The Indians came back with three runs off Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang. Wang won 19 games during the regular season, but the Tribe had no problem getting RBIs from Ryan Garko and Kenny Lofton to highlight the inning.
Andrusal Cabrera homered and the Tribe took a 4-1 lead.
The Bronx Bombers came back with a rocket of a solo home run by Robinson Cano to right field cutting the lead to 4-2.
Next inning, the Yankees started things as Shelley Duncan rapped a pinch-hit single. Damon followed Duncan's lead and two runners were aboard with Derek Jeter up. Joe Torre let Jeter swing away and the Yankees captain went down without moving the runners. Bobby Abreu bailed out Jeter perfectly slapping a double down the left field line.
C.C. Sabathia intentionally walked Alex Rodriguez to load the bases for Jorge Posada, one of the American League's top hitters from the 2007 season. Sabathia was laboring and I figured this was it for him, especially when he fell behind 3-0 in the count.
I felt Torre was going to give Posada the green light, because this could be a huge inning for the Yankees if Posada came through. As it was, Sabathia still had a lot left on his fastball and blew a 96 MPH heater by Posada when the Yankees backstop swung away.
Posada would foul off another pitch, but that's as close as he would get as Sabathia struck him out on some high heat (96 MPH) for out number two. That brought up Hideki Matsui, who popped out for out number three. That's all the Tribe needed. Sabathia got out of the mess on his own and saved the Tribe and his confidence tonight.
Cleveland struck for five runs in the bottom of the fifth. The telling stat by TBS during that inning was New York was 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position, while Cleveland was 4-for-4. That does make a huge difference.
The Indians were crushing balls all over the yard including Travis Hafner, who hit a solo home run. Before you knew it, Torre was going to the bullpen to remove Wang for rookie Ross Ohlendorf.
The night for Yankees fans went from "Everybody Wang Chung tonight!" to "Everybody Bang Wang tonight!" Ohlendorf didn't fare much better as the Indians never bit on his hellacious breaking ball and waited for him to bring his fastball up before unloading it everywhere in the park.
Quite possibly, the biggest outing came from Rafael Perez, who put down the Yankees in order in the sixth. Perez threw two perfect innings fanning four Yankees and kept New York from any chance of coming back. Jensen Lewis and Rafael Betancourt threw the eighth and ninth to mop up the victory.
The Indians bullpen looks as good or better than any in the playoffs and they never even got to AL saves leader Joe Borowski.
However, the best set up man in the playoffs probably resides in the pinstripes as Yankees' rookie Nebraskan right-hander Joba Chamberlain moved from A-ball (Tampa) to the big leagues in less than three months, posting an 0.38 ERA in 24 IP. With him setting up Mariano Rivera, the top pitcher in post-season history, the Tribe better keep scoring runs to keep them out of the ballgame.
Are Yankees fans worried? No. Do the 12 runs matter? Not really. If anything, a blown save by Rivera would have been worse. With 13 straight post-season appearances, the Yankees have seen and experienced pretty much everything you can throw at them. Nothing surprises them anymore. Even if they go home 0-2 to Yankee Stadium, that's still Yankee Stadium and those are still the New York Yankees.
Today should be interesting with the Yankees and Red Sox playing back-to-back.
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