So in the last two games of this series, the Tigers brought Batman and Robin, their ace and his right hand man, Verlander and Jackson, to Yankee stadium to try an wrest the series from the Yankees' iron grip.
But they could not.
Instead, they both were outpitched by CC Sabathia and Joba Chamberlain on consecutive days. And though Leyland is a great manager and showed us a lot in this series (leaving Jackson in during the 7th inning, down buy just one run with two on and two out, a pitch count of 110 and Tex, who was 2 for 3 at the time, coming up...that was brilliant coaching. Tex flew out to end the inning), he couldn't get a win because the Yankees are just too good of a baseball team.
And is it just me, or did these two wins really show you something? These were gritty performances in close ballgames. The Yankees, especially the pitching staff, had lots of chances to blow it and lose any one of these games. But they didn't do it. They stayed focused. And I'm not convinced it's all about focus. I think the Yankees are reacting just a bit to their perceived status by the baseball community and the oddsmakers as the second best team in the American League. Maybe all those losses to Boston had an upside: they gave the Yankees another reason to play extra hard.
And believe me, if you're the Boston Red Sox or anyone else, you DON'T want the Yankees to be playing extremely hard and focusing extremely well. That spells doom every time.
1 behind Boston now, as the Sox just got 6 hit by Halladay.
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