2006 ALDS Game 3 Tigers 6 Yankees 0: All Around Brutality

The Yankees now trail their ALDS with the Tigers 2-1. Detroit pushed New York to the brink of elimination with a 6-0 win tonight at Comerica Park. The Yanks must win both tomorrow and Sunday, or their season is over. This game was a complete disaster for New York in all aspects. They did not perform well and had some rotten luck. That is a lethal combination in the postseason.

One of the great myths that many will take from this game is that Kenny Rogers finally proved that he can handle the pressure of a big game. That is an easy trap to fall into when reading only the boxscore. His 7.2 inning shutout line looks most impressive. However, the truth is that he had nothing. He left pitches for the Yankees to hit all night. They were hit right at fielders like Bobby Abreu’s liner in the first and Derek Jeter’s screaming liner back at Rogers. They were just missed like Bernie Williams’ homer that hooked just foul and Jorge Posada’s flyball that died just short of the wall. There were instances where the hitters did not take advantage of meatballs like Jason Giambi, who got under a hanging curve in one at bat and missed another pitch to hit later on. These are only a few example. The Yankees should have knocked Kenny out early. There is no way he should have tossed anything close to a shutout. Rogers brought nothing to the mound. That is what makes this defeat more painful. To watch such a gutless wonder thump his own chest as if he was dominating was just brutal.

His counterpart, Randy Johnson, pitched better than his 5.2 inning, 5 run line would appear. Randy was let down by shoddy defense and bad umpiring. In the 2nd inning, a bad call by the umpire on a play at third led to 1 of Detroit’s 3 runs in that frame. Alex Rodriguez providing a poor tag to make what should have been an easy out a questionable call sure didn’t help matters. Randy also gave up a run because of Jason Giambi’s inability to make a decent throw when Curtis Granderson was picked off second base. Had Giambi made the play, the inning would have ended. However, Granderson came around to score. Johnson gave up 2 more runs in the 6th, but this happened when he started to tire. The Yanks probably just stuck with him for too long. Before he fatigued, Johnson was on. He kept his team in the game. The Big Unit deserved a better fate.

This was truly a bizarre game. A guy who had nothing appears to have had a great night in the boxscore, while a guy who pitched well appears to have struggled if one judges by the numbers. At any rate, there is one reality. The Yankees have 16.5 hours until they take the field again. There had better be a lot of soul searching tonight. Right now there is no fire. The Tigers want this more. The Yanks cannot become discouraged over the bad breaks. They have enough talent to overcome this. New York is the more talented team in this series by far. However, the big guys need to start showing up. Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi have been nothing short of terrible during these last two games. Both made poor plays in the field tonight that helped Detroit jump out to a multi-run lead. Both look lost at the plate. The two men did a great job in pointing the finger at each other in the now infamous Sports Illustrated article, but they had better start looking at themselves because neither is pulling any weight at this point. This does not just go for those two, however. Nobody with the possible exception of Derek Jeter is playing particularly well. To get this series to Game 5, everybody from Alex Rodriguez down to Miguel Cairo has to start living up to their potential.

The Yankees face a tall order in beating Jeremy Bonderman tomorrow. Jaret Wright will get the call. Everybody will need to show up. At this point, Detroit is taking the series to them. There is no excuse for this. The Yanks are far more experienced. It is up to them to imposed their will on the Tigers. If they play like they have over the past two days, the season is over on Saturday.