The Yankees ended their regular season by winning two of three this weekend to the Orioles in Baltimore. There really is not much to say about these games as New York was simply playing out the string in anticipation of the postseason. Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte both pitched poorly in the first two. Mariano Rivera blew a save on Friday night in an extra innings loss, giving up 3 runs. The Yanks overcame Pettitte’s rocky start to win on Saturday. The hope is clearly that these pitchers were getting their bad outings out of the way before October and that these outings are not the outset of slumps.
Chase Wright picked up a win in the regular season finale. The lasting image of Wright’s season was a disastrous April outing in which he gave up four consective homers to Boston. It is good that the young guy gets to end his season on a high note. This is the kind of thing he can use as a stepping stone as he prepares for 2008.
Alex Rodriguez finished the regular season with a .314 batting average, 54 homers, 156 RBI’s, 143 runs, 24 stolen bases, a .422 on base percentage, and a .645 slugging percentage. If he is not the unanimous choice for MVP, somebody clearly filled out a ballot incorrectly. A-Rod was the embodiment of an MVP this year. Not only were his numbers better than everybody else’s, he came through just about every time he was up in a key spot. A-Rod had countless big hits, carrying the team through a rough start and ultimately into the postseason.
The Yankees now will head out to Cleveland to begin the ALDS on Thursday.
Making it to post season isn’t supposed to be as “easy” as the Yankees make it seem. Even this year — they start out 21-29 and everyone assumed they were toast, but in the end, they were actually coasting through the final two weeks.
Yankee fans must NEVER take this for granted. Even with the high payroll, you have to give a lot of people a great deal of credit — from Steinbrenner to Cashman to Torre to the players. This is an organization that knows how to win.
On the other hand…..Willie Randolph did not deserve what happened over the last 3 weeks. But it just shows – making it to post-season is NOT as easy as the Yankees make it seem.
Comment by Hal Smith — October 1, 2007 @ 2:30 pm