“Bad AJ” shows up, gives Phillies hope
PHILADELPHIA – Before Monday night’s Game 5, my belief was that if the game were simply within striking distance after six innings, the Yankees would be able to seize on the tenseness the defending world champion Phillies, their fans, and anyone that Manager Charlie Manuel was going to bring into the game whenever Cliff Lee couldn’t throw anymore.
Problem is AJ Burnett did not allow this strategy to develop.
As each Phillies hitter reached base, and eventually scored in the first three innings, the “master plan” blew up.
From the outset of the game, it was clear that Burnett had nothing. Jimmy Rollins had singled to lead off the bottom of the first and then he hit Shane Victorino with a pitch to put him on base. This brought up Chase Utley, who has been using the World Series as his own personal batting practice session. He took Burnett’s first pitch fastball and crushed it into the Philadelphia night in right field for a three-run homer to not only give back the 1-0 lead he was staked to, but now give the Phillies the lead, life and some belief.
Just like in Anaheim two weeks prior, Burnett had problems in the first inning. In Game 5 that night, he gave up four runs before even retiring a batter. At least give him credit for minimizing has past damage.
Clearly this was another edition in the reality series “Good or bad AJ” and this time the “Bad AJ” showed himself. Obviously, pitching on the road is his kryptonite.
Pitching a scoreless second inning was only window dressing for the third inning when walked the first two hitters and then gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez to extend the lead to 5-1 and that was all Manager Joe Girardi (or any of us) needed to see tonight.
The difference between the way he pitched in Game 2 of the series and Game 5 was unbelievably drastic. 22 of 25 Phillies hitters saw a first pitch strike. He had them on the defensive that night and pitched the best game of Yankee career in the biggest possible situation.
However, there has been a distinct difference in his performance at home and the road not only during the regular season, but also in the playoffs. The percentages were certainly not in his favor coming into this game. Having him take the mound on three days rest simply added to the potential of a complete blowup.
For $82.5 million, this is what the Yankees have gotten. A pitcher that can deliver a brilliant performance and stifle an opposing team, and then what we saw last night.
This is never going to change. He is what he is. The “light bulb” will never go off. He is never going to “find it” consistently as some people held belief of months ago. Burnett likely would have blown up whether he had three days or 30 days rest.
All he had to do was remain competitive and grind the game out. Even if he had given up four runs and stayed in the game he would bought the Yankees time. Cliff Lee was not the unhittable pitcher that he was in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Because of not having the DH (putting Hideki Matsui on the bench) and Burnett’s need to be psychologically massaged by having Jose Molina behind the plate (thus putting Jorge Posada on the bench), the Yankees were essentially running out a non-competitive lineup. This was as bad a lineup seen since Game 4 of the 1988 World Series when the Los Angeles Dodgers had a lineup of nobodies hitting against Oakland Athletics starter Bob Welch.
Somehow, they won the game.
In the Yankees case, they were being compromised against a good pitcher made worse by the fact that Robinson Cano has been mired in a postseason slump and Brett Gardner was not going to have much of chance getting on base against the Phillies left-hander.
Lee got the game into the eighth inning before the Yankees offense mounted a comeback, scoring two runs off him and three in the frame to cut it to 8-5. In the ninth, with Ryan Madson closing instead of Brad Lidge, the tying run came to the plate with no outs. Derek Jeter hit into a double play and Mark Teixeira eventually struck out to end the game. Though it was a loss, it served notice that the Phillies ability to protect a lead against this team is smaller than an aspirin.
This was why Burnett keeping the game close mattered so much. This was why he pitched did not give the Yankees a chance.
Burn out.
PHILADELPHIA – Before Monday night’s Game 5, my belief was that if the game were simply within striking distance after six innings, the Yankees would be able to seize on the tenseness the defending world champion Phillies, their fans, and anyone that Manager Charlie Manuel was going to bring into the game whenever Cliff Lee couldn’t throw anymore.
Problem is AJ Burnett did not allow this strategy to develop.
As each Phillies hitter reached base, and eventually scored in the first three innings, the “master plan” blew up.
From the outset of the game, it was clear that Burnett had nothing. Jimmy Rollins had singled to lead off the bottom of the first and then he hit Shane Victorino with a pitch to put him on base. This brought up Chase Utley, who has been using the World Series as his own personal batting practice session. He took Burnett’s first pitch fastball and crushed it into the Philadelphia night in right field for a three-run homer to not only give back the 1-0 lead he was staked to, but now give the Phillies the lead, life and some belief.
Just like in Anaheim two weeks prior, Burnett had problems in the first inning. In Game 5 that night, he gave up four runs before even retiring a batter. At least give him credit for minimizing has past damage.
Clearly this was another edition in the reality series “Good or bad AJ” and this time the “Bad AJ” showed himself. Obviously, pitching on the road is his kryptonite.
Pitching a scoreless second inning was only window dressing for the third inning when walked the first two hitters and then gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez to extend the lead to 5-1 and that was all Manager Joe Girardi (or any of us) needed to see tonight.
The difference between the way he pitched in Game 2 of the series and Game 5 was unbelievably drastic. 22 of 25 Phillies hitters saw a first pitch strike. He had them on the defensive that night and pitched the best game of Yankee career in the biggest possible situation.
However, there has been a distinct difference in his performance at home and the road not only during the regular season, but also in the playoffs. The percentages were certainly not in his favor coming into this game. Having him take the mound on three days rest simply added to the potential of a complete blowup.
For $82.5 million, this is what the Yankees have gotten. A pitcher that can deliver a brilliant performance and stifle an opposing team, and then what we saw last night.
This is never going to change. He is what he is. The “light bulb” will never go off. He is never going to “find it” consistently as some people held belief of months ago. Burnett likely would have blown up whether he had three days or 30 days rest.
All he had to do was remain competitive and grind the game out. Even if he had given up four runs and stayed in the game he would bought the Yankees time. Cliff Lee was not the unhittable pitcher that he was in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Because of not having the DH (putting Hideki Matsui on the bench) and Burnett’s need to be psychologically massaged by having Jose Molina behind the plate (thus putting Jorge Posada on the bench), the Yankees were essentially running out a non-competitive lineup. This was as bad a lineup seen since Game 4 of the 1988 World Series when the Los Angeles Dodgers had a lineup of nobodies hitting against Oakland Athletics starter Bob Welch.
Somehow, they won the game.
In the Yankees case, they were being compromised against a good pitcher made worse by the fact that Robinson Cano has been mired in a postseason slump and Brett Gardner was not going to have much of chance getting on base against the Phillies left-hander.
Lee got the game into the eighth inning before the Yankees offense mounted a comeback, scoring two runs off him and three in the frame to cut it to 8-5. In the ninth, with Ryan Madson closing instead of Brad Lidge, the tying run came to the plate with no outs. Derek Jeter hit into a double play and Mark Teixeira eventually struck out to end the game. Though it was a loss, it served notice that the Phillies ability to protect a lead against this team is smaller than an aspirin.
This was why Burnett keeping the game close mattered so much. This was why he pitched did not give the Yankees a chance.
Burn out.
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