October 14, 2012 – Hiroki Kuroda’s official line for Game 2 of the ALCS states that he gave up three runs in 7 2/3 innings of work — but he was a lot better than that.

With two outs in the eighth, Kuroda gave up a single to Austin Jackson, and as the lead base runner Omar Infante over ran second base, Nick Swisher threw a strike to Robinson Cano. After watching replay after replay of the action at second base, it appeared that Cano tagged Infante before he touched second base. The umpire at second base called Infante safe and Kuroda was lifted from the game.

After Kuroda was pulled, Boone Logan allowed a single that brought a run to the plate, and Joba Chamberlain did the same. After giving up one run during the entire time he was in the game, Kuroda saw two more Tigers reach the dish.

Regardless of the controversial call and collateral damage that it caused in the eighth inning, every starter the Yankees have put on the mound this postseason have put together a quality start — and on several nights, they’ve given up less than three runs.

Because of the consistency of the Yankees starting pitching, they have a legitimate chance to come back from their two-game deficit in the ALCS. If Phil Hughes, CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte pitch remotely close to the way they’ve pitched thus far, the Yankees will be in all three games in Detroit.

With a few hot bats and a few lucky breaks, this series very well could come back to New York with the Yankees in a good position.

Without the Yankees strong rotation, I would not be nearly as optimistic as I am a day before flying out to Detroit.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 14, 2012 — Hiroki Kuroda’s bid for a perfect game ended in the sixth inning of today’s ALCS Game 2, when leadoff hitter Jhonny Peralta singled. But, although Kuroda is no-longer pursuing baseball immortality, his work today is still inspiring.

On the heels of the Yankees most difficult loss of the season, Kuroda has gone out and limited the Tigers to one baserunner in six innings. He’s made it look easy, and that is no minor accomplishment considering that Detroit’s lineup features a leadoff hitter in Austin Jackson who batted .300 during the regular season, the first triple-crown winner since 1967 in Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder who batted .313 with 30 home runs and 108 RBI in 2012.

For the second time this postseason, Kuroda is keeping Yankees hitters in a game in which they are being stymied, and save for the hit the Tigers got in the sixth, the righthander hasn’t been challenged.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 14, 2012 — The Yankees have gotten great performances from their starting pitchers in every one of the six postseason games they’ve played thus far in 2012, but so far in Game 2 of the ALCS, Hiroki Kuroda has put together the most dominating stretch yet.

Kuroda has faced nine Tigers over three frames, and he has struck out seven of them. If that’s not impressive enough, consider that the two batters who made contact, didn’t drive the ball with much authority. Quintin Berry hit a weak fly ball to centerfield, and Jhonny Peralta grounded out to third base.

Kuroda has gotten ahead of the count on six of the first nine batters, and from my vantage point in the press box, it seems like the the seven Tigers who went down on strikes didn’t come close to making contact on the last pitch of their respective at-bats.

Stay tuned!

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 14, 2012 – After a ninth-inning rally in last night’s ALCS Game that was nothing short of incredible, the contest ended in a way that was equally as incredible.

In the ninth inning, which the Yankees entered trailing 4-0, Ichiro hit a two-run blast, and with a two-out long-ball, Raul Ibanez became the first player in major league history to hit three home runs in the ninth inning or later in the same postseason.

Those theatrics made for what I believe was the most exciting inning of the season, but less than an hour later, the Yankees suffered their worst moment of 2012, or maybe in several years.

In the top of the twelfth inning, Derek Jeter broke his ankle while attempting to field a ground ball. As all Yankees fans are aware of by now, Jeter will not take the field until Spring Training of 2013, and the Yankees are faced with the task of trying to get to the World Series without their captain.

I feel as if the normal emotions following sporting events are happiness or disappointment, but, save for a few times, I can’t remember feeling a sense of sadness because of something that took place on the field.

Last night, I was saddened by the turn of events, but I was also tremendously proud that Derek Jeter is the face of the team I work for.

When the realization that Jeter’s 2012 season — in which he led all of baseball in hits at the age of 38 — had ended with him being carried off the field, I was more sad than I was disappointed. You never want to see someone who has played the game as hard as Jeter (or anyone else in this generation) and who has picked his teammates up countless times suffer an injury that will force him to watch his club play their most important games. To me, that is a sad reality.

But when I heard Joe Girardi’s postgame press conference, I was filled with pride.

More specifically, when Girardi described the scene at the shortstop position, where Jeter was laying on the ground in pain, I was reminded of how fierce of a competitor the shortstop is.

Girardi said that Jeter insisted that he walk off the field on his own power, because he didn’t want the Yankee Stadium crowd to witness him getting carried into the dugout.

That anecdote resonated with me. Even with a broken ankle, Jeter wanted to give Yankees fans his best. There’s not many players who would have been mindful of that while dealing with what must have been excruciating pain. That is one of the many things that makes Jeter not only one of the single greatest baseball players in history, but one of it’s great warriors and most spectacular people. That moment can’t be summed up with statistics, but it was just as awe-inspiring as any game-winning home run.

In the face of some very unlucky fate, the Yankees organization and its fans should be thankful that Derek Jeter is ours. He’s a once in a lifetime player and person.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 13, 2012 – I never thought I’d be writing about the magic of Raul Ibanez, but in one of the most incredible turn of events in baseball history, the 40-year-old part-time DH has now tied two postseason games with bottom of the ninth home runs in the span of four days. Of course, Ibanez not only tied ALDS Game 3 with a home run, but he went on to hit a game-winning long-ball in his next at bat.

It’s difficult to choose which of the game-tying home run was more exciting, but because I’m in the moment, I’m going to label tonight’s ninth inning heroics against Detroit closer Jose Valverde as the most thrilling moment of the season.

The Yankees hadn’t scored a run through eight innings, and they were losing 4-0. A large number of fans had left the game after the seventh inning, and even more ran for the exits at the end of the eighth. The once vibrant postseason atmosphere was subdued, and it seemed as if the game was just being played out.

Then came the bottom of the ninth.

For the fourth time in this postseason, Ichiro came up with a huge hit. This time, with Russell Martin on first base, Ichiro smashed a two-run home run into the right-field seats to bring the Yankees within two.

That’s when the Stadium came back to life, as fans began to believe the Yankees had a shot.

With two outs, Mark Teixeira worked the count full and watched as Valverde missed the plate for ball four.

That brought the hero of the ALDS to the plate, and again Ibanez came through. This time, he hit a high drive to right field, and it took what seemed like an hour for the ball to get out of the ballpark. As the Tigers right fielder moved toward the outfield wall, the crowd held its collective breathe. A few seconds later, the Stadium erupted in a wild celebration as the ball landed a few rows beyond the part of the padded wall that features the scoreboard.

Regardless of the outcome of this game, the Yankees got to the Tigers fragile-minded closer. Assuming that Valverde will again be called upon in this series, the damage that the Yankees caused tonight will have a lasting impact in the ALCS.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 13, 2012 — For the second time this postseason, Andy Pettitte has pitched as good as, well … Andy Pettitte.

The lefty was brilliant tonight, allowing two runs in 6 2/3 innings of work. He left the game with the Yankees losing 2-0, and despite two great performances, he will go home tonight without win on his 2012 postseason record.

If the Yankees come back to win ALCS Game 1 tonight, Pettitte will be the biggest reason for that triumph. While the Yankees hitters continue to grind through at-bats, Pettitte did what he always does — he kept his team in the game.

What is most impressive to me tonight is that Pettitte gave the Yankees the same type of October effort he has put out for more than 16 years.

For a generation of fans — like myself — Pettitte’s October magic has spanned huge portions of our lives. When Pettitte blanked the Atlanta Braves in the 1996 World Series, I was a senior in high school, and at 33 years old, it’s nice to look back on how great Pettitte was as a young athlete, when he was in his mid-30s and now.

Pettitte turned 40 years old earlier this summer, and other than the three seasons he spent with the Houston Astros, I can’t remember a postseason in which he wasn’t keeping the Yankees in a huge game or propelling them to a win in October.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 13, 2012 — As I wrote on this blog in before, every clubhouse celebration is different. Each champagne bath has it’s own unique qualities.

When the Yankees splashed each other with the bubbly last night, I was taken aback by how relaxed the team was. Not that any one player gave me the sense that they were about to take the Tigers lightly, but there was certainly a feeling of relief in the room.

The Yankees had just won a series that went down to the wire. Two of the five games were won in extra innings, one was one in the ninth and last night’s game came down to CC Sabathia getting out of a one-out, bases loaded jam in the eighth.

Besides the in-game stress from each of the five contests against an Orioles team was as tough as any in baseball, the Yankees endured enough rain delays and train delays to stick in their memory for a while.

Anyway, the celebration was subdued, since the ALCS was set to begin 24 hours later, but in speaking to a few Yankees hitters, they seemed confident that their offense would score enough runs to succeed against the Tigers.

In my opinion, Mark Teixeira said it best when addressing all the attention that the Yankees lack of offensive fire-power got in the ALDS.

“It seems like in every playoff series, a few hitters are hitting every time up, a few guys are really struggling and a few guys are hitting at an average pace,” Teixeira said. “That’s what happened against Baltimore. There will be guys who struggle in the ALCS, but overall, our lineup is too good not to break through.”

After two innings of baseball in the ALCS, the Yankees lineup hasn’t broken through yet, but they still look significantly more relaxed and more efficient then they did during all but a few innings of the Baltimore series.

The Yankees have three hits and three walks thus far, and the bases have been loaded in each of the first two frames. Both innings ended on hard ground balls — one off the bat of Alex Rodriguez that narrowly missed going through the infield and the other off the bat of Robinson Cano that he came within a hair of beating out. For the record, he was called out on a controversial call at first base.

Another encouraging note is that Tigers’ starting pitcher Doug Fister threw 50 pitches over those two innings, and the Tigers bullpen pales in comparison to that of the Baltimore Orioles.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 13, 2012 — CC Sabathia carried the Yankees onto the ALCS.

After allowing two runs in 8 2/3 innings of work in the Yankees Game 1 win, Sabathia took the ball with everything on the line in last night’s Game 5.

In the biggest game of the year, Sabathia was at his very best. The big lefty cruised through the first seven innings, giving up one hit and one walk, while not allowing a single base runner to advance past first.

In the eighth, with the Yankees holding a 3-0 lead, Sabathia got into trouble, and then fought his way out of it. In essence, Sabathia battled for the Yankees season, which hung in the balance.

With the bases loaded and one out, Sabathia struck out Orioles leadoff hitter Nate McLouth and then got J.J. Hardy to hit a slow ground ball to Derek Jeter, who charged it and fired a strike to Mark Texeira while the crowd held its collective breath.

As Sabathia was literally battling for the Yankees season, I was mindful that even in such an important spot, neither Yankees manager Joe Girardi nor pitching coach Larry Rothschild came to the mound. Those non-moves underscored the confidence the Yankees coaching staff has in Sabathia. He was entrusted with the season, and even when things got heavy, he was left to finish the job.

Sabathia’s performance last night are the stuff that legends are made of. Sabathia’s two victories in the five-game ALDS triumph were reminiscent of his 2009 postseason, when he went 3-0 en route to the World Series.

Hopefully, when Sabathia’s 2012 postseason is all said and done, we’ll be using it as the standard by which all pitchers are judged for coming up big in October.

So far, he’s one-third of the way there.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 12, 2012 — With all the ups and downs of this ALDS, Ichiro has been forgotten.

Ichiro hasn’t struggled to the extent of some Yankees hitters, but he hasn’t collected any game-winning home runs like Raul Ibanez has and he hasn’t matched the heroics of every Yankees starter in this series.

But Ichiro has quietly made some significant contributions in the ALDS. in game 1, he collected an RBI double in the top of the first that gave the Yankees an early 1-0 lead and set the tone for the night. Later in that game, Ichiro delivered an RBI single that gave the Yankees a two-run lead in the ninth inning and kept a six-run rally alive.

In Game 2, Ichiro scored a first-inning run on what was one of the great plays of the season. Ichiro, who was on first base when Robinson Cano hit a double to the right field, should have been tagged out at home. Orioles catcher Matt Wieters had the ball while Ichiro was several steps from the dish, but the Yankees left fielder ran around the first tag and dove toward the plate, avoiding a second would-be tag.

In the sixth inning of Game 5, Ichiro smashed a double to deep center field that scored Derek Jeter, giving the Yankees a 2-0 late game lead.

He many not have a large number of hits in his first postseason series since 2001, but he’s had some big ones.

–Alfred Santasiere III

October 12, 2012 – The Yankees entered last night’s game with a chance to close out the ALDS against Baltimore, and after a 13-inning affair, the Orioles were still alive.

While the Yankees and its fan base would certainly have preferred to be resting today and getting ready for the next opponent, Game 5 brings with it some rare opportunities.

Anytime a player leads their team to victory in a winner moves on, loser goes home game, it’s special. It’s dramatic, and it leaves an indelible mark on baseball.

For fans of each team, Game 5 (or Game 7 in ALCS and World Series play) provides a rush that no other games can bring. The Yankees have played 166 games this season, and when you count spring training, they’ve been on a baseball diamond nearly every day for nine months. And it all comes down to tonight’s game.

So far, the Yankees offense has struggled to get on base, but as expected CC Sabathia has carried the Yankees. Through five innings of work, Sabathia has only allowed two base-runners and no Oriole has advanced past first base. The big lefty has thrown 50 pitches, and 35 of them have been strikes.

The Yankees and Orioles’ fate will be decided in the next four innings of baseball, and if you consider all that’s happened in 2012 to this point, you can’t help but get a three-hour long adrenaline rush on days like this.

–Alfred Santasiere III