Pursuit of the 27th world championship

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Alex Rodriguez is turning this postseason into his personal showcase.

Coming through under pressure once again, Rodriguez hit a tying homer in the 11th inning and the New York Yankees edged the Los Angeles Angels 4-3 Saturday night on Maicer Izturis' throwing error in the 13th for a 2-0 lead in the AL championship series.

After the rain came and went on another chilly night, New York pulled out its latest late-inning thriller. The game ended at 1:07 a.m. when Izturis threw away Melky Cabrera's grounder to second base.

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Here’s some A-Rod quotes: “You’re definitely not thinking home run. You’re certainly not thinking home run when you’re down 0-2. He made two tough pitches on me … I finally got a pitch I could handle.”

(On how he’s turned himself around this season): “I know you guys are looking for something profound – I’m just in a good place. I’m seeing the ball and I’m hitting it.”

(What did he think going around the bases?): “The first thing I was thinking was double or home run? Once I saw the home run call, I was very happy.”

(On the game as a whole?): “That was a fun game. I didn’t do much the rest of the night but I enjoyed every minute of it. We have some relievers with some serious guts. You can’t say enough about our bullpen. They did a phenomenal job.”

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142# ppteam

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143# ppteam

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144# ppteam

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Game 3 starts at 4:07pm.....

mbna

Looks to me that Angels as a whole team are giving up right now.

The batting from the whole team has been a huge disappointment to me.

Jeff Weaver is the guy who tends to fold pretty badly under pressure in his whole career...


3-0, here we come....

ppteam

no, 0-1 at home turf is nothing, long way to go.

Speaking of hitting, it's much harder to get a hit in postseason since all pitchers are good ones. Another reason to prove Jeter is awesome, his numbers in playoff are much better than in regular season, year after year.

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Looks like we will lose this game, damn it.

mbna

just some second guess: we should have activated our closer at 8th inning, Brian Fuentes.

I know they normally only play 1 inning. But this is a MUST-WIN game for Angels.

So a little disappointed there...

mbna

Our designated hitter, Guerrero, has been our consistent loser....

ppteam

Guerrero gave you Boston win.
Should Boston win game 3, I am pretty sure Angels would play game 5 with them, and most likely will lose.

ppteam

Yanks lost game 3, 4-5.
No worry, they will win tomorrow night and go for the series win in game 5.

mbna

Game 4, CC Sabathia  against Kazmir. On paper, CC Sabathia  is a much better pitcher. But with only 3 days rest, will he be that dominant as in game 1?

So far, Angels bullpen played up to the challenge. And Angels' batting gets to play better, can't leave that many runners on bases.

On the other hand, you get to wonder why pull David Robertson with 2 outs?

As a fan, we can always do 2nd guess....

ppteam

CC 3 days rest is anybody's guess. But I think Yankee hitters can do some damage on Kazmir, since they have seen him many times in AL East. Just like Boston did to him in game 3.

Today's game, Joe overmanaged bullpen, at least he made 2-3 stupid moves. Unless Yanks pull this one out, he will have to answer some sharp questions.

Yankees batters hit pretty poorly this entire postseason. Swisher, Melky, Cano and TEX got nothing to show. This is the concern. The positives are A-Rod, some bullpen pitchers and controlling Angels' running game fairly well.

mbna

If Dodgers pull out tonight plus my Angels boys do well, we might still have some tiny chance for World Sub-Series...

But Kazmir is quite a bit concern to me, hopefully we can go to game 7....

ppteam

The diff now is Kazmir will pitch at home, this is big.
Dodgers cannot win NLCS, they just can't. They are overmatched by Phillies by a mile.

Honestly speaking, I don't have respect to any NL teams. After all they are just NL. But Phillies is one exception. All the other NL teams are jokes.

mbna

Speaking of home advantage, I personally think it is very important in both NFL and NBA playoff games, and not that important in both MLB and NHL playoff games. Just my personal observation for the last many years...

I know, nobody respects Dodgers, that is why I am willing to give it one small shot....

mbna

When you do not have Rivera-caliber closer, that is what you get like Dodgers did tonight.

Pretty heart-broken for Dodger fans...

ppteam

You see, that's why only Phillies look alot like AL team in NL. Their lineup is powerful. But they need a better closer next year.

Home field advantage is exaggerated.