As the Yanks are one step away from their 40Th World Series appearance-
Being a Yankee fan for many years keeps me on an even thought process. On one hand I see the Yankees are rolling and are looking very good to win the pennant. However on the other hand the Yanks have not fully exercised the 3-0 lead in 2004 ALCS. The Yanks have not wiped out the memory of that awful collapse of 04 and until they do, I will be suspect to the thought that it can happen again.
I cannot ignore the facts that in the 04 series three things happened prior to the collapse.
· The Yankees defeated the Twins in Minnesota to win the ALDS
· Their opponent did not hit with men in scoring position
· Their opponent looked like they were finished, especially after losing by 9 or more runs to go down to their third defeat.
The score was 19 to 8, Yanks up 3 games to none.
This year the score was 10 to 1, Yanks up 3 games to one.
In 04, the starting pitcher in the first attempt to close out the series and get the Yanks to their 40Th World Series appearance was El Duke Hernandez and he did fine.
The infamous ninth inning happened where Mariano Rivera had a 4-3 lead. The a huge foot note to that inning was that Mariano was attempting to complete a 2 inning postseason save for the 1st time in this series and the 11Th time in his career.Prior to this attempt he had been successful 10 out of the 11 times.
The only blemish was in the 7Th game vs Arizona in the 2001 WS.
However, after that hiccup Mariano had been perfect in 2 inning save opportunities. In the 2ND game of the 2003 ALDS vs the twins he retired all 6 batters he faced. In the 3rd game of the 2003 ALCS vs Boston, Mariano retired all 6 batters he faced.In the 5Th game of the ALCS he was reached for one run and still got the save by getting the side retired in the ninth 1, 2, 3. Then in the pennant clincher Mariano pitched 3 inning and did not give up a run and only 2 hits. Rivera faced 11 batters in all and only 2 reached base..Mariano was the winning pitcher as Aaron Boone’s home run launched the Yankees to their 39 Th World Series appearance. In the World Series he was called on again to get 6 outs and he faced 7 batters and only one reached base.
In 04 Mariano did not have a great post season he had blown a save after he entered game 2 of ALDs and did not look overly dominant as in he had in other series. Even in the prior two appearances in ALCS he was touched up for a few hits.
When he came into the ninth after pitching a strong eighth you thought with the opponent down to their last at bats vs Mariano the 40Th appearance was in the bag.
OH WELL!
So, back to tonight, its Lackey a gutty gritty pitcher if there ever was one vs a finicky, wild throwing AJ Burnett who has had tremendous bouts with wildness.Will AJ deliver us to the 40Th? While the opposition has looked bad for most of the series lest us forget how potent a lineup they have. Explosive to say the least all clutch during the regular season. Poised to break out like a corralled bull right ready to strike.
Can Burnett’s incredible stuff keep them contained? This is a huge game only because the recent close calls have been elusive to The Yankees grasp!
Now I need to nail down Day 608!
My ride was as strong as I could. I only managed to burn 872 in 60 minutes. However, after a few hundred crunches my competitiveness kicked in and I proceeded to set a personal record by doing 45 straight minutes on the plank exercise. It felt awesome! I was contemplating not doing the plank exercise today. When I was unable to rip through the ride I was kind of disappointed and was feeling tired. After looking around and deciding not to feel sorry for myself I said "the heck with it lets go for it!" I kept challenging myself every minute and before I knew it, the record was in sight.
I am psyched to see what I will have tomorrow - 609 is sitting on the vine -
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