No Swish-a-licious Tonight

The Yankees blew a golden opportunity to set up a World Series meeting with the Phils, and instead will prepare for the Angels in a Game 6 at Yankee Stadium on an ominous-looking Saturday evening. They scored late, as has been their M.O. the entire postseason thus far, scoring no runs in the first 6 innings. Down 4-0, they rallied in the 7th, scoring 6 runs in an inning where John Lackey may have prematurely been taken out of the game by skipper Mike Scioscia. After the Angels scored 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-6 lead, the Yankees looked to Mariano to bail them out. He did, and in the 9th, Nick Swisher popped up to end the game with the bases loaded.

Chants of '2004 Red Sox' should be no problem as veteran Andy Pettite takes the hill on Saturday, with safety-net CC Sabathia ready if needed for a Game 7. The true issue is that the Yankees' bats always seem to take some innings to get going. This pattern will not be particularly helpful if their starting pitchers fail to produce solid outings. Tonight saw A.J. Burnett give up 4 runs in the first inning before eventually settling in. During the five innings to follow, John Lackey continued to shut the Yankees down. Luckily the Yankees were finally able to get into the Angels bullpen and cash in 6 runs to go on top 6-4, with the hope they would end series here tonight in Anaheim. But it wasn't to be as the "dependable" Yankee bullpen, along with some interesting pitching decisions by Joe Girardi, hampered the Yankees ability to maintain the lead long enough for Mariano Rivera to reach the mound.

Heavy rains may disrupt Game 6 on Saturday, but Sunday and Monday--if series pushed back-- look good. Hopefully, the bad weather on Saturday doesn't result in an unfair result for a monumentally important game.