Live from the Bank (finally): Yankees-Phillies III
PHILADELPHIA -- After waiting around in Citizens Bank Park like it was, oh, 2008 against the Rays, we're finally ready for Game Three of the World Series between the Phillies and Yankees. The tarp is off, Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt has thrown the ceremonial first pitch and the rain is still falling lightly but we're not expected to have any weather trouble the rest of the night.
Here's the lineups:
New York: Jeter, ss; Damon, lf; Teixeira, 1b; Rodriguez, 3b; Posada, c; Cano, 2b; Swisher, rf; Cabrera, cf; Pettitte, p
Philadelphia: Rollins, ss; Victorino, cf; Utley, 2b; Howard, 1b; Werth, rf; Ibanez, lf; Feliz, 3b; Ruiz, c; Hamels, p
Yankees win: Tough night on the blog as print duties and Internet trouble hurt us at the end. The final was 8-5 and we'll have more thoughts soon
Mid-7th: Posada makes it 7-4 with a two-out RBI single off ex-Bison Chad Durbin. The Yankees had just four runs in the first 21 innings in this series. They have seven in the last four.
Bot-6th (6-4, Yankees): Swisher takes Haap deep for his first longball of the postseason. That's a double and homer in back-to-back innings for the Yankees' right field. Until those at-bats, he was 4 for 36 with one extra-base hit the entire postseason. What a sport. Werth leads off the bottom of the inning with a bomb to the upper deck in left for his second of the game. MLB.com notes that Pettitte had allowed two HRs in 66 World Series innings before tonight. And now Werth has two off
Top-5th (5-3, Yankees): A pair of unlikely sources help the Yankees tie the game. Swisher, in a 1-for-18 slump, doubled into the left field corner. One out later, Pettitte, of all people, looped the first pitch to center on a Hamels curveball for a broken-bat single to tie the game. Jeter followed with another looper to center that Victorino couldn't corral and Damon roped a two-out, two-run double to right to put the Yankees ahead.
For three innings, we saw the Hamels of '08. For two innings, we've seen the Hamels of '09. Last Yankee pitcher with a World Series RBI: Jim Bouton in Game Six, 1964 against the Cardinals.
End-4th (3-2, Philly): A-Rod arrives. His first Series hit, and the Yankees' first of the night is a two-run homer to right. It first looked like a double but was correctly overturned on replay because it struck a TV camera just over the railing. A-Rod's 6th of the postseason, tying Bernie Williams' club record in 1996. It's also the team's 17th of the postseason, breaking the franchise record set three times. Pettitte has gone hitless in the third and fourth in a good recover. A-Rod, by the way, has been brutal other than the home run. He ole'd Rollins' single in the first and made a throwing error in the fourth.
End-3rd (3-0, Philly): A 1-2-3 inning leaves the Yankees hitless through three and batting just .194 for the series. They're 14 for 72 with 24 strikeouts and just two walks. Wow.
End-2nd (3-0, Philly): Hamels has thrown two hitless innings while Pettitte found big trouble in the bottom of the inning. Werth led off with a home run to left on a full count and a bases-loaded walk to Rollins and sacrifice fly by Victorino also scored runs. Great bunt single by Hamels in the inning as well. Pettitte is missing with everything and needed 51 pitches to get through two innings. Dude didn't get the memo we started 80 minutes late. Yeesh.
End-1st (0-0): Hamels' first pitch, a strike to Jeter, came at 9:17 p.m. That's a delay of 1 hour, 20 minutes. We waited 1:31 to start Game Three here against the Rays last year. At least it's 70 degrees. Hamels pitched a 1-2-3 inning in 13 pitches. Pettitte, meanwhile, gave up a hit and stolen base to Rollins but got the next three batters (Utley and Howard on strikes) to leave him at second. The fans are loud -- much louder than at the corporate-filled new Yankee Stadium. They're all clad in red and waving their white towels for a pretty cool effect. They chanted "You took ster-oids" at Pettitte. Can't wait to see what they do to A-Rod.
---Mike Harrington
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