Mighty nice of the Sox and Angels to finish at 37 after the hour, just when the Yanks/Indians are starting

Geez, swap to the Yankees game and uh..nice throw, Jeter.

As oppose to what?? The Tigers? Would Angels vs Indians been better??

YES! @#$%&

Kudos to the BoSox, BTW. Their talent really showed in this series. We got beat, plain and simple.

There are a lot of factors to bring up. I feel losing Matthews for the series, Anderson for the last game (and with a bad eye through all of them, talk about a weird injury, right in line with Angels history), and Kotchman for the last game as well really hurt us. And we were still affected by Rivera's lack of presence this entire year. Sure, he was here at the end, but how much of a difference does it make to have his 20-plus homer power available all season?

But even if we had all of those guys, maybe we take a game. Maybe if we're lucky, we take two, and force it to five. But I still don't see us winning that series most times even with a fully healthy roster.

Which says a lot about out management and what they need to do. Because they haven't been doing it, and I can only pray watching us get swept by the Red Sox again will convince them they need to step it up. Division championships aren't enough anymore.

Great series again to the Red Sox, although, no, I won't be rooting for you. I am rooting for Indians-Rockies now. But you guys have a terrific team, and have to be considered the favorite at this point.

I love how all of the Bronx has to come to the mound to talk to the Rocket.

Wow. Needless to say, this probably isn't how he wanted to go out for good.

and pull him :D

/tk

So when they fire Torre after this game are they going to finally make Donnie Baseball the manager?

I would prefer a best of seven in the first round, although that has nothing to do with all the sweeps taking place this postseason. Compared to hockey and basketball using best of sevens with 82 game schedules it just seems like too much of a crapshoot to me.

I missed the substitution while I was eating dinner, was Clemens injured or was it a strategic decision?

Damn, even if all four series end in sweeps there won't be baseball on until Thursday, what am I supposed to watch on weeknights now?

Oh I meant to mention this. So last night when they did the player introductions for both teams, they introduced everybody in uniform. I mean, the bullpen catcher, the video coordinators for both teams and everything. I imagine the team decides who they want introduced and said person puts on a team jacket and pants and have at it.

But it was pretty funny/cool when the Rockies had their Assistant Video Coordinator announced as part of the introductions. I don't remember when they announced the bullpen catcher for both teams, but they did..and they said his number, too. I think he went when they named the base coaches.

Damn Yankees... 5-3, lighting up Westbrook.

Very disappointing. Just start the new series 2 days after the ALDS ends.... oh well, it's not my biggest complaint regarding TV issues (Tim McCarver again! :eek: )

If the Angels pick up another bat this offseason, they're one of the favorites.

I'm going to have to punch my tv if I ever see that Frank TV advert again.

+1

Well, it's been 10 minutes. There should be at least 3 broken TVs in your house.

+1

First Nixon, now Cano not getting the glove down... poor fundamentals going on now.

+100. Seriously - why would baseball be dumb enough to put its post-season on cable, and initially without HD?

TBSHD started up just in time here in Mass... would have been riots otherwise I guess.

Frank TV I have no idea how that's gonna be a good show. I guess he's decent stand-up and at impressisons, but how that translates into a show I have no idea, nor intend to find out.

Man, seriously. Those ads are irritating. So is having the post-season -- especially one this exciting so far -- on cable.

Being in Atlanta, I didn't have to worry about TBSHD. I just wondered if they'd actually bring the HD cameras ;). TBSHD has called itself an HD channel while showing only a handful of Braves games (and like nothing else) in HD.

Umm ... $$$

And I have to think the networks were pretty pleased that a cable network stepped up & was willing to pay since there's a pretty good chance that any of the major broadcast networks would have had to risk putting early round games on that actually draw lower ratings than their regular primetime programs and would have been paying for the "privilege". Not to mention pissing off their affiliates royally as in many markets MLB is a really tough sell.

I really don't think baseball is all that far from being all cable except maybe for the WS and the A-S game.

I've had every single postseason game in HD???

First off, I am glad the Sox' won but am not going to brag about kicking the Angels are anything since I think if they hadn't had a ton of injuries to kep players this would have been amuch closer series. Yankees game remined me slightly of the year the Sox had there comeback against NY in 2005. My advice to Cleveland win the next game! You will LOSE if you go to game five against this team no matter where you play. I have tickets to the first game of the ALCS in Boston and hope we get the Yankees;) But if we get the Indians no prob. Just happy we are still in it. Good to see Manny and Ortiz as well as Lowell/Drew all hitting.

I dunno if I buy that. I know that'll be the talk. Lose tomorrow and it's NY's to lose. But Cleveland in that scenario Cleveland will be:

1) Playing at home
2) Starting a Cy Young candidate on normal rest
3) Facing either a pitcher who has been lit up like a roman candle in 2 of his last 4 starts or a 35 year old on short rest.

Even if Cleveland loses tomorrow, I think they are still the favorites to go to the ALCS. Doesn't mean the Yankees won't win it. We all know they have the talent to sweep through everything. . . but I think if I'm Cleveland, I'm more than happy to take my chances with a rested Sabathia vs. ANY starting pitcher the Yankees throw out at me.

Wang will pitch tomorrow for the Yankees on 3 days rest. Cleveland should counter with Sabathia. If it goes to game 5, it takes place on Wednesday so Carmona and Pettitte will be on full rest. The Yankees will likely crush Byrd so it makes sense to me to go with Sabathia and Carmona.

Given all those parameters, I'd have to agree. Start Sabathia a little short and have him and Carmona go full throttle in game five if you need it.

Definitely - FOX has had the MLB playoffs the last 5 years or so, and every year, they've had to hold off their fall season premieres until November. That got harder and harder to justify.

FOX took losses on their early sports contracts because they wanted to be seen as part of the "big 4". Remember when they first got the NFL - people couldn't believe it, they thought they'd have Al Bundy doing play by play. Now that they've arrived as a major network, it makes no sense to run Divisional Series Baseball in primetime.

And Wedge confirms that the Indians are going with Byrd in game 4. It's his funeral I guess. I don't know why you wouldn't use your Cy Young pitcher in game 4 and if it came to a game 5 you'd have Carmona who shut down the Yankees in game 2. Byrd faced the Yankees once this season and he didn't make it past the 2nd inning. Facing Andy Pettitte in the deciding game after he shut you down in game 2 is not something I'd look forward to.

I think Wang will get shelled on 3 days rest.

He might get shelled again. But one thing to keep in mind is that Wang pitches much better at home. His ERA is 2.75 at home this year and 4.91 on the road. Maybe they don't cut the grass before he pitches or something. He doesn't really have much of a history of pitching on short rest so we won't know until tomorrow I guess. But can you really count on Wang going out there and getting bombed again? You put Byrd out there and there's a good chance that he gets bombed as well, all so you can save Sabathia for game 5 and leave Carmona on the bench?

I dont think I've ever seen a pitcher have less command and get more felatio by the announcers than I just saw. I like the way the guy pitches, but they couldn't stop talking about how he'd settled down after the Sizemore bomb. Ummm, guys, he just gave up 3 hits to the first 7 hitters and had a 20+ pitch inning. Seemings on how he's coming off three days rest, he needs to get it together quick or the Yankees are in trouble. (though the Yankees are going to lite Byrd up)

Question for the Yankee fans: Who does Torre go to if Wang continues to struggle? Hughes is probably unavailable. Who is left?

ANOTHER ABOMB FROM A....

oh wait...

lol

I <3 Kenny Lofton

I say ARod takes a bit much on the crap, but that at bat was horrific. After pitch #2 to ARod, the score should have been 3-2 Yankees. The last swing was horrible as well.

Posada followed that up with an equally poor at bat.

I think he deserves it all.

he makes 25 million and is aweful in the playoffs in a big spot

Wang looks horrid

kennedy or mussina

As a Sox fan - that sure looked like a foul to me.

the ump blew that call but hey, now all the Yankee fans will have an excuse why they got blew out

Beyond horrid. Lost in all of the "did it hit him or not" is that Wang threw two pitches to a guy clearly trying to bunt. One was two inches off the dirt, the other was so far inside that it we don't know for sure what happened with it.

Now Mussina comes into the game. He'd better have his A game tonight or it won't matter how much the Yankees pound Byrd.

He held them to two, but threw 21 pitches himself. You have to admire the Indians at bats in this series. It's like watching those old Yankees teams. You get out of the inning happy it wasn't worse than what it was and realize you just gave up a couple of runs and threw 30+ pitches.

Yankees aren't dead yet. I still think Byrd gets lit up. But I wouldn't wait to long to make the move. I don't think the Indians are done scoring tonight.

Totally saw it coming.

Just got home from work and was pleased to see that the Yanks were down. Indians need to end this thing here tonight. It's still early yet and the Yanks are trying to start a rally now, but...if Byrd can get out of this inning, they'll have to start all over again. We'll see...

Oh right. I love how Johnny Damon is the new Yankee hero. Hilarious.

Bruce Froeming was clearly sleeping. When a viewer can easily identify a guy not checking his swing from the center field cam, it's bad.

Yeah, and it's funny when the put the camera back on him and he was looking like "what? it's Yankee Stadium. I'm not gonna get beat up."

I would walk Jeter intentionaly here to pitch to Arod