Liveblog 23: The Yankees Are In the Playoffs

The Yankees have already won seven more games than they did all of last season, and they have ten more to play. If they win just half of those, they'll finish with 101 wins and their best record since 2004. Last night they overcame the Angels in the ninth inning, and in the process clinched the first playoff berth of the year. Needless to say, this is a big improvement over last time. Surprisingly, it really has very little to do with pitching. CC Sabathia has been brilliant and Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera have been rocks in the bullpen, while A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte have at times been very good, but overall the pitching has been a little below average, partially due to the easy home runs at the stadium.

What has carried them to such a great performance is the hitting, as the offense has been outstanding. They have an amazing eight players with an OPS+ of at least 120, meaning they have by a certain measure hit 20% better than the average, and if Derek Jeter can manage three more home runs in the short time left they'll all have at least 20 as well, a big league record. The defense has been less terrible than recent years as well. They set the record for consecutive games without an error, which actually isn't a great measure of that, but they've gotten to more balls than years past, helping the pitchers a bit, as a lot of them are outdoing their peripherals.

The team's magic number to clinch both the division and homefield advantage through the playoffs for the first time 2006 is six, and they can reduce both of those as well take a rare series victory in Los Angeles today as Burnett faces off against former Ray Scott Kazmir. For no understandable reason, in a few hours I'll be blogging at least the first five innings of the game.

Top 1 - The Yankees have four regular players out of the lineup today so this should be interesting. Jeter leads off by flying out to right. Since I last blogged about baseball he took over the record for most hits by a Yankee, but considering how many other teams have players with more it's not as impressive as the New York media made it out to be. Jerry Hairston Jr. works a full count walk. Mark Teixeira pops out to second. Hideki Matsui ends the inning with a line drive right to Gary Matthews Jr. in right field.

Bottom 1 - Watching A.J. pitch this year has been frustrating. You can't say enough about his stuff, but it is too frequently ineffective for whatever reason and he leads or nearly leads the league in a bunch of negative statistics like wild pitches and walks. He's had stretches of brilliance, and hopefully that's the side of him that shows up in October. Chone Figgins, constant thorn in the Yankees' side, singles to left. Burnett gets two strikes on Erick Aybar with a fastball and then the curve. Another curve in the dirt gets Aybar swinging. Former Yankee and Angels-offensive-resurgence-credit-getter Bobby Abreu lines out to Shelley Duncan in right. Figgins finally tries to steal second, but the effort is wasted as Torii Hunter grounds out to Robinson Cano.

Top 2 - Duncan is way late on the first fastball from Kazmir. Two more escape his grasp and he strikes out in a very feeble-looking at bat. Cano drives one to center field that falls into Hunter's glove. Melky Cabrera grounds out meekly for the third out.

Bottom 2 - Kendry Morales, getting some mild MVP consideration from people blissfully ignoring the real world, leads off with a single past Cano. Juan Rivera swings through a fastball for strike three. Howie Kendrick strikes out on the eighth pitch of the at bat as Morales swipes second thanks to a bad throw by Jose Molina. Matthews walks on four pitches to bring up the only white guy in the Angels' lineup today, catcher Mike Napoli. He strikes out on three pitches to end the threat.

Top 3 - I really don't understand Joe Girardi's decision to only play half of his good hitters today. Two of them are kind of hurt, but the others aren't, Kazmir already kind of destroys this team, and there's an off day tomorrow anyway. Brett Gardner gets an infield single off a grounder right back to Kazmir, who doesn't get to the ball quickly enough to make the play. Molina pops out to right. Back to Jeter, who grounds into a double play.

Bottom 3 - Figgins raps his sixth hit of the series, a single up the middle. Aybar bounces one that Burnett grabs and throws to first for the out as Figgins moves to second. Abreu watches three pitches go by and walks back to the dugout. Gardner takes a funny route to a fly ball by Hunter but tracks it down for out number three.

Top 4 - Hairston watches a third strike for the first out. Teixeira doubles into the corner in right. Matsui lets five pitches go by and walks. Duncan rips one that ricochets off Figgins' glove and dribbles to left field, but Teixeira held up thinking it might get caught and is thrown out at home trying to score. Matsui and Duncan moved to third and second on the play. Cano makes up for it by grounding a single between first and second on a 2-2 pitch, two runs score and he moves to second on the bad throw to home. Cabrera doubles into the gap in left and drives in Cano. Rivera puts about twice as much effort into catching a Gardner pop fly as he did trying to prevent the Red Sox from scoring the winning run on a simlar play a little while ago, and the inning's over, but the Yankees lead 3-0.

Bottom 4 - Now pitching with a lead, Burnett responds by throwing three straight balls to Morales, but comes back to strike him out, already his sixth of the game. Rivera walks in a kind of irritating at bat. Kendrick strikes out again. Another full count, and another strikeout, as Matthews becomes Burnett's seveth different victim of the K. He's pitching well.

Top 5 - Molina flies out to the warning track in dead center. Jeter fails to check his swing on a third strike but the ball gets away from Napoli and he makes it to first base. For the record, I think it's dumb that you can do that. Jeter steals second on the next pitch. Hairston pops out to short center. I just noticed that Teixeira is creeping towards .300 as the season ends. After a terrible first month he's been around .280 all year, but if he made it that would be neat. Kazmir just misses a called strike that puts the count full and the next pitch is fouled off the ground into Napoli's junk. After a short break, ball four comes in for a walk. Matsui pops out to cut the frame short.

Bottom 5 - Napoli recovers from the ball shot by smacking a ground ball past the listless Jeter for a single to open the bottom of the inning. Figgins comes up as the only batter A.J. hasn't retired at least once. He stays that way lining a double down the right field line. Aybar swings at a curve that actually hits his foot for strike two. Another curve down and in gets him for the second time. Abreu drives in the Angels' first run with a groundball out to Cano playing deep. Hunter lines out to Duncan in right, and Burnett gets out of it with a two run lead intact.

Top 6 - Duncan works a long at bat before Hunter makes a catch near the wall for the first out. Cano strikes out on another ball in the dirt, but this one doesn't get far enough away for him to reach. Cabrera singles, but Gardner flies out to end the inning.

Bottom 6 - Full count and another called strikeout for Morales. Rivera singles up the middle. Kendrick fans again, the 11th of the game. Matthews crushes one to right that Duncan falls over going after and a run scores. Napoli walks on a questionable fourth ball, and that's it for Burnett. I'm out of here before this gets worse.

Wrap-Up - Damaso Marte finished off the sixth, and then there was a couple of tense innings as the Yankees' second-string relievers bent but didn't break against the Angels' offense before Rivera shut the door in the ninth. Good win, as it's the Yankees' first series win in Anaheim in years and an admirable job in a pressure-filled situation. If Boston loses today or tomorrow against the Royals, then the Yankees can clinch the division with a series win at home against them this weekend. That would certainly be sweet.