Yankees, Joe Girardi hopeful they have shaken Orioles confidence with Game 1 victory

Joe Girardi just spoke with the beat writers about a variety of subjects leading into tonight's ALDS Game 2 against the Orioles. With the Yankees holding a 1-0 lead in the series afater Sunday night's 7-2 victory, Girardi will switch up his lineup against Baltimore lefthander Wei-Yin Chen.
Here are a few snippets from the meeting:
Q: Eduardo Nunez is in the lineup tonight against the lefthander. This is why he's on your roster?
Girardi: "Yeah, He's done a good job in these situations and he's been swinging the bat well against lefthanders. So we'll put him in there."
Q: What does it say that you have a Number 8 hitter with 43 home runs in Curtis Granderson?
Girardi: "Our lineup's deep now. We've got guys back. Against the lefty, we've decided to put him in the eighth spot. This is a guy who's produced a lot of runs for us, and we feel our lineup is pretty deep."
Q: Overall, how do you like the way your team has looked against lefthanders recently? The numbers indicate you've been improving.
Girardi: "I think Tex makes a big difference in that. Ichiro had a great month against lefties in September. Swish is starting to hit lefthanders again. Alex has hit them all year. Jete hits them. And Russell has started to swing the bat, which helps."

Q: How encouraging is it that Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher, two guys who've struggled in recent postseasons, had good nights last night?
Girardi: "Really encouraging. I talked about for them, it wouldn’t be in their heads unless they got off to slow starts and people started asking them about it. I think it's really encouraging."
Q: Was Teixeira running hard out of the box on the ball he hit off the wall? Were you surprised he was thrown out at second?
Girardi: "He hit it hard. Davis has a great arm. But Tex was running."

Why Alex Rodriguez Needs Another Huge October to Validate Yankees Career

The 2009 season was Alex Rodriguez's very own Rubber Soul. It wasn't his best season by any stretch of the imagination, but the 2009 campaign ultimately saw the New York Yankees star third baseman prove he could do something many people didn't think he could do.
At long last, A-Rod was clutch in the postseason. He posted a 1.308 OPS while hitting six home runs and driving in 18 runs, and it seemed like every hit he came up with was a big one.

Orioles-"Yankees": O's starter Wei-Yin Chen faces big challenge in ALDS Game 2, his first playoff start

In the final six starts of his first major-league season, Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen weathered a series of difficult outings. The Yankees beat him twice in September, hanging seven runs on him Sept. 7. Chen lost his final four decisions of the season.

Yet he’ll start Game 2 of the ALDS tonight at Camden Yards. In today’s Baltimore Sun, Eduardo A. Encina explains manager Buck Showalter’s decision to go with Chen followed by Miguel Gonzalez back in The Bronx.

Chen stands between the Yankees going for a sweep in Game 3 and the Orioles evening things.

ALDS Game 2 preview: Yankees at Orioles

There has been a lot of griping about baseball using the 2-3 home-field format for this year’s Division Series, and for good reason. However, this structure has a long history in the major league postseason. From 1969 to 1984 the League Championship Series’ were best-of-five contests with a 2-3 format, and the first three years of the Division Series, 1995 to 1997, had that set-up as well. That’s a total of 44 series using the format prior to this season. The road team won Game 1 in exactly half of those series, and on those occasions, the team that won Game 1 went on to win the series 17 out of 22 times, or 77 percent.

Command performance: CC dominates Orioles After struggling vs. Baltimore during season, Yanks ace nearly goes distance

Once the postseason begins, stats from the regular season can often be thrown out the window.

Sabathia struck out seven and came within one out of his first complete game in the postseason, notching a dominating 7-2 victory in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Camden Yards.

"I wish I could tell you I change my game plan, but I don't," said Sabathia, who had a 6.38 ERA in three starts against Baltimore this season. "I pitch to my strength, attacking in, and just going off my fastball command, and it was working today.

"The changeup was working really well. These guys know what I am trying to do. I've faced them a lot. I was able just to execute tonight."


Sabathia's numbers against the Orioles this season weren't pretty and despite an impressive career, his overall playoffs stats haven't been all that remarkable either. He entered Sunday night with a 7-4 mark and 4.81 ERA in 17 career games, including a 5.00 ERA in the ALDS.

Yankees get the jump on Orioles with 7-2 win

The New York Yankees earned the AL East title by pulling away from the Baltimore Orioles in the final week of the regular season.
That scenario repeated itself in the first game of their AL playoff series, and now the Orioles are again forced to play catch up against their division rivals.

Russell Martin led off the ninth inning with a tie breaking home run off Jim Johnson, CC Sabathia turned in a sparkling pitching performance and the Yankees gained the upper hand with a 7-2 victory Sunday night.

For eight innings, the teams engaged in a tense duel that could have gone either way. Then came the ninth inning, when the Yankees scored five runs off Johnson, Baltimore’s All-Star closer, to ruin the Orioles’ first home playoff game since 1997.

‘‘You always want to take the first one, but you go game by game,’’ said New York’s Robinson Cano, who contributed a two-run double in the ninth. ‘‘Enjoy this game and just go home get some sleep and be ready for (Game 2 on Monday).’’

The Yankees have been to the playoffs in 17 of the last 18 years. This is Baltimore’s first trip in 15 years, following 14 successive losing seasons.

‘‘We stayed in as long as we could,’’ Orioles right fielder Chris Davis said. ‘‘We’re finding out what playoff baseball is all about.’’