Yankees Start Off 1-0 After Win Over Halos

CC Sabathia has shown up all critics who doubted how he can handle post season baseball as he picked up his 2nd win in his 2nd playoff start for the New York Yankees.

CC pitched 8 innings allowing one run on 7 hits striking out 7.

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The New York Yankees scored two runs in the first inning after captain Derek Jeter started the game with a base hit on a great at bat.

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Johnny Damon followed D. Jeter with a broken bat single to left, and would take second on the throw giving 1B Mark Teixeira an at bat with runners at 2nd and 3rd nobody out.

Mark swung at a 3-0 pitch to pop out to shallow left unable to drive the run in to bring up 3B Alex Rodriguez with one out.

A. Rodriguez would get the job done as he poked a sac fly into the swirling winds to take a 1-0 lead.

with 2 outs the Yankees got a lucky break as Hideki Matsui collected an RBI single on a fly ball that should have been caught.

The ball was in between Angels SS Eric Aybar, and 3B Chone Figgins, but they were unable to communicate on the play allowing the ball to drop in scoring the 2nd run.

J. Lackey would get Jorge Posada to end the inning with a fly out to right as he just got under the ball.

Overall it was a sloppy bottom part of the 1st inning, as both teams showed signs of feeling the cold weather.

First off Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira needs to realize when you have a pitcher like John Lackey throwing the ball all over the place you need to make him throw pitches.

You can't just wave at the first thing that looks good when you have a 3-0 count it doesn't matter how good you are.

Tex had a chance to give New York a bases loaded nobody out situation for Alex Rodriguez but did not show any patience at the plate.

2nd and foremost the Los Angeles Angels were killed from the lack of voices in their infield.

There is no excuse for letting Hideki's fly ball drop in with 2 outs like that absolutely no excuse.

At the end of the first inning the Yankees would have a 2-0 lead, but would need to show more patience off Angels J. Lackey who had trouble finding the strike zone.

The Yankees would make another attempt at the scoreboard for the bottom of the 3th inning after a two out single from Mark Teixeira.

Alex Rodriguez came in with a patient at bat working the count to 3-1, and bouncing a single up the middle to move Tex over to third with 2 outs.

Alex looked really comfortable at the plate it was the first time I have ever really seen him smile during a post season at bat.

However J. Lackey like the warrior he is shut down Hideki Matsui to end the threat still down by two.

In the top of the 4th the Yankees would get some horrible defense from LF Johnny Damon as he totally gave up on a fly ball off the bat of Vladimir Guerrero for a one out double.

The ball would drop 5 feet in front of the wall, and I have no idea why on earth Johnny Damon would just assume the ball was going out when the wind was all over the place.

CC Sabathia would suffer from it as Angels 1B Kendry Morales would climb within one on a 2 out RBI single.

CC then got Howie Kendrick to pop out to Melky Cabrera in center field to head into the bottom of the 4th with a 2-1 lead.

The Yankees waited until the bottom of the 5th to strike again as Hideki Matsui collected his 2nd hit and RBI on a double to left field.

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Hideki is now 4 for 12 in the 2009 post season with a HR, and 4 RBI in four games.

On the play Alex Rodriguez came whizzing around third, but would be out after colliding with catcher Jeff Mathis.

After checking the replay it had appeared that Arod was never tagged, but regardless he still ran past the third base coach's stop sign.

With one out in the top of the 6th Angels CF Torii Hunter tried to shake things up by attempting to bunt for a hit.

It was a nice bunt toward the third base side, but CC Sabathia picked it up firing it to first to get the out.

Mark Teixeira made an excellent stretch on the play in which he appeared to have caught the bag with his toe.

During the bottom half of that inning the Yankees were in a position where they needed to pile up another insurance run with a runner on second two out.

Derek Jeter watched his 2nd base hit of the game that came at a crucial time.

D. Jeter always seems to be that guy you can count on roping an RBI single up the middle to give New York a three run lead.

The man looks to be no different still being the man in the October games.

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CF Torii Hunter made an error on the play to let D. Jeter advance to second base, even know I feel it was a tough error.

The ball seemed to have skidded up on T. Hunter but nonetheless it went into the box score as an E-8.

After getting out of the inning the Angels would have 9 outs left with a three run deficit.

After being unable to get anything out of CC Sabathia the Angels would enter the bottom of the 9th to face the greatest closer in the game.

Mariano Rivera added onto his record for most career post season saves as he closed down #36 during his MLB service.

Mariano Rivera also collected his 2nd save in the Yankees first four playoff games not allowing a run in 4 2\3 innings so far as he continues to own the 9th inning.

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The Yankees took a very important game one against one of the tougher teams in the American League.

New York will look for another gem out of A.J. Burnett who will most likely have Jose Molina behind the plate for him.

So far Jorge Posada hasn't swung the bat the way he has all season, and has looked emotionless in the early going even when he had a good game three in the ALDS.

I don't know if his feelings are hurt about A.J. Burnett pitching to Jose Molina, all I know is he has not been the same Jorge.

Hopefully starting game two on the bench will fire J. Posada up as the Yankees will definitely need his bat for this Series.

Tomorrow's game will be at 7:57 pm, and should be a good one as the Yankees will look for a 2-0 lead attempting to solve lefty Joe Saunders.

J. Saunders has a difficult task looking to shut down a powerhouse team after his team dropped game one.

The Yankees A.J. Burnett threw really well in his first career post season start for the Bronx Bombers.

He went 6 innings in game two of the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins allowing one earned run on 3 hits striking out 6.

A.J. will have one of the best lineups in Baseball behind him, and will look to keep the momentum in New York's favor.

Alex Rodriguez was 1-2 in game one of the ALCS with an RBI sac fly, but really didn't get a whole lot to swing at.

Look for A. Rodriguez to continue to destroy opposing pitching, as he once again looked like he was in the zone at the plate.

The fact is Alex got up in the first inning, and put up the first run on the board by not trying to do too much, and just playing like no longer feels any pressure after all he has been through.

Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira is on the verge of breaking out you can see he has had a lot of trouble adapting to the weather.

The Yankees are on a roll now, and don't look to be slowing down heading into game two.