I was really disappointed in the Angels’ showing against the Yankees.
I know they were underdogs, but, God, their hitting was pathetic. They made errors that seemed to be due to nerves. (or, some would say, choking) They didn’t steal many bases, and, they just didn’t play up to their potential.
Chone Figgins, usually a key to the Angels’ offense all year, was 3 for 23 in the ACLS. Bobby Abreu was 4 for 25. Kendry Morales was 4 for 24. And so on, down the lineup. Who would have expected that Vlad Guerrero would be the Angels’ best hitter for the series? He hit .370 and had more hits than all his teammates. Jeff Mathis, of all players, was the next best hitter.
Why were they SO bad?
Well, the ACLS got me thinking about patterns that seem to repeat themselves every year in baseball playoff series. One is old and simple, but always relevant: Good pitching beats good hitting. That certainly applied to the Yankee pitching dominating the Angels, especially the Big Man – C.C. Sabathia, who is THE hottest pitcher in the game now. Andy Pettitte silenced the Angels too. Yet, some of the Angel hitters seemed to be pressing. They seemed to take the wrong pitches or swing at the wrong pitches. The Angels were too good a hitting team to look THAT bad!
As I watched the series unfold, I thought about another important dynamic that applies in the playoffs: “Contact hitters” often make critical contributions in money games. Guys like Johnny Damon, who is so damned good at having long, tough at-bats that end with him slapping the ball for a clutch hit – as he did in Game Six. Let’s face it: It’s because teams face the best pitchers in the playoffs that you NEED hitters who can find a way to make contact and poke a single any way they can. I’m referring to guys who can not only hit fastballs, but breaking pitches, or, even reach out of the strike zone to place the ball to the opposite field or do whatever is necessary to get a hit. THE question in the playoffs and World Series is whether hitters can scratch out a few meaningful hits against the big stud pitchers. Will the Phillies, for example, get wood on the ball against Sabathia or look helpless like the Angels? Well, I’ve noticed in my years of observing Yankee hitters that they tend to make even the best pitchers work like hell on the mound. The Yankees hitters are unique in that almost all nine can hit for contact, and power too. That is incredibly unusual. Most lineups have a couple of big HR hitters and a couple of great “contact” hitters, but not whole lineups capable of extending at-bats, showing patience, fouling off pitches and hitting tough pitches the way the Bombers do.
I have not seen Cliff Lee pitch in ages, but I have doubts that he can shut down the Yankee lineup or pitch deep into the game without his pitch count getting too high, but I hope I’m wrong.
I thought back on past playoffs and World Series, and, while it’s easy to conclude that teams with the best pitching usually win, a corollary to that is sometimes that the winning team finds ways to put together just enough hits and walks to stay in the game — and they often do it with guys like Damon and Jeter, who can stick their bats out and knock the ball to the opposite field.
I remember, as a kid, when I was lucky enough to go to the 1967 World Series between the Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. This is when Bob Gibson was the Cards’ ACE. He totally shut down the Sox, and, I recall feeling so happy when my hero at the time, Yaz, found a way to get a hit off Gibson. I felt a little of the same when, many years later, after Dave Roberts made The Steal in the 2004 ACLS game 4 against the Yankees, Bill Mueller, a great contact hitter, lined a single off the immortal Mariano Rivera, to tie the game.
It’s hard enough to hit a 95 mph pitch, but, hitting the ball off the best pitchers – under enormous pressure in the playoffs – often is what separates the men from the boys in baseball.
