October 14, 2012
It was just earlier this year when the New York Giants defeated the mighty San Francisco 49ers in the NFC championship. Since the off-season, there have been some changes. Brandon Jacobs decided to leave New York and head for the West Coast. Mario Manningham would soon follow. Certainly coming into this game, the 49ers looking strong at 4-1 were in no doubt the favorite to win the game and looked to obtain revenge on the defending Superbowl Champs. However the New York Giants made it look easy as they came into San Fran and crushed the 49ers by a final of 26-3.
San Fran threatened early as David Akers' 42 yard field goal put the Niners up 3-0 in the first. The Giants defense would take care of the rest as they not only shut down the Niners' running game, but they also forced three big interceptions against Alex Smith and their offense. The first take away was credited to Prince Amukamara in the second quarter that would set up the Giants offense from there. A terrific 39 yard catch by Domenik Hixon brought the Giants into 49ers territory, and Eli Manning's 6 yard pass to Victor Cruz would result in a touchdown giving Big Blue a 7-3 lead. Lawrence Tynes kicked a 34 yard field goal that gave the Giants a 10-3 advantage at the half.
The second half opened up as the kickoff by David Akers was returned by punt returner David Wilson for 66 yards. Ahmad Bradshaw would run in for the touchdown giving New York a 17-3 lead. Later on in the third, it would be Antrelle Rolle coming up with one of his two interceptions that would eventually lead to another field goal. Lawrence Tynes would end up with 4 field goals on the day. The Giants offense would perform impressive especially on the road and against a very tough Niner's team. Eli Manning threw his game and let his offense roll, "We knew it was gonna be a tough game but we played smart football, our offense, no sacks, no turnovers, we knew that was the right way to play the game".
Indeed the offense committed zero turnovers, and the offense flashed on all cylinders. Domenik Hixon had 78 yards especially several key catches down field that set up the Giants touchdowns and field goals. Victor Cruz had 6 big receptions and Hakeem Nicks was back and active with 3 receptions. Ahmad Bradshaw had an impressive display with 27 carries and 116 yards, the first time racking up 100 plus yards in 43 games.
The Giants defense showed up San Fran as they committed 6 sacks today, four of them on Alex Smith. The 3 interceptions prompted a huge role, as Antrelle Rolle had two of them. Michael Boley along with Prince Amukamara and Antrelle Rolle led the way with 6 tackles.
At the end, the San Francisco 49ers never showed up as they fall to 4-2 and the defending champs improve to 4-2. Also this win ranks Tom Coughlin with the 2nd most wins as a Giants head-coach surpassing Bill Parcells. Coughlin now has 78 wins with the team. Most importantly the Giants are back in first place and will host the Washington Redskins next week.
B.C Sports
Brian Chin
October 14, 2012
A day after C.C Sabathia pitched a gem to finish off the Orioles in the Division Series, game one of the ALCS was nothing short of a typical Yankees playoff game. Playing their third extra-inning game in four nights, it all ended in the 12th inning when the Detroit Tigers tacked on the go-ahead runs to win it over the Yankees 6-4. This spoiled a miraculous Yankees comeback in the 9th inning when Raul Ibanez once again came through big in the clutch sending a 2-run homerun to tie the game at 4. What made this game more of a heartbreaking loss was when the Derek Jeter left the game for good after he suffered a broken ankle injury in that 12th inning diving to stop a ground ball up the middle. The Yankees Captain might have seen his last action for the remainder of the playoffs. Jeter will certainly join Closer Mariano Rivera cheering their team on from the sidelines.
Game 1 was scoreless for the first 5 innings as Yankees Andy Pettitte faced off against Tigers Doug Fister. Doug Fister has had success against the Yankees especially in the postseason last year as he won game 5 in the division series against the Yankees. It was a pitcher's duel but in the top of the 6th, the Detroit Tigers would be the first to draw blood as they put up 2 runs with Prince Fielder and Delmon Young with RBI singles. Andy Pettitte would leave after 6.2 innings with 5 strikeouts. In the top of the 8th, Delmon Young would homer to left field off of reliever Derek Lowe giving the Tigers a 3-0 advantage and a RBI single by Avisail Garcia would have the Tigers leading 4-0. Doug Fister on the other hand doing what he does in the postseason completely shut the Yankees out with 6.1 innings pitched and surrendered no runs. The Yankee offense was a complete disappointment as they had the bases loaded in three different innings and were unable to push across a run. The Yankees offense once again not coming through with runners on base at a critical time of year.
That is when the bottom of the 9th inning came around and Tiger's Manager Jim Leyland decided to go to his closer Jose Valverde in a non-save situation. Russell Martin would lead off the bottom of the 9th with a single. With 1 Out, Ichiro Suzuki would send a 2-Run homerun to right field to finally put the Yankees on the board. Then after a walk to Mark Teixeira, Raul Ibanez would come to the plate and for the third time in just a week and a half, Ibanez would deliver. A huge 2-Run homerun would come off of Raul's bat into the right-field seats tying the game at 4 and posing a huge Yankee comeback. We go to extra-innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, the Yankees would threaten and put themselves 90 feet away from scoring the winning run. With Brett Gardner at third and 2 Outs, Derek Jeter would pop a short fly to right to end the inning. Top of the 12th, and things went astray for the Yankees. David Phelps would issue a lead-off walk to Miguel Cabrera and would break a string of 15 consecutive innings pitched by Yankee relievers while not surrendering a walk. With Prince Fielder grounding out and moving Cabrera over to second, Delmon Young would come to the plate. With Cabrera at second, Delmon Young would send a line drive fly ball to right field and just out of the reach of a leaping Nick Swisher. The ball would roll all the way to the wall scoring Cabrera and giving Detroit a 5-4 lead. The next play, Johnny Peralta would ground one near up the middle and Derek Jeter would make a diving stop for it, unfortunately for the worst, Jeter's injured ankle would go along with it. Jeter left the game with a broken left ankle and perhaps will be done for a while. The Tigers would tack on another run and come away with this one at the end. Drew Smyly came in for Detroit for the win in the bottom of the 12th inning. The Yankees continue to struggle with scoring runs and Alex Rodriguez would add on two more strikeouts with an 0-3 night.
The Yankees host game 2 this afternoon in the Bronx. Huroki Kuroda would oppose Detroit's Anibal Sanchez on the mound. The Yankees look to take a game at home before going off to Detroit.
B.C Sports
Brian C
October 3, 2012
Well, the New York Yankees have clinched the American League East in fashion. On the 162nd game of the season, who would have thought it would come down to this. The Yankees would put a cherry on top of their season as they defeat the Boston Red Sox 14-2. It was in the bottom of the 7th inning right in the middle of an Alex Rodriguez at-bat when the fans at Yankee Stadium suddenly erupted as they realized the scoreboard showing the Baltimore Orioles had lost 4-1 to the Tampa Rays which secures the Yankees on top and ending up clinching the East. Also the Yankees end up with the best record at 95-67 in the American League rewarding them with home-field advantage throughout the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Let the celebrations begin, Champagne in a clubhouse frenzy and the Bronx and Yankee fans celebrating everywhere with the playoffs to look ahead to. Well it was Huroki Kuroda who would be sent to start and early at the top of the first, it did not seem well as Cody Ross singled in Jacoby Ellsbury to give Boston a 1-0 lead. The Yankees would turn on the power against Daisuke Matsuzaka as Curtis Granderson cranked a 3-run homerun in the bottom of the second to put the Yanks in the lead 3-1. It would be the Bronx Bombers from that point on. Robinson Cano powered a 2-run homer in the third giving them a 5-1 lead, then in the 5th, Cano would launch another 2-run bomb way into the right field deck seats. Matsuzaka's night would be done, and the rest of the damage came off of Boston's bullpen. The Yankees led 7-1 and Robby Cano would add two more RBIs in the 6th. Yankees would lead 9-2 in the bottom of the 7th when Curtis Granderson crushed one to right-center for his second homerun of the game as well. Robinson Cano would go 4 for 4 on the night with 2 homeruns and 6 RBIs. Huroki Kuroda pitched an extraordinary 7 innings giving up just two runs and end his season record at 16-11. The Yankees would go on to win 14-12.
Certainly many great highlights and key positives for the New York Yankees the way they finished the season and hot at the right time going into the playoffs. Robinson Cano's 9 game-hitting streak in the final games of the season certainly is a highlight but more impressive is his .615 batting average with 3 homeruns and 14 RBIs. His two homeruns constitutes for 33 homeruns on the season and 94 RBIs. Curtis Granderson hit homeruns number 42 and 43 and winds up with 106 RBIs on the year. The Yankees tonight not only tied their all time record of 244 homeruns in a single season, they also surpassed it and now have 245 with Granderson's shot. The Captain Derek Jeter is certainly an impressive story with the .316 batting average and his consecutive season record of 200 hits or more. Closer Rafael Soriano collected 42 saves in replacement of Mariano Rivera. Raul Ibanez contributed big down the stretch especially during the critical recent games that helped boost the Yankees.
It was just a few games ago when it all seemed that the Yankee season was indeed in jeopardy as the Orioles tied them for the AL East. It dwindled down to the remaining games as the Yankees went 14-4 in their final 18 games. Manager Joe Girardi certainly proud of his team, "It is not easy to do what these guys did, win 95 games in our division". Not only winning 95 games, but the fashion in how the New York Yankees fought and pulled through. The tail end of their pitching staff was in question early in the season with newly acquired starter Michael Pineda out for the entire season and Andy Pettitte unavailable for a big part of the summer months. Starters C.C Sabathia was injured early in the season and Ivan Nova also went through shoulder injury. Outfielder Brett Gardner was disabled for the majority and probably the worst that befell the Yankees was when closer Mariano Rivera was injured for the remainder of the year while catching a fly ball during a practice routine back in May. Then Alex Rodriguez spent time on the disabled list and so did Mark Teixeira late in the season. It was a team plagued with injury all throughout their lineup and for this team to pull together and maintain their position in the Major Leagues was quite a remarkable one.
The Yankees lead was 10 games in July and many saw the number slowly dwindle down as the resilient Baltimore Orioles gave chase in the East. When it finally came down to the wire, and players knew they must step up and fight to maintain first, it is exactly what they did, "If we controlled our own destiny, everything was in our control" - Curtis Granderson.
The Yankees with the clinch and the win will now enter the postseason for the 51st time in their illustrious history and the 24th time with the best record in the American League. They will either face the division rivals Baltimore Orioles or the Texas who play a one game playoff to determine the first round match-up. Congratulations and now the real season begins as the American League East Champions Yankees have their eyes on the playoffs!
B.C Sports
Brian C
October 2, 2012
With Baltimore beating Tampa, and the Yankees lacking any sort of offense in last night's game, Raul Ibanez pinched-hit in the 9th inning and sent a 2-run home-run into the right field seats to tie the game at 3. He would come up again in the bottom of the 12th inning with two on and 2 Outs, Raul Ibanez's single to left-field scored Francisco Cervelli coming home from second-base sent the Yankees on to win it 4-3 against the Boston Red Sox in extra-innings and keep the Yankees one game up on the Baltimore Orioles with the season's final game tonight.
Well indeed the Yankees season would come down to the final several games remaining, and with game 161, the magic number to clinch the American League East is down to one. They are certainly in the driver's seat. The Yankees are also fighting for potential home-field advantage throughout the playoffs of course the only thing to do is win.
With the decision earlier in the week to take Ivan Nova out of the Starting Pitcher's role in last night's game, the Yankees would pitch David Phelps. Phelps would allow two runs in the first inning on an RBI double by Dustin Pedroia scoring Jacoby Ellsbury and a sac-fly by Cody Ross. The Yankees would gain one back against Jon Lester in the 2nd inning on Eduardo Nunez's RBI single misplayed by shortstop Jose Iglesias to allow Curtis Granderson to score. David Phelps in the 5th inning and the Yankees trailed Boston 2-1 the majority of the game. The bullpen secured some quality innings and in the top of the 9th, Rafael Soriano would allow a solo home-run to James Loney which would give Boston a 3-1 lead. Then in the bottom of the ninth with Boston pitcher Andrew Bailey to close it out, Curtis Granderson led off with a single, and Raul Ibanez would pinch-hit for Eduardo Nunez. Ibanez drove one deep to the right field which cleared the wall and sent the Bronx fans roaring in a 3-3 game tying 2-run home-run. Derek Lowe would then pitch 2 exceptional scoreless innings for the eventual win. In the bottom of the 12th against reliever Andrew Miller with no one on, Francisco Cervelli would be the last line of offense from the Yankee bench. Rejoining the team after being banished to the minor leagues, Cervelli worked the count full after a quick 0-2 count, and would draw a walk. Andrew Miller would issue another walk to Curtis Granderson, and that is when Raul Ibanez would came to the plate and would ground one just in the hole between shortstop and third, and Francisco Cervelli would slide home for the winning run. The entire dugout would clear and the Yankee fans would certainly enjoy this one. Paying homage to Raul Ibanez and his late-game heroics again, he would be thanked with a bucket of ice-water on him.
The Yankees are one win away from clinching the American League East and the opportunity comes on the last game of the season tonight. They also have the opportunity to sweep the Red Sox on the final day of the regular season.
B.C Sports
Brian C
