Wow what a day of baseball. First the Rangers win behind the great perfromance of Cliff Lee. Then Roy Halladay perfromed surgery on the Cincinnati Reds. And lastly the New York Yankees came from behind and beat the Minnesota Twins. Not really a surprise about the Yankees-Twins. And not too surprised about the Rangers winning against the Rays because of Cliff Lee. And not really surprised that my Phillies beat the Reds. It's just the way that all these teams won that was exciting and even surprising.
If you would of told me that "Doc" was going to throw a near perfect game or a no-hitter, or hell even a complete 9 inning shutout I would of told ya that on one hand yes it is possible but realistically I don't think that would be the case. I mean, for as long as he has been in the majors and never been to a single playoff game you would think he would of came out with at least a little butterflies in the ol' stomach. But from pitch 1 to pitch 104 he looked crisp and in command. His only flaw was the walk. And really there was one pitch I believe it was when the count was at 1 ball 2 strikes, that he should of got the strikeout call. That was a strike. I'm sittin there hollering at the TV and booing the umpire (yes I'm a true Philly fan, we boo everything and everybody, and have no objections with throwing batteries at your head) because he knew damn well he missed that strike call. But hey lets not focus on the negative. He pitched a great game. One that I will never forget.
Another pitcher was dominant yesterday. And he got overshadowed by Roy's no-no. Cliff Lee. I will always hold Cliff Lee in high regards because he was a key component to our 2009 World Series run. He struckout........10 if I'm not mistaken and walked 0. The Rangers might not of won that game without him. Of course David Price didn't help things either giving up those runs. So leave Price in there and insert a different pitcher for Texas and you probably have a different outcome. Or maybe just a higher scoring game.
And then there was the night cap. The Yankees-Twins. Twins always lose to the Yankees. Twins will jump out to a lead and relenquish it a couple innings later. Minnesota scored on CC. If they could of held on and beat CC. Wow. I would be moving Minnesota to the next round without playing games 2-5. But the pitching in this game wasn't anything like Texas or Philly. CC gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and struckout 5, and Liriano gave up 4 runs on 6 hits and struckout 7. Nobody was really dominate. It came down to the bullpen and as usual Mariano Rivera came up big. Only gave up 1 hit. And for Minnesota, Crain gave up the go ahead 2 run bomb to Teixeira. You can't do that with this team. If you don't jump on them and keep the pressure on and make quality pitches your going to be watching the World Series from the comfy confines of your couch. Guess we will see what happens in game 2.