MLB Playoffs: Day 7

And so, for the fifth time in their last nine playoff appearances going back to 2002, the Yankees are eliminated in the first round. Since 2002, they are 0-5 in first round series where they play a team other than Minnesota.

What happened? To some extent, of course, the Yankees are victims of the inherent unfairness of a short series in baseball. But I also think that the Yankee offense is not set up well for the playoffs. The Yankees practice Moneyball, and the basic principles behind Moneyball are that you want to hit a lot of home runs, you want to play for big innings, and you want to drive up the other team's pitch count so that you can get into its bullpen. The Yankees were able to do these things in Games 1 and 4, and they had two blowout victories: 9-3 and 10-1. But Moneyball also means that you have a lot of guys swinging for the fences, and that is not the best way to scratch out runs when you face good pitching. The Yankees got pretty good pitching in all of their losses -- and really good pitching last night -- but they lost 5-3, 5-4, and 3-2. They couldn't score, in large part, because when you swing from your heels against good pitchers, you get a lot of pop-ups and strike-outs.

Consider last night. The Yankees hold A-Rod at 3d with one out in the fourth to load the bases. This is a classic Moneyball tactic -- you play for the big inning instead of taking the chance that your runner gets thrown out at the plate. But the Yankees got no runs; the next two batters popped up. In the seventh, the Yankees had the bases loaded with one out -- but the remaining batters couldn't even make contact: the inning ended with a strikeout, a walk, and a strikeout. In the 8th, the Yankees had their fastest runner (Gardner) on first with two outs and Jeter at the plate. The traditional play here would be to have Gardner try to steal second and hope that Jeter could single in the tying run. And Gardner did try to steal second on the first pitch -- but Jeter went for a home run, and came up about three feet short. Finally, in the 9th inning, when the Yankees needed someone -- anyone -- to get on base, their 2, 3, and 4 hitters gave them two fly outs and a strikeout. In fact, throughout the series, the Yankees' cleanup hitter (A-Rod) went 2-18, while their number 5 hitter (Teixeira) went 3-18. Those are the consequences of swinging for the fences against pitchers who know what they are doing.

The Yankees have a lot of work to do over the next few years, as guys like A-Rod, Posada, and Jeter are clearly on the downside of their careers. As they look to restock their lineup, they would be wise to include guys who can remember to control their stroke and get on base against good pitchers.

National League Divisional Series (best of 5):
Philadelphia and St. Louis tied 2-2
Milwaukee and Arizona tied 2-2

American League Divisional Series (best of 5):
Detroit beat New York 3-2
Texas beat Tampa Bay 3-1