ALDS Game 1 vs Detroit

Chien Ming Wang has a huge advantage over a lot of other heavy groundball pitchers out there. Wang's sinker sucked today. It barely moved half the time. He couldn't locate it. But when Wang realized this, he still had his 95-96 mph fastball to use.

He battled his way through to the 7th inning, when Joe Torre made his first mistake of the playoffs. He tried to "get cute" in the words of Tim McCarver, attempting to get the final out of the inning (while Wang was cruising) with Mike Myers. Well Myers gave up the home run, and Torre had to use Scott Proctor to clean up. Proctor made everyone nervous, but got out of the inning.

The consequence? Enter Kyle Farnsworth. Farnsworth was able to get through the inning allowing only a walk, but his control was far from good. A few breaks don't go our way and Joe Torre has no way to get out of a Farnsworth jam. Proctor and Myers are out of the game. Rivera is being limited to one inning a game. What are his options? Brian Bruney, maybe. But more likely, we would have seen Ron Villone in the game.

Despite throwing very well, Robertson just couldn't take the Yankee lineup. Giambi and Abreu hit some balls which they had no business hitting. Derek Jeter was unstoppable. Damon flashed some speed, getting on base.

You can try, but you won't stop them. Mike Mussina tomorrow.