Grill - just curious - what do you think the umps' reason for giving the game to Rangers is?

Will answer some other day. But just don't like the very non consisent ball strike calls between the 2 teams.

It was a gutsy move, I think he wanted to start Petiette in Game 3 cause of the experience he had in the post season ball at Yankee Stadium, but yes, it was a mistake to choose him to go against Cliff Lee, cause of no run support despite Andy's good effort. Game 4 is basically a must win for the Yankees, cause if AJ does not step it up, then it's over, assuming Texas holds on.

I know! Pettitte got ALL the calls!

Intentionally walk Murphy to get to Molina. MAKE THEM PAY, MO!!!!!!!!!

BASE HIT!

4-0 Rangers & bases still loaded.

Another base hit
6-0 RANGERS

THIS IS AWWWWWWWWWSOME!

Yeah, I know but I thought all week they should just throw the Lee game by even starting Burnett that day. But the later starts wouldn't work out for Game 6.

Look at all those empty seats behind home plate

another run 7-0 Rangers

KEEP IT GOING! KEEP IT GOING! KEEP IT GOING!
PAYBACK for game 1

Damn have the Yankees ever gotten their asses handed to them like this at home in the playoffs?

Cliff Lee is done will not be pitching the 9th
8 innings
2 hits
1 walk
13 freaking strikeouts
the man is a playoff beast!

After giving up 5 runs, now he takes out Logan. Further proof on Joe being a stupid manager. LOL at all the fans leaving.

8-0 Rangers

8-0 shutout is the largest in yankees playoff history

Yeah! I only see one person texting from his cell phone.

Oh, wait...

Maybe it's someone we all know...

Can I just say something?

Cliff Lee postseason SO/BB ratio = 34.

Just remembered, everyone disagreed with me on this one.

Also still hope he is on the Yankees next year with his good friend, CC.

I don't remember responding you about this, but they are both fantastic pitchers. The decision that Ruben Amaro faced was not to either have Lee or Halladay, it was whether he wanted both or just Halladay plus prospects. In retrospect, Ruben probably made a bad decision, but the rationale was solid: he could not afford to lock up Lee for a long contract (something that Lee disputes, btw) and would rather get some prospects for him than lose him after 2010. Of course Amaro then went out and got another ace in Oswalt (who is locked up through next year and Phils have an option for 2012), so it's all a moot point now.

With that said, Halladay had much better regular season stats than Lee (due to Lee's shaky second half performance), so it's not a given that Lee would've been better for the Phillies than Doc. And again, that was never really the choice anyway.

I would certainly dispute the notion of Halladay had much better regular season stats than Lee, as Lee had better WHIP, K/9, K/BB, opponents batting average and OPS. Halladay does beat him significantly in WAR, mainly due to the much higher number of innings pitched with Lee's injury. Overall I'd say they have comparable numbers, unless you only focus on wins and ERA. And when they both were on the field, Lee had in fact a slightly better season, especially when you factor in that he pitches in AL.

We're ignoring ERA and innings pitched now? Besides the differences in WHIP and opponents hitting are barely noticeable, while ERA difference is 0.74 - nothing to sneeze at. Halladay was never known as a strikeout pitcher anyway - even in his postseason no-hitter he "only" had 8.

Oh wait, so innings pitched and injuries do matter now?

I'm not trying to diminish Lee's performance, and what he's done in the past two postseasons is amazing, but anyone that says that Phillies would be better off with Lee over Halladay needs to have a reality check.

Well when you are comparing them, you can't just look at straight numbers. As with Lee pitching for a bad underachieving team part of this year, makes a big difference.