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Tonight, the Yankees had plenty of opportunities to win. They didn't capitalize on them and are now watching the remainder of the 2011 MLB Playoffs on TV.
For the second consecutive year, Alex Rodriguez struck out looking to end the season. The Detroit Tigers are headed to the American League Championship Series to take on the Texas Rangers. Congratulations to Detroit. They outplayed New York tonight and deserve to be moving on.
Now, onto the grilling.
From the start of this game, nothing seemed to be going New York's way. Two immediate home runs by Don Kelly and Delmon Young put the Yankees in a quick 2-0 hole. Ivan Nova didn't make it past two innings and Joe Girardi changed pitchers more times than a 14-year-old girl changes outfits.
CC Sabathia allowed an RBI single to Victor Martinez that put the Tigers up 3-0 at the time.
The only runs New York scored were off a solo shot by Robinson Cano and a bases loaded walk that was issued to Mark Teixeira.
The following is a list of opportunities the Yankees failed to come through on.
1) Teixeira's one-out ground ruled double in the bottom of the second was wasted by a Nick Swisher groundout and Jorge Posada strikeout.
2) Cano flew out to deep centerfield in the bottom of the third, stranding Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson on second and first base.
3) Bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth inning. Pop up to first base by Russell Martin and a foul out to third base ended New York's hopes of scoring in the inning.
4) The Yankees once again loaded the bases for Alex Rodriguez in the seventh inning. He promptly struck out looking (SHOCKER). Despite a Mark Teixeira walk, Nick Swisher would proceed to strikeout.
Simply put, New York didn't deserve to win tonight.
I'm honestly too bewildered to even begin on a Joe Girardi rant. I'm positive it will be covered at some point tomorrow.
Folks, it was a great season. It didn't end the way we wished it would, but things could have been much worse.
There will be more about the loss tomorrow and a season recap sometime this week or next week. For now, try not to smash too many objects or cause harm to yourselves.
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