Phil Coke was pretty shaky in the ninth last night. So much so that I had to get up three times to look away and distract myself. At least he was refreshingly honest about his first 9th inning experience:
"It's totally, totally different than I imagined it would be," the 26-year-old lefty reliever said of trying to lock down the final outs. "It's not the sixth, seventh or eighth - those are way easier."I slept pretty well after that last out was recorded.
[...]
"Mariano's really, really good at it and I'm not very good at it," Coke said. "But at least I got through it and didn't blow it, and I'm quite happy with that. I'm not out there trying to be Mariano Rivera."
[...]
Coke threw 30 pitches - "I feel like I just threw 500, I'm so beat," he said - walked a pair, uncorked a wild pitch and gave up an RBI groundout that made it a one-run game. He walked Carlos Gomez to put the tying run aboard with two out, after which Girardi paid a visit to the mound to tell him "that I'm the guy he wants in that situation, so let's go," Coke said. "I told him, 'Yes sir.'" Eight pitches later, he coaxed pinch-hitter Mike Redmond into a bouncer to second base to end it.
The Yanks have won 6 straight (including a 4 game sweep of the talented Twins), 8 of 10 since ARod returned. Teix is mashing to to tune of batting .342 (13-for-38) with five home runs and 13 RBI in the past 10 games.
The Yanks have six more games this week at home, three vs. Baltimore and then three against the World Champs Phillies over the weekend. Would be nice to see this hot streak run a bit longer as Toronto faces Boston and they can beat each other up a bit.
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All he had to say was, "Did you see the look on my face? Yeah, the 9th inning ain't easy."
You know, this makes me wonder if the Save, the ultimate puff stat in baseball, may actually gain legitimacy over time because of the way closers are used. This relatively new phenomenon of a 1-inning pitcher to close out games might actually turn the 9th inning into something that it never really was. I wonder if Goose Gossage ever went out for the 7th and 8th innings and then thought...oh shit...here comes the 9th. Am I making sense?
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