ALCS Game 1 -CC Cruises as Yanks Go Up 1-0

On a cold, blustery night, CC Sabathia shook off the stigma that he cannot win the big games, as he won his second consecutive Game 1 in the 2009 playoffs. CC stood for Cruise Control, as he pitched 8 brilliant innings of 4 hit ball, allowing 1 run while striking out 7 in the Yanks 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Sabathia retired the side 4 times and beat the Angels at the perfect time after going 0-2 against them in the regular season.

The Yankees offense was aided by the Angels defense. Angels starting pitcher, John Lackey probably deserved a better fate. He surrendered all 4 runs, but only 2 were earned. Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon led off the game with back-to-back singles. Damon was allowed to move up to 2B on a hideous throw by ex-Yankee Juan Rivera in LF. ARod hit a SF that scored Jeter after Mark Teixeira failed miserably on a 3-0 count, hitting a shallow fly that didn't move any of the runners. Hideki Matsui then hit a pop up to the SS area that should have ended the inning, but Chone Figgins and Erick Aybar just looked at each other and let the ball drop for an RBI single as Johnny Damon came around to score and make it 2-0 Yanks.

The score remained 2-0 till the 4th when Vlad Guerrero ripped a double off the LF wall. With 2 out, Kendry Morales singled in Guerrero to bring the Angels to within 1 run. The Yanks got their 2-run lead back in the 5th, when Matsui doubled in Damon. ARod was thrown out at the plate on the play after running through a stop sign from 3B coach Rob Thomson (announcer Joe Buck let us know at least 7 times). ARod tried his best to mow down catcher Jeff Mathis, but Mathis did everything he could to hang on the ball. He did everything except tag out ARod, but the runner would be called out a 100 times out of a 100 on collision plays like that.

The Yanks tacked on their 4th run when Lackey hurt himself in the 6th. After walking Melky Cabrera with 2 out, he threw the ball away on a pickoff that allowed Melky to reach 2B. The Captain singled up the middle on the next pitch to score Melky as Torii Hunter charged in and booted the ball for the Angels 3rd error of the game that allowed Jeter to reach second. The Yanks had a chance to really blow the game open in the 7th, but with the bases loaded and 2 out, Nick Swisher struck out on a pitch that would have been ball 4.

No matter, Joe Girardi made the right call by allowing CC to come back out for the 8th, and he rewarded his manager's sound judgement by retiring the side. The great Mariano Rivera came on in the 9th, and after uncharacteristically walking Hunter (I thought he was squeezed on a pitch), he smoked the heart of the Angels lineup to wrap up the first game of the ALCS.

AJ Burnett goes for the Yanks in Game 2. Hopefully, he learned a few things from CC - keeping the Angels off the base paths is the base defense against their vaunted running game.

Yankees Post Season Record: 4-0

ALCS: Up 1-0