I hope you caught Pedro’s press conference the day before his start. The guy went on a rant with very little provocation. It was almost as if this was the final cathartic moment of his return to baseball.
Pedro was ready to deal when he took the mount on Thursday. Twitter was abuzz about his dominance until he finally gave up a solo shot to Mark Teixeira. Still, Yankee fans, the twitter universe, and the announcers had pretty much given Martinez the win. Too bad there was more game to be played. Pedro later yielded another solo homer to Hideki Matsui. With the score tied at one, Martinez got into trouble in the 7th inning when Hairston and Melky Cabrera started the inning with back-to-back singles.
Joe Girardi then replaced Jose Molina with Jorge Posada while Pedro was replaced by Chan Ho Park. Posada singled to put the Yankees up 3-1. After the seventh, Mariano Rivera came in to shut the door and the Yankees tied the series at one game apiece. Unfortunately, the umpires blew a couple of calls again — which is becoming a disturbing trend.
It was nice to see Mark Teixeira start hitting again. His power has been sorely missed during his mini-slump. Hideki Matsui continued his massive tear that started mid-summer (in July/August/September he hit .293/.281/.325 with 18 homers). Alex Rodriguez continues to be a non-factor in the World Series. However, we won’t get down on the guy. The guy came back (too) early from hip surgery and it wouldn’t be surprising if he’s finally dealing with fatigue.
Game 3 of the series is Saturday night in Philadelphia. You can bet that Citizen’s Bank Park will be rocking this weekend. There might even be a stabbing or two on Sunday since the Giants play the Eagles on Sunday Night Football at the same time as the Yankees play the Phillies in Game 4. The police better start charging their tasers now.
Just a reminder: Philadelphia has the least attractive people in America according to Travel & Leisure. Are we biased? Maybe. But Philadelphia residents also voted themselves second to last in attractiveness. Burn.
