SU says it’s clearly not ideal and you would prefer to be heading home to New York with the series tied at 1-1 vs. being down 0-2.  But let’s step back and see what’s gone on here so far:

• The Yankee hitters strike out at a historic rate.  Some are tough at bats and then there are the Gary Sanchez ones where he is missing by 2-3 feet in 3 pitches.  As said here many times, they don’t manufacture runs and rely on the home run.  Clearly not working in games 1 and 2.
• They have been out-scored 4-2.  Certainly not blowout losses but the 2-0 deficit in game 1 felt enormous and let’s be honest: did you really think they were going to win game 2 with the scored tied 1-1?  SU did not.  They never threatened in any inning.  That’s why I was not overly distraught by the play in the bottom of the 9th inning – it felt more like putting them out of their misery than a crushing defeat.
• But about that play.  How does Sanchez not take off his mask there?  It makes it that much harder to see and field a low throw from Didi.  He should have stepped forward and caught the ball and then lunged back to nail the runner.  Sure, it was an aggressive National League type of play to send the runner but he should have been out by a mile and then it was a dumb send by the 3rd base coach.  Sanchez is a great offensive catcher with a gun for an arm but we have all seen his defensive liabilities throughout the season.  No one is surprised that he failed to scoop the throw cleanly – certainly not any Yankee pitcher.
• The reality is that when you score 1 run a game, tough to win.  Chase Headley showed signs of life at the DH spot yesterday and deserves another start in game 3.  SU does not think the Astros will start Keuchel until game 5 but I could be wrong.  They may want him lined up for a game 7 if necessary.  Btw, if he starts in game 4 or 5, can we please put Torreyes in the DH slot?  Someone with a short swing who hit .290 for the year and can produce against a tough pitcher.

As Pat Riley likes to say, a series does not officially start until one team loses on its home court.  SU believes in that and if they can find a way to win in game 3, things will look differently.  If they don’t, well there it is.  But the priority needs to be on offense to at least put the ball in play and make the adjustments.  Judge has been making contact more the last two games and he might just be ready to get untracked – yet again.  Sanchez and Castro must hit to right field.  How do they not see that or recognize that’s necessary?

Finally, an appeal to FOX.  Get rid of the box at home plate.  Unless you tell us that you are meticulously fitting this for every batter, it’s just an annoyance and it makes the umpire look bad on almost every pitch.  The real fans watch games all season long without it.  And finally, finally, as SU has said many times, the umpires get the close calls correctly about 30% of the time.  It’s amazing how many calls they miss but to be honest, very hard to see.  I know baseball has the human element and all that but other sports are working to get calls correct and baseball needs to incorporate technology more.

So,  Yankee fans and Yankee haters, is the series over?  Or is there life in the Bronx come Monday night?

Stop the presses!  The Yankees are dusting off Matt Holliday at DH tonight to face Dallas Keuchel.  SU says it’s a no-brainer.  Combined, Headley and Ellsbury do not have a hit in the post-season covering 6 games including the wild card.  This is his big chance.  One hit could guarantee him a start for the remainder of the series.

You should check out the Yankees’ career numbers against Keuchel.  Yikes.  If you ran a predictive analysis, maybe they get 2 hits and are shut out.  But hey, this is the post-season and anything can and will happen.

SU is not into predictions unless pressed to do so but I will make one for tonight.  Look for an Aaron Judge home run to right field.  Enough of the strikeouts.  Time to make a statement.

What a difference five days make.  Last Friday night, every baseball sportswriter was calling for Joe Girardi’s head for not challenging the foul tip call and taking CC Sabathia out too soon.  Outrageous!  He’s too serious, too programmed, not instinctual, makes the players stressed and nervous, etc.  Hey, let’s fire him – time for new blood in the Bronx.

Fast forward to this morning.  It seems Girardi gathered his team together before game 3 and asked them to win one game – one game – Sunday night.  And SU fave, Todd Frazier (more on that in a minute) spoke up and made it clear the players had his back and let’s go.

Those same sportswriters are now saying that Girardi’s career is intact once again and that the world forgives him for his brain freeze moment.  As written here for several days, SU had Girardi’s throughout,  did not believe any challenge would overturn that call, and dismissed the screeds of people like Joel Sherman in the New York Post.  If you stayed up late like SU last night to watch Girardi’s post-game comments, you saw an emotional Girardi that you never see.  He truly felt terrible about not challenging the call and wanted so badly for the team to somehow win this series.  Say what you want about Terry Francona and his loose way of managing, his instinctual use of pitchers didn’t work in this series.  In the end, his players were the ones who looked tight.  Score one for Joe Girardi and his team last night.

Let’s see how SU’s keys to the game played out last night:

• Don’t start Headley.  Check although he did get in for 2 at bats and continued to look over-matched.
• Keep Didi in the 3rd hole.  Yup, he hits well there.
• Pray that Judge hits an off speed pitch.  Not so much.  Struck out 4 times but did ground out that last time which for him right now is like hitting a home run.  SU predicts carryover in game 1 Friday night in Houston.  And I am serious.  The good news is that he did not swing and miss in the clubhouse celebration.
• Greg Bird.  Eh, not so much there either.
• Cody Allen.  Ah!! He did give it up in the 9th inning.  Got one right.

Final comment: Todd Frazier is growing on me.  I still hate that he is a .200 hitter who swings for the downs all the time.  But he showed me something last night with a couple of grind it out at bats and he is a good clubhouse guy.  You can hit him 9th as Chase Headley is so lost right now he needs to sit and watch.  Actually, with Keuchel starting for Houston, might as well give Matt Holliday a shot at DH in game 1.  He literally cannot do any worse than either Headley or Ellsbury.

SU says that is a big deal.  He had 38 home runs and 107 rbis this year plus it’s an emotional lift for Cleveland.  I don’t believe he has good numbers off of Sabathia though lifetime.  Also, Ellsbury at DH looking for the first hit in the post-season from anyone at the DH position for the Yankees.

Trey Burke signs with the Knicks.  Always a good move to have former Michigan players on the roster.  Even if he ends up on the D-League team, that is also good as SU can watch him at the Westchester County Center.

John Farrell out at Boston and Dusty Baker looking very disorganized with the Nationals as they flip flop starters and his story is not consistent.  If nothing else, Joe Girardi looks better than these guys.

It’s been several years since the Yankees have played pressure packed games in October.  The 2015 Wild Card game with the Brian McCanns and Chase Headleys was never a contest.  Just over-matched.  If you have some free time, check out the Yankees’ post-season roster for that game.  Dustin Ackley?  Oy.  While Brian Cashman deserves tremendous credit for finally getting the Yankees on the youth movement track, he also deserves blame for giving us Travis Hafner and the like for several years before then.

It’s easy to make predictions for tonight’s game but of course, hard to be right.  SU feels strongly that the Yankees need to score first to win this.  The reason is that they can’t manufacture runs unlike other teams – including the Indians.  When you live and die by the home run, it gets harder to come from behind as the game goes on as pitchers know you are up there looking for the big fly.  They just expand the strike zone (see Aaron Judge for examples of expansion).  Kluber does this better than anyone.  But it’s all tremendous fun and unexpected for this year.  SU says enjoy the game and hope for the best.

SU caught a little of the Oklahoma City preseason game last night to see how our friend Carmelo was faring.  He looks a little over-weight to me but it might be the new uniform.  But what was striking was this line in the box score: 16 minutes, 17 shots.  Better spend some time in the weight room keeping those arms and shoulders in shape.  I wish him well in the Western Conference and he will thrive playing the 4 position.  But glad not to have to watch that style of play at MSG anymore.  That is not basketball.

Long-time SU subscriber, D. Harmon, sent this article along to SU regarding the benching of Eli Manning after the next 5 games:

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/giants/giants-bench-eli-manning-5-games-article-1.3551627

Interesting idea and it would allow them to assess a possible successor to Eli.  This season is lost and they have no healthy wide receivers.  Why not?

Yankee fans and Girardi haters, in case you have not noticed it, Girardi has managed his team to win 3 elimination games in less than a week.  I have read and heard all the complaints: manages by the book; too tense; makes his players tense; committed to his binder; and has the game laid out hours in advance and won’t deviate.

Well, last night, did he have Tommy Kahnle pitching the last 2 innings?  SU says probably not.  I did not have a problem giving Betances the 8th inning but he earned being taken out after two walks.  Luckily, he didn’t kill anyone with his fastball.  SU says do not expect to see him again in any close game the rest of this post-season.  Too bad as he’s a nice guy who wants to do well but is scared he could actually kill someone with his fastball as he has no clue where it’s going.

SU says Brian’ O’Nora’s strike zone last night was either terrible or else the FOX virtual box for the strike zone was not lined up properly.  So many missed calls on the corners – for both teams.  SU says take the box off there.  It’s an unneeded distraction and it just becomes annoying.  The YES Network has an overhead shot of home plate that helps to determine if pitches are on the corners.  Is that not available?  And while we are at it, can FOX once in a while reference who is warming up or not warming up in the Yankee bullpen?

Did you see the stats on the record of post-season starts by pitchers on 3 days rest?  Something like 2-4 with a 5.35 ERA.  So, why go that route last night for the Indians?  They have 5 legitimately good starters with impressive records.  A sign of panic?  No doubt Kluber will be his normal self tomorrow night.  SU is a bit worried about Sabathia.  I agree he should start over Gray and the Indian hitters seem to have more trouble with the soft tossers which is what CC is at this point in his career.  But the recency effect is legit – you start to get used to the pitchers you see frequently.  SU also was surprised that Francona rolled out all of his relievers last night except for Miller – same thing applies.  He is helping the Yankee hitters by pitching them so frequently.

I would have CC on a short leash tomorrow night.  You will know early if his change up and curve are on or are rolling up there.  The Yankees must score first against Kluber.  One thing I notice about the Indians is that they show no signs of panic.  They are a loose team.  It comes from not having lost 2 games in a row for the past 45 games.  That will be a factor tomorrow night.

Keys to game 5:

• Do not start Chase Headley.  Of course, neither he or Ellsbury has a hit in the post-season but he is late on every pitch.
• Keep Didi at the 3rd spot and Bird 5th.  This forces Francona to mix and match more with his relievers and it breaks up the right handed bats.
• Pray that Judge sits on an off speed pitch just once and lays off the high fastball.
• Greg Bird.
• Hope that Francona relies on Cody Allen to close.  I am convinced he is poised to give it up.

As a Yankee fan, I have no complaints.  The team shows heart, resilience and is having fun.  Plus, the Red Sox have already lost which makes us all feel good.

So, it looks like Cleveland will be starting Bauer tonight on 3 days rest.  SU finds this interesting.  Bauer is a really quirky dude.  He has a very unique warm-up regimen and has a reputation of being very much into his routine.  SU says you have to wonder if this is a good move.  True, he has been red hot the 2nd half of the season and dominated the Yankees in game 1.  However, he also had an umpire who was giving him the high strike call on his curve ball all night.  If he starts getting squeezed tonight playing in Yankee Stadium with the crowd, you wonder how this goes?

True, they have Corey Kluber waiting in the wings at home for game 5 on normal rest so maybe it’s not that big a deal.  You have to figure that having just seen Bauer on Thursday, the Yankee hitters will make the adjustment to at least be a little more competitive.

Question: can the Yankees score not via the home run?  It’s been a problem all season.  I continue to see it as a problem when Judge and Sanchez are hitting back-to-back and there is a runner on 2nd or 3rd and no one out.  So many times they fail to get him in and it’s a killer.  Happened again last night.

SU fave, Greg Bird, came through big time last night.  Of course, FOX was unable to tell us how far that home run traveled.  They are too busy providing random statistics about “the last time a Yankee did this in the post-season was in 2012.”  But Bird is the man and that was a massive blast in the upper deck.

SU checked out the FOX post-game show.  A-Rod is surprisingly good – candid, humorous and insightful.  Will he be the next Yankee manager?  SU says he would be a much better choice than Mattingly and would certainly make things entertaining next season.  Girardi is getting killed but long-time fans will note that he is masterful at handling the relievers compared to Joe Torre who prematurely ended the careers of Tanyon Sturtze and Scott Proctor by over-using them.  Girardi made it sound like he just might opt out and move on.  No doubt Derek Jeter is watching and would snatch him up for Florida.

SU was unhappy with the booing of Girardi tonight  by Yankee fans in the pre-game introductions.  He had a bad game – get over it.  They booed Severino in the Wild Card game when he was taken out in the 1st inning.  Really?  Who was their top starter by far all season?

As a fan, you paid for your ticket and you can let everyone know how you feel.  That’s fine.  But Girardi has been a good manager for a lot of years here and this year’s team was not supposed to be in the post-season.  He has had to sit veterans like Headley and Holliday in the playoff games.  Is he the first manager to take out a starter too soon?

Lots of clamoring on Twitter for Don Mattingly to be the next manager.  He is probably the most 2nd guessed manager in all of baseball right now.  Great hitter, great Yankee, not the right choice for manager.  SU would bring Girardi back and I expect Cashman to do so.  He’s the right man for the job.

And the hysterical columns from the likes of Joel Sherman, Andrew Marchand and the others were way over the top.  Fine, be critical, but this was one game.  It does not define his managerial career and it should not be a reason to fire someone.

The haters are out in force today about Joe Girardi’s managing of game 2.  Check out this article from Andrew Marchand of espn.com who is not usually this direct:

http://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/yankees/post/_/id/97393/yankees-deserved-better-than-joe-girardi

SU, being old, has a longer term perspective.  I see this game as very similar to the Yankees – Mariners division round series in 1995.  The Yankees won the first two games and went out to Seattle for the next 3.  In game 4, John Wettleland gave up a grand slam home run, and in game 5, Buck Showalter brought in Jack McDowell in relief to protect a lead over Wetteland.  The Yankees lost in painful fashion but then what happened?  Four World Championships in five years.  The key learning from this: Sometimes you need to lose painfully before you can win it all.  This is a young Yankee team and they failed to close the deal last night in what was just one game.  Cleveland lost in painful fashion in last year’s World Series but here they are again and they found a way last night.  SU says last year made them tougher this year and it makes them not panic when their ace doesn’t have it and they fall behind by 5 runs.  SU believes this loss will make the Yankees that much better and stronger – next season.

The Severino meltdown in the wild card game had a carryover effect last night.  Both Green and Robertson were extended in that game and Green was warming up in almost every inning last night.  His “stuff” was not electric last night – lots of foul balls.  Robertson was very good but Jay Bruce took him to the opposite field.  Tip your cap.

Should CC have been given a longer leash?  Everyone piled on last night including Michael Kay and the YES post-game crew.  Perhaps but his MO all year was 3rd time through the order he falters quickly.  SU says if you look at the Indians, they seem to hit better against the hard throwers and have more trouble with the finesse pitchers.  CC is one of those now in his career.  You can fault Girardi on that score but he was a genius in the wild card game in how he managed 26 outs with his relievers.  A genius one day and a bum the next.

Should he have challenged the foul tip?  Yes, he should have but SU says the replay was not conclusive.  It would not have been overturned.  The same way that if it was called a foul tip originally and the Indians challenged, it would not have been overturned.  I think the ball hit his hand – barely grazed it so there was no reason for the hitter to shake his hand in pain.  It was just a nick.

Lost in the conversation is that the Yankees offense went away the final 8 innings.  They were overpowered by the Indians’ relievers.  That can’t happen and should not have happened.  Todd Frazier got 3 hits (which experts say is physically impossible and they are studying tape on this) but made 2 key errors which led to 2 unearned runs.  Torreyes got picked off but I am telling you, how many times have the Yankees this year had guys on 3rd base, less than 2 outs, with Judge and Sanchez coming up and they failed to come through?  They are not sure things.  Great players and the future of the franchise but that’s an area for them to improve on.

Judge has been over matched in 2 games.  He does struggle against the elite pitchers.  Let’s see if he can figure this out a bit.  Carrasco in game 3 is very tough.  Not a good match up.

Painful loss but if you look back and you were there in 1995, that series loss was more painful – along the lines of game 7 in 2001 with the Gonzalez bloop hit off of Mariano.

SU has spoken.  What do you all think?

As Joe Girardi would say, “It’s not what you want.”  A bad combination last night for the Yankees in the series opener:

• large strike zone from the home plate umpire – mostly up and down — and generous strike calls on the curve balls from Bauer
• Sonny Gray continued a bad streak of needing to throw a lot of pitches to get through an inning, and throws way too many pitches that are 4 feet outside.  He is a good #3 starter but not a top of the rotation guy in my opinion
• Sanchez’s inability to block pitches cleanly (4 wild pitches) although I am not sure any of those were really his fault
• A team with home run hitters being over-matched against a hot pitcher for the 2nd half of the season.  We have see this before this season with the Yankees, and we have seen it before against the Indian pitchers.

The good news?  Betances pitched a clean inning, Todd Frazier has another hitless game under his belt so that the projection for his next home run stays on pace for April 9, 2018,  they were not no-hit, and the team survived several innings from Jaime Garcia pretty much intact.

Is the series over?  SU says no.  Will Kluber match Bauer’s stellar performance tonight?  Could very well be.  But the Yankees managed to beat Chris Sales this season and they have certainly faced Kluber before.  SU says put Frazier on the bench tonight.  Perhaps a guy like Torreyes with a short, quick swing can put the ball in play and provide a spark.  I know Girardi wants Frazier at 3rd with CC starting and lots of ground balls potentially but Kluber feasts on the big swingers and the Yankees have plenty of those type hitters.

SU note to FOX on the broadcast: if you are showing a check swing, there is only one view that is necessary – from the side.  Stop with the 3 different looks.  Second note to FOX: it is unnecessary to always show the shots of the fans right before every pitch.  It’s dizzying for the viewer and you are getting back to the action at the last minute.  The broadcast actually seems to have trouble following the ball in play in the outfield.  Focus on that.

SU is cranky – too many late nights and a lackluster effort last night.  But as we all know, a series can have its ups and downs and its Minolta Turning Points of the Game moments.  Look for one of those tonight.