Thursday, June 23, 2005

Captain Clutch

From the New York Daily News:

JUNE 1: Jeter strikes out swinging against Mike MacDougal with Robinson Cano on second to end Yanks' chances in 3-1 loss to Royals. It marks the second loss of three-game sweep in Kansas City and fourth loss of a six-game skid.

JUNE 6:
With Bernie Williams on second and Yanks down by one, Jeter lines out to right field in Bombers' 4-3 loss to Brewers in Milwaukee.

JUNE 7:
The next night, Yankees enter ninth down 2-0. Bernie Williams drives in Jorge Posada to make it 2-1. With Robinson Cano on third, Jeter grounds out to reliever Derrick Turnbow to end rally, and game.

JUNE 20: With Bombers down to D-Rays, 5-4, on Monday night, Jeter grounds out to short to end contest, and six-game winning streak.

YESTERDAY: With Yanks down, 5-3, and two out, Robinson Cano triples and up comes Jeter. He goes down swinging to Tampa Bay's Danys Baez to end comeback attempt and short-lived joy from Tuesday night's 20-11 comeback victory.

In fairness, the June 6 liner should've been a game-winning double, but Geoff Jenkins was in the absolutely right spot (or was it the wrong spot?) and caught it. And Jeter just got his first career slam, previously leading the majors in bases-loaded at-bats without a GS and most HR without a GS.

Any chance people could stop talking about Jeter being "clutch"? Nah, I didn't think so either.

5 comments:

  1. June 23rd- Jeter sucks...ahahahahahahahahahhaahhaahahaha

    I just wanted to see what it would be like to post something like that. I see all sorts of that stuff on other blogs so I thought that I would give it a shot.

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  2. Conclusion?

    Reading it actually makes me feel stupid. How can people just post stuff like that?

    Seriously, I was thinking about the clutch thing.

    Backs up against the wall is what we define as clutch (I am assuming)...Like Ortiz against the Orioles, or against the Yankees in last year's ALCS...It is always the guy that gets the hit to drive in all the runs that gets the "Clutch" title...It is never the guys that get on in front to make it possible...Like Payton last night. That was as clutch as the Renteria hit...

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  3. Matt brings up an interesting question. How do we define clutch?

    First and foremost I'd say that clutch isn't limited to offense. Take for example the other night, with runners on second and third deep pop-fly to right field, Nixon makes a huge play against the wall to get a critical out. Maybe this isn't the best example of clutch D, but you get the idea.

    So taking a step back, is "clutch" performing when the game is on the line? Winning run in scoring position? Not sure if we track hitting and/or defense in this situation.

    What are your guys thoughts on this?

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  4. Clutch:

    Millar draws a walk to lead off the ninth.
    Dave Roberts stole second.
    Billy Meuller singles up the middle

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  5. From the NY Times today:

    Jeter would not want to look back at last night's game. He singled and scored in the first inning on a homer by Bernie Williams, but with the score tied at 4-4 in the fourth, Jeter grounded into a double play. It was deflating for the Yankees, and it lowered Jeter's average with runners in scoring position to .217.

    The next inning, with two outs and a runner on third, Jeter fielded a grounder by Cantu. But he bounced his throw in front of Giambi, who was not nimble enough to catch it while staying on the first-base bag. The go-ahead run scored to make the score 5-4.

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