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>Yankees Short Hops: Game 3

>Pettitte supplies pitching, A-Rod, Posada the power in win

Fielding the Yankees’ Game 3, 4-1 win over the Twins on a short hop …

In less then 25 words …
Andy Pettitte tossed 6 1/3 dominant innings, and was backed by Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada to complete the American League Division Series sweep.

Frozen moment
With a one-run lead in the eighth inning, Derek Jeter made a heads-up play to erase a leadoff double from Nick Punto. With no play at first on Denard Span’s single up the middle, Jeter threw home to Posada, who relayed the throw to Rodriguez at third base to pick off Punto, who was scrambling back to the bag.

Big number
2: Solo homers for the Yankees in the seventh inning. Rodriguez went deep on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, and one batter later, Posada followed with a blast to left field to give New York the lead for good.

Game balls
Andy Pettitte

Other than an RBI single that he allowed to Joe Mauer, Pettitte was lights-out over his 6 1/3 innings. The veteran lefty struck out seven and didn’t allow a hit until the fifth.

Alex Rodriguez

Rodriguez continued to exorcise his postseason demons with a game-tying solo homer. He went 3-for-4 with three RBIs with runners in scoring position in the series.

Derek Jeter

The Yankees’ captain made a game-changing defensive play to save a run in the eighth inning and connected for a two-out double in the sixth.

Sense of October
Back at the Metrodome with an 0-2 deficit, the Twins’ home confines was packed with a crowd of 54,735 waving white “Homer Hankies” to try to help Minnesota extend the series. Sunday’s loss marked the final baseball game played at the Metrodome.

Lines of the Game
Hitting
Jorge Posada
4 AB, 2 H, 1 HR, 1 R, 2 RBI
Comment:
The veteran catcher homered in the seventh inning and laced an RBI single into right field in the ninth to pad the lead.

Pitching
Joba Chamberlain
2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 K
Comment:
Chamberlain pitched around a one-out double to keep the Twins from evening the score in the seventh inning.

Spoken
“People can say whatever they want about home runs and big hits. I mean, if you don’t pitch and you don’t defend, you are not going to win. The story of this [ALDS] has been CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte.” — Rodriguez

Next step
The Yankees will travel back home to New York and prepare for their next opponent, the Angels, for a best-of-seven AL Championship Series that starts on Friday.

~Short Hops

>Columbus Day, A Parade!

>Em and I went down to the city yesterday, she said for the parade. We know it was really because she just wanted to go. We both had off work. Love civil service jobs sometimes.

After getting my nails done Friday, I was very upset to see one of them had broken on Saturday, I noticed it when I got in the car at Ron’s after getting ice cream. So that was the first stop. Then we walked up Fifth Avenue to watch the parade. There were some nice High School marching bands, some important people (that I didn’t recognize) and some floats. Em took some pictures then we continued our walking around.

We found another place to eat, I forgot to write it down, Maxie’s I think it was. Amazing food and this vodka and something and chambord liquor with melted white chocolate around the rim, deadly!

>Wedding blues

>Ron’s wedding was today. Or perhaps I should say yesterday, since I haven’t gone to bed yet I am still thinking it was today. I love Ron, really I do, I did not particularly like this wedding. First it was outside, not a bad day for it, but kind of chilly and since we didn’t know it was going to be outside, some of us (me) didn’t dress for it. I was wearing a short dress with no hose and just a sweater. The sound system was not good, couldn’t hear much and it didn’t help that a plane kept flying overhead!

Just the wedding was outside, then we went inside and it took forever to get the food! Tigger ended up with a massive headache, I ended up with a stomach ache. My asthma is bothering me now. It is a good thing Em and I are going to the city tomorrow because one of my nails broke yesterday and I need to get it fixed. Right now I need to sleep.

>Yankees advance to ALCS

The Yankees keep on rolling. Winners of over 100 regular-season games, the Yankees sweep into the American League Championship Series with three straight wins over the Twins. Next up are the Angels, who completed their own sweep of the Red Sox. Game 1 of the ALCS is Friday night at Yankee Stadium.

>The Yankees defeated the Twins, 4-1, to sweep the ALDS and reach their first ALCS since 2004. New York will host the Angels in Game 1 on Friday on FOX.

>We’ve been working hard for the past few months with our friends at RightRides on a new generation of Hollaback. We want to create an online map where women can “Hollaback!” directly from their cell phones. Quick, 140 character stories can be submitted through three easy portals: a) text it, b) tweet it, and c) submit it through a “Hollaback” mobile phone app. Once we launch in New York City, we want to take it worldwide.

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Once you are done with that, spread the word to your networks. Cut and paste this to your facebook, twitter, Myspace, and LinkedIn pages: Vote for Hollaback 2.0 http://bit.ly/14Egc2 then repost to end street harassment!

>I watched game 2

>on T.V. of course, I wasn’t there, absolutely no way I can swing that. My boss was there, but then as we all know, my boss is a total shit. Anyway, when Jeter came up to bat in the 10th inning I thought maybe he would get the pie finally, then he was walked! I saw the game winning home run an inning later, the ‘wall scraper’ and I screamed like a little girl. I didn’t see the play mentioned below, where Jeter signaled to Swisher and pumped his fist, Em saw it and said she thought Jeter was going to start dancing right there on the field. I have never seen Mark as excited as he was when they were interviewing him after the game and A.J. finally got him with a pie! Now the only one left is Jeter.

Today was homecoming and Fred (the only one still in band) marched. I took him and Gwen, D had his biopsy yesterday so Em stayed with him. I think she just didn’t want to go to homecoming. Beacon lost 6 to 25. Fred stayed for the whole game, Gwen and I went to the car at 10 minutes before the end. We were getting cold and she couldn’t stop coughing. Then we had ice cream at Ron’s. Then we went up to the mall because I had no card for Ron’s (different Ron) gift. The wedding is tomorrow and I still don’t know what I am wearing!

>as it stands right now:

Division Series
Gm. 1 MIN@NYY Wed., Oct. 7 6:07 ET {Played NYY won}
Gm. 2 MIN@NYY Fri.., Oct. 9 6:07 ET {Played NYY won}
Gm. 3 NYY@MIN Sun., Oct. 11 7:07 ET {Played NYY won}
Gm. 4* NYY@MIN Mon., Oct. 12 5:07 ET
Gm. 5* MIN@NYY Wed., Oct. 14 6:07 ET
*If necessary
All games on TBS

>
A-Rod continues postseason resurgence as Yanks walk off

Fielding the Yankees’ Game 2 4-3 win over the Twins in 11 innings on a short hop …

In less then 25 words …
A.J. Burnett worked out of several early jams, Alex Rodriguez delivered two clutch hits and Mark Teixeira’s walk-off homer sealed the 11th-inning win.

Frozen moment
Shortstop Derek Jeter signaling to right fielder Nick Swisher to throw the ball to him so he could tag out Carlos Gomez beyond second base before the Twins’ Delmon Young could touch home plate. The play ended the fourth inning and kept Minnesota off the scoreboard, and a fired-up Jeter pumped his fist in the air after what was a big momentum-turner.

Big number
7:
Combined total of walks and hit batsmen by Burnett, who was wild but effective in working with backup catcher Jose Molina.

Game balls
Alex Rodriguez


Despite his oft-chronicled postseason struggles, Rodriguez continued to reverse the trend, connecting for an RBI single with two outs in the sixth to plate Jeter. He then blasted a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth.

A.J. Burnett

With all of the buzz surrounding Burnett’s preference to pitch to Molina over Jorge Posada, the right-hander stepped up and silenced his critics. He struck out six and allowed one run on three hits, walking five over six innings.

Derek Jeter

Jeter, who delivered a key two-run homer in the Yankees’ 7-2 win in Game 1, continued to thrive in the clutch, answering the Twins’ run in the sixth inning with a double that led to a New York run.

Sense of October
Pinch-runner Brett Gardner stole second base and induced a wild pickoff throw to second from pitcher Joe Nathan to put a runner on third in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Lines of the Game
Hitting
Derek Jeter
4 AB, 2B, R
Comment:
Jeter had one of the Yankees’ two hits off Nick Blackburn and scored New York’s first run.

Pitching
Phil Hughes
2/3 IP, 2 H, 2 R, BB, K
Comment:
The usually stoic Hughes struggled in his second career postseason relief appearance, giving way to a two-run Twins lead in the eighth.

Next step
The Yankees will fly to Minnesota for Saturday’s off-day before handing the ball to Andy Pettitte, looking for a series sweep in Game 3.

~Yankee’s Home Page~

>Breaking News Alert

>The New York Times
Fri, October 09, 2009 ~~ 5:08 AM ET
~~~~~

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

The U.S. president Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Nobel Foundation said in Sweden on Friday.

Read More: ~The New York Times~