Posted by Mark Levy on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 11:33 pm

Mark Levy joins the BDD team to give us the fan perspective as his New York Yankees travel through the 2009 postseason!

The New York Yankees came away with a solid victory in Game 4 of the ALCS. They piled on the runs and were relentless, taking the Angels right out of the game. C.C. Sabathia was unreal on three days rest, going 8 innings and allowing just one earned run. He was in complete control throughout.
 
There were plenty of bad calls by the umpires in this game, but I’m not going to dwell on those. The Yankees have had calls both for and against them, and many, like the blunder at third base with Posada and Cano, didn’t amount to anything harmful to Los Angeles either.

The Angels have to be concerned with the aggressive style of play adopted by New York. Even though Derek Jeter was caught stealing in the first, it set a tone. The Yankees will run. In the top of the ninth inning, with the Yankees up 7-1, ARod continued his intense play on the field. He doubled, tagged up on a flyball, and then scored on a throwing error.

New York must continue to play like this and put away Los Angeles. They can not leave a talented team like the Angels hanging around. The last thing I want to witness is another ALCS like the one in 2004.

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I like Nick Swisher. I still like him even though he popped out to Erick Aybar on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Yanks down by a run, to end Game 5 of the ALCS.

It might sound like I blame Swisher for the loss, but I don’t.

A.J. Burnett, on the other hand, came out in the first inning, and the Angels hit everything he threw. I could not believe the way he was getting crushed. I thought there would be some activity in the bullpen, but Joe Girardi stayed with Burnett.  He would eventually settle down but not until Los Angeles was up 4-0.

John Lackey did a good job on the mound against New York until the 7th inning. Just as they are known to do, however, the Yankees came back to explode for 6 runs in the top half of the 7th. Yankees 6, Angels, 4 with just nine more outs until another trip to the World Series! Awesome!

Well the fun ended quickly. The Angels offense got right back to work and roughed up the Yankees bullpen to take a 7-6 lead…and that’s how Game 5 would end.

The Angels and Yankees head back to New York for Game 6 in the Bronx. Fortunately for me, I’ll be in attendance rooting for Nick Swisher and the rest of the New York Yankees to put Game 5 behind us and wrap up the series in OUR building on Saturday night. Let’s go Yankees!