Yankee Stadium Experience : Yanks vs Rangers ALCS Game 3

I had gotten these tickets in the partial plan holders pre-sale, at the time it would have been game one of the series, but once the Yankees lost the AL East it became game three. Andy Pettitte would be facing Cliff Lee in a classic pitching, the starters lived up to expectations but the bullpen let it all slip away. More on that in a bit.

But lets start out by saying that earlier in the week I had been looking on google for shortcuts to get to the 161st street garage. I finally though I found a short cut, and it may have been but we passed the exit and took a quick tour of the Bronx. After that we finally made it to the parking garage, practically three hours early and it was already crowded, even with the parking cost $40.

It was my first playoff game since the 2003 ALCS game two, but unlike back then when they were very strict with security they hardly looked in my bag prior to game three. It was strange to see the teams taking batting practice in the dark, but the stadium look beautiful and there was a buzz around the park.

I wandered out to the bleachers and realized that the TBS crew were doing the pre-game show from the bleachers (section 239 to be exact). At one point Dennis Eckersley was standing five feet away and nobody approached him. That cant be said of David Wells who was getting cheers from the fans that began to surround the small make shift studio.

The temperature was really starting to drop, and the October feel became stronger as game time was becoming closer. Once the Rangers finished up there portion of batting practice, I headed towards the upper deck to my seats, but I could see that on field level the Lobel's line stretched for at least three or four sections, totally insane.

The crowd wasn't even in its seats, when player introductions began. Of course Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte got the largest ovations, but Robinson Cano also got a large ovation from the crowd. The introductions never get old, but my favorite intros would have to be for Opening Day and the World Series. Tino Martinez threw out the first pitch to another loud ovation and just like that baseball was set to be under way.

The Yankees did hold a nice moment of silence for Freddy Sez, and showed him on the video screen. The crowd began to chant "Freddy ! Freddy !"

Prior to the game I predicted that the Yankees would win the game 3-2, I was correct about the Rangers having two for most of the night, but the final score was no where near my prediction. Andy Pettitte looked locked in the first inning, until he gave up a hit to Michael Young. The next batter was Josh Hamiltion, and he took a pitch and hit a Yankee Stadium home run, right over the right field fence. Just like that the air was sucked out of the crowd and the Yankees were down 2-0.

Cliff Lee came out and shut down the Yankees the entire night, I like that the Yankees were making him throw some pitches and fouled off a lot of tough pitches but the result was always the same, Lee was just too unhittable. The Yankees didn't have a hit for the longest time, and had only one chance all night to score. That was when Brett Gardner got a hit with no outs, stole second and was left stranded at third.

Much has been made about the crowd at the new Yankee Stadium, not being as loud. But on this night the fans had nothing to get excited about. The few times that the fans were into the game Cliff Lee sat them down, along with the Yankees. The worst part was that when the Yankees went down in the bottom of the eighth, and with the score at 2-0 some fans began to leave. Maybe those fans had the right idea since the Yankees would give up six more runs to turn the game into a laughter.

Auxilary Press Box in sections 406 and 407.

The move not to bring Mariano Rivera in the ninth, befuddled me. It was just a 2-0 game and  Cliff Lee was up to 118 pitches, so the Rangers would be going to closer Neftali Feliz. The Yankees had impressive at bats against Feliz in game two and had come back against him earlier in the season. But instead of using Mo, Girardi went to Boone Logan and David Robertson who got hit hard. The night ended with Sergio Mitre on the mound, never a good sign. Once the inning was over it was 8-0 Texas and many fans had departed.

The Yanks will have to hope from a good start from AJ Burnett tonight, or else they put themselves in a tough spot. I still have alot of faith in Burnett, but the Rangers have out played the Yankees in every one of these games, except for one inning and that was in game one when the Yankees came from behind.

Since last week I was unable to buy tickets to any of the World Series games, this looks to be my final trip to Yankee Stadium in 2010. Thank you for reading about my Yankee Stadium experiences, this season but make sure to keep reading about other Yankee related posts. Until 2011, as Michael Kay would say "see ya!"