MLB Playoff Notes And Quotes: First Games Maintain Status Quo

The Major League Baseball Playoffs provided us no sense of shock and awe on Wednesday when all three home teams won fairly comfortably. They Dodgers had the slimmest margin of victory for the home teams. After taking a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first they never trailed the Cardinals again and went on to a 5-3 victory. The Yankees fell down by 2 runs to the Twins in the top of the 3^rd but outscored Minnesota 7-0 from there. In the early game the Colorado Rockies couldn’t find any offense in their 5-1 loss to Philadelphia.

“I had him 0-2 and I stepped off and wanted to give myself a chance to absorb it all. Then I threw three straight balls and allowed a double in the gap. Maybe it cost me a run. Whatever, we had a five-run lead.” – Philadelphia pitcher Cliff Lee on Troy Tulowitzki’s RBI double with two outs in the bottom of the 9^th.

“He was aggressive, he had good tempo and rhythm and he handled the whole flow of the game real good.” – Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel on Cliff Lee’s 113 pitch performance.

“Up until the fifth, it was one of the better games he had pitched over the course of the month” - Rockies manager Jim Tracy on pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez.

“It felt just like the old place. We couldn’t have drawn it up any better for us.” – Derek Jeter on the first playoff game in the new Yankee Stadium.

“This is what you come here for. It was electric tonight.” – CC Sabathia on the atmosphere in New York.

“You get a two-run lead quick, and as soon as you go back out, it’s a 2-2 ballgame with a homer. That’s a little deflating.” – Minnesota manager Ron Gardenhire on Derek Jeter’s 3^rd inning homerun.

“A lot of people believe they have one of the best bullpens in baseball. They kind of shut us down. They shut the door.” – St. Louis’ Ryan Ludwick on the Dodgers relief pitchers.

“It was a little sinker down the middle,” Kemp said. “We haven’t done too well against him, but we came tonight with the confidence. We were trying to make him battle and got him out pretty early and got to the bullpen.” – Dodgers’ Matt Kemp on his 1^st inning two-run homerun off Chris Carpenter.

“We had too many chances, too many chances. Their bullpen came in, and inning after inning, we didn’t get the big hit we needed.” – Mark DeRosa on St. Louis leaving runners in scoring position.

“I wasn’t making very many good pitches and they put some bats on the mistakes I made. I was either right down the middle or out of the strike zone and that’s not a good way to pitch.” – St. Louis pitcher Chris Carpenter on his pitching performance.