Game 4 Caps @ Rangers 4-22-2009 Post-Mortem

Ok if you're getting off the bandwagon, line forms to the left... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• A.O. once again showing why he's the true MVP of the NHL. 11 shots on goal and if you can believe it, right now they're showing none of his shots were blocked. His third period goal got things going. It was a darn shame he didn't get any help.
• The Caps Penalty Killers once again hold the Rangers Power Play off the scoreboard for the third consecutive game.

THE BAD:

• While the Caps took only three penalties, two of them came when the Caps were on the Power Play.
• Once again, the Power Play took too long to get themselves established. We honestly think if they could do something before their third Power Play chance of the game, we really think they could be in charge of the series.

THE UGLY:

• If fair is fair Bruce Boudreau will return to Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore in goal after Simeon Varlamov's misplay of the puck cost the Caps this game tonight. The first goal you can't blame him on but that second goal was entirely Varlamov's fault and, again to be perfectly honest, he had misadventures playing with puck on Wednesday night too. They cost him and the team tonight.
• Let us make one thing perfectly clear, we aren't blaming tonight's loss on referees Paul Devorksi and Ian Walsh but folks, they were wretched tonight and we knew we were doomed when we saw Devorski's name as one of the referees for tonight's game. Even if you classify the 3rd period tripping call on Alexander "Slappy" Semin as a pure make-up call, it is still an utter joke as the Ranger just skated over Slappy's stick. There was no excuse to make that call. Furthermore, there could have very easily been two double minor penalties called on Sean Avery in the third period but the linesman had to convince the referees to call the first penalty and who knows what they were thinking, if they were thinking at all, on the second call. Certain Ranger beat writers cannot complain about Avery being targeted by the officials because he's gotten away with a lot more in this series than he's been improperly blamed for.

Well folks, here we are one year later and we're in the exact same position again, down 3-1 in the first round. What can we say folks? We peeked into Darwin's Waiting Room and saw that they were already calling for General Manager George McPhee's head. Now there are three threads on the first page alone calling for McPhee to be fired. While we don't think the Caps played well in the first period, tonight was the first time the Rangers outshot the Caps in the first period, they once again showed which team had the better talent. The Caps hit two goalposts tonight and one of them came in that awful first period on a Sergei (#3)Fedorov. As was the case in Games 1 & 2, the breaks and bounces just did not go our way tonight. Look no further than the game winning goal scored by a player with just one good hand and two players having blood drawn by a known offender but only two minutes penalties being assessed to that player. While a seven game series more often than not allows the more talented team to advance, in the NHL breaks and bounces play just as much of a role! . 11 ye ars ago we got all the breaks, all the bounces, and all the calls in our favor as we went to the Stanley Cup Finals. After taking Monday night off, Lady Luck is once again defecating all over us. Finally, we do tip our cap to Henrik Lundqvist, we mentioned this morning that he's improved as the series as gone on. As much as we aren't getting the breaks we need, he is doing what he needs to do in order for the Rangers to win this series. We can only imagine the effort we'll need to repeat what we did last year and get this series into a seventh game.

Rangers beat Lee, Indians in opener

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Texas Rangers can still hit. Cliff Lee can attest to that.

The AL Cy Young Award winner allowed seven runs and 10 hits in five innings, including Hank Blalock's three-run homer, and the Rangers routed the Cleveland Indians 9-1 Monday in their season opener.

Kevin Millwood allowed one run over seven innings in his fourth consecutive opening-day start for Texas. The 34-year-old right-hander lost his first three.

Lee was 22-3 with an AL-leading 2.54 ERA last season, when the left-hander never gave up more than six runs in a game — one of those starts was in a victory at the Rangers.

Texas had 15 hits against four pitchers, including Saltalamacchia's solo homer in the eighth. It matched the most hits for the Rangers in a season opener.

Texas jumped ahead with four runs in the second off Lee, who allowed only four earned runs in his first seven starts a year ago.

Blalock hit a one-hopper that ricocheted off Lee's arm in the second. Cleveland manager Eric Wedge and a trainer went out to check on Lee, who threw one warmup pitch and said he was OK. Marlon Byrd then doubled and the Rangers scored all their runs that inning with two outs.

Saltalamacchia had his run-scoring hit before Elvis Andrus, the 20-year-old shortstop who had never before played above Double-A, doubled in his first at-bat. Ian Kinsler, who finished with three hits, followed with a two-run double to make it 4-0.

Blalock, primarily the designated hitter after being the opening-day third baseman the past seven seasons, hit a high flyball in the fifth that kept carrying in the wind and dropped into the right-field seats.

Millwood will guarantee his $12 million contract for 2010 if he pitches at least 180 innings this season. If he stays healthy — he was on the disabled list four times the past two seasons with nagging injuries — and keeps pitching like this, that shouldn't be a problem.

Cleveland's only run against him came with two outs in the seventh when Travis Hafner scored on a wild pitch. Millwood allowed five hits and struck out five while throwing 72 of 113 pitches for strikes.

Lee, whose ascension to the top of the Indians rotation was cleared by the trade of CC Sabathia to Milwaukee last summer, also struggled throughout spring training. Lee was 0-3 with a 12.46 ERA in six starts, including a game against Texas when he allowed 10 runs — nine earned — in 2 2-3 innings.

Texas led the majors with a .283 batting average and 901 runs last year. It was the fourth time the team scored at least 900 runs — the other three times the Rangers made their only playoff appearances. But they had a losing record because of a major league-worst 5.37 ERA and the game's most overworked bullpen (572 2-3 innings).

Team president Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher known for his work ethic, emphasized tougher workouts for every pitcher, stressing the starters go longer into games. The Rangers hired Mike Maddux as their new pitching coach.

Everything went according to plan.

After Millwood, left-hander C.J. Wilson pitched a perfect eighth and Frank Francisco a 1-2-3 ninth. Wilson was the closer before missing the final six weeks of last season because of elbow surgery, and Francisco then didn't allow an earned run in his final 11 appearances.

Millwood is the first Rangers pitcher to start four straight openers. Ryan and Charlie Hough both started three in a row.

Notes:@ Cleveland has lost five of its last seven openers. ... The Rangers are 19-19 in home openers since moving to Texas, 7-9 at Rangers Ballpark. ... Former president George W. Bush threw the ceremonial first pitch, a high strike. ... The bat flew out of Chris Davis' hands and went about 20 rows into the stands when he struck out swinging in the Texas second. Nobody was hurt, but Davis waved at the fan who caught the bat acknowledging that he could keep it. ... Two rows of luxury seats were added closer to home plate as part of $4 million in offseason improvements at Rangers Ballpark. There were at least two foul pops in those areas that would have been likely outs in the past.

Yankee Stadium: Food, shopping and baseball, too

NEW YORK – Unlike the Babe and the House he Built, these New York Yankees and their palatial new stadium were given a practice run.

The Hard Rock Cafe in right field was packed at game time Friday night, a birthday party was going on in NYY Steak above it, and the carpeted corridors outside the $850,000-a-year luxury suites were busy as people picked up drinks in the lounge.

There were few at the sushi stand for $15 rainbow rolls, but long lines at Mike's Arthur Avenue Italian Deli and the Latin Corner. An amused crowd watched through glass behind third base, finding it hard to believe a butcher from Lobel's was carving a large rack of ribs.

Tommy Bahama's martini bar one level up behind home plate was filled, and Mohegan Sun Sports Bar in center field was packed with spectators looking at the field through the smoked glass. On the top floor of the duplex Legends Suites Club, people sipped from oversized Chardonnay glasses at tables topped with white tablecloths while dozens of chefs in tall toques stood by carving stations.

Oh, baseball was played, too.

In the first game at a $1.5 billion stadium, Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui hit two-run homers, and Cody Ransom hit a three-run shot to lead the Yankees to a 7-4 exhibition victory over the Chicago Cubs before 48,402.

"It was strange. I've got to be honest with you," said Yankees captain Derek Jeter, who doubled to lead off the bottom of the first. "It's going to take a while to get used to. It took me around 1 1/2 innings to figure out where the balls and strikes are on the scoreboard. Everything's different."

From the granite-and-limestone exterior to an art gallery, memorabilia store and three team shops, the stadium oozes an "If you've got it, flaunt it" style of moneyed Old New York updated to the 21st Century.

"The visiting clubhouse. it's wonderful. It's got every imaginable amenity that you would want. In fact, you wonder if the players will be ready to play ball at 7:05," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said before the start. "About the only thing that I missed was the old coffee pot. I messed around and fiddled around trying to get a cup of coffee about one of those new technological machines for about a half-hour."

On a drizzly night, both New York teams tried out their new ballparks. Over in Queens, the Mets defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-3 before a crowd of 37,652 at $800 million Citi Field.

This Yankee Stadium is a ballpark like no other. The field has the same dimensions the old stadium just across 161st Street used last year. But after playing in baseball's most famous park from 1923 and winning 26 World Series titles, the Yankees wanted the revenue boost of a new stadium.

While tickets cost up to $2,625 during the regular season, this weekend's two-game exhibition series was capped at $50. Grandstand seats cost $1.10 and bleacher tickets were 25 cents — matching the prices for the 4-1 victory over Boston that opened the original stadium on April 18, 1923, when Ruth christened America's first three-deck ballpark with a home run.

The new stadium restored many of the elements stripped from the original during the 1974-75 renovation, including the famous frieze hanging from the roof and manual scoreboards on the fences.

"It looks pretty much identical," said the Cubs' Aaron Miles, who hit a two-run double in the second off Chien-Ming Wang. "That's one thing a lot of people were worried about, losing that nostalgic feeling. I think they did it right."

Much is modern, including a 59-by-101-foot color video board above the Bleachers Cafe and a 3-by-1,279-foot ribbon board at the front of the terrace level. Fans bought food and merchandise under the translucent ceiling of the 31,000-square-foot Great Hall on their way in, then came out to view a field lit by far brighter lights than at the old ballpark.

Players drove right into the stadium, without having to interact with fans. The Yankees clubhouse stretches from home plate to right field and includes a swimming pool, SwimEx spa, dining area and lounge.

"I can go see our manager, our manager can call a player into his office and you guys would never know about it," general manager Brian Cashman said to a reporter. "You guys can't look into our trainer's room now. And you wouldn't know about — hey, this guy is icing his knee or icing his shoulder. So we're much more efficient in terms of doing business.

"The video room is right by the batting cage and the batting cage is right behind the dugout. The weight room is contained within the clubhouse. People aren't having to walk a mile to go different places. The trainer's room can overlook the weight room, so we have double protection. If a player is in there doing something he shouldn't be doing, there's Plexiglass, so our trainers can look right in to it."

After Reggie Jackson threw out the ceremonial first pitch, the Yankees won their eighth straight spring-training game. They hit three homers off Ted Lilly, with Cano connecting in the second, Matsui in the third and Ransom in the fourth. Matsui's home run clanked off the right-field foul pole and the drive by Ransom off the left-field pole.

With rain falling in the middle innings, about half the fans retreated to the concourses, which have an average width of 34 feet, or the clubs and restaurants. The seats near the field were about half-filled. Perhaps more will be occupied for the regular-season opener, on April 16 against Cleveland.

Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long told manager Girardi it seemed eerily familiar.

"Except for maybe the huge screen up above the batter's eye," Girardi said, "you felt like you were in old Yankee Stadium."

Notes:@ Wang allowed four runs and six hits in five innings, giving up a sacrifice fly to Derrek Lee in the first and an RBI grounder to Ryan Theriot in the fourth. ... Miles replaced former-Yankee Alfonso Soriano, scratched just before game time because of the wet field.

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AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta contributed to this report.