Did you ever notice that when baseball broadcasters start talking about the ninth-inning mentality and about all the setup men who couldn?t handle the closer?s role, they never go on to name names?
Moments after John Smoltz went on his little?spiel?about how not everyone can pitch the ninth Sunday, Phil Coke finished shutting down the Yankees for his first postseason save. Coke, closing in place of the?beleaguered?Jose Valverde, pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three, in relief of Anibal Sanchez as the Tigers gave themselves a 2-0 ALCS lead.
By the way, this is the same Phil Coke?
- who gave up a .396 average to right-handed hitters this year. Righties were 40-for-101 with 13 extra-base hits against him.
- who had given up nine homers in 40 2/3 career innings at Yankee Stadium. Coke, of course, started his career with the Yankees before being included in the three-team Curtis Granderson-Austin Jackson-Ian Kennedy-Max Scherzer-Edwin Jackson deal that also included the Diamondbacks.
- who had a 5.82 ERA after the All-Star break this year.
Coke struggled enough that manager Jim Leyland lost some faith in him against right-handers. Coke made 20 appearances between August and September, but he pitched just 11 1/3 innings between them. He typically went a full innings in his outings early in the year (apart from Aug/Sept, he pitched 42 2/3 IP in 46 appearances).
And Coke did allow a hit to a right-hander today. Alex Rodriguez singled off him with two outs in the ninth. Somehow, Coke avoided collapsing from the pressure of the situation afterwards. He just did his usual thing (well, it?s everyone?s usual thing lately) and struck out the left-handed-hitting Curtis Granderson to end the game.
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