El Clutchisimo Cano

With the Yanks trailing by 4 going into the 9th inning of their rubber game against the Dodgers last night, all appearances suggested an impending series loss to a team we may not face again in years. But that, my friends, is when Robinson got clutch. A one-out double scored A-Rod to get things going, and he later scored the second run. The Yanks managed to tie things up, and then, in the first inning of bonus cantos, Sweet Robbie went to work again with a two-run opposite-field blast. It buried the trolley Dodgers, and was the biggest win of the year for the Yanks.

Here were Dustin Pedroia's stats when he won the MVP award:

.326 BA, .376 OBP, .493 SLG, .869 OPS, 213 H, 118 R, 17 HR, 83 RBI

Here are Robbie's stats this year, with the last four stats projected for a full season:

.359 BA, .409 OBP, .593 SLG, 1.002 OPS, 229 H, 119 R, 32 HR, 114 RBI

Granted, Pedroia's MVP was undeserved, and granted its kinda useless to compare Robbie to former winners rather than his current competition. But still interesting, no?

His clutch stats are also super, and he's first in batting average, first in hits, 3rd in OBP, 5th in OPS, 4th in slugging, 6th in RBI, and 8th in home runs. He's far from a shoe-in for MVP, but along with Morneau and Cabrera, he's one of three legitimate names in the running.

But the season's still early, so we'll shelve that talk for now. Regardless, all 6 predictions from my annual "Year of Robinson" post are looking pretty nice. Maybe even conservative. Bam.

Other news: Rafa is up 2 sets to love on Mathieu!! On to the quarters, or so we hope. Meanwhile, Roddick is in the 5th against Yen-Hsun Lu, the 82nd ranked player from Chinese Taipei (Taiwan). The last three sets have gone to the tiebreaker, so this one could be a barnburner. Andy Murray is also through, as are Djokovic and Soderling. It's shaping up to be a fairly predictable, yet awesome, quarterfinals.

World Cup:

-This morning, the Dutch advanced to the quarters with a fairly easy 2-1 win over Slovakia. Brazil and Chile are tied in the 26th minute, so stay tuned.

-Here's a nice, downcast article about the US disappointment. Thanks to Kevin for the link.

-Instead of considering video technology, FIFA has decided to take the high road and censor video replays in stadiums. Jesus.

-Klose is questioning the team play of England. Salt in the wounds, but hey, he earned it.

Hasta manana.