Sat It Ain't So, Joe

In my Enter Sandman? post, I stated that this year's ALCS would be remembered for the absent bats of the Yankees. I would like to take this moment to detract that statement.

As the thoughts of this ALCS and the Yankees humbling loss to the Rangers in game 6 continue to swirl in the mind of the Bomber faithful, what will be remembered, and discussed, and recounted to the point of nausea will be the "questionable" management of Joe Girardi.

For a second, critical game in this series, Girardi opted to overuse a struggling, starting pitcher and both times, it cost the Yankees the game. Phil Hughes, who to his credit pitched far better last night in game 6 than his efforts in game 2, gave up a game-ending, series-ending 2-run double to Vladimir Guerrero in the fifth inning after walking Josh Hamilton with a man on for the second time. The move worked in the second inning, as Guerrero popped out. But the second go-round, he made the Yankees pay.

If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

No one can argue that Hamilton continuously burned the Yankees in this series. But what will baffle fanatics from now until the fresh excitement of Spring training, is why Hughes was left in to face Guerrero with CC Sabathia available in the bullpen.

Again, Hughes really pitched a decent game, but it was obvious that he was winding down. As a manager, isn't it your job to know when your pitcher has had enough? Aren't you suppose to make critical decisions based on the present situation? Wouldn't you want your absolute best pitcher on the mound at this point?

And why did it even have to get to the point of walking Hamilton? Sabathia was available in the bullpen. Girardi said himself that if they used CC it would probably be to face two batters. And yet when the opportunity came for him to do so, he opted to stick with Hughes.

"Hughesy has had success off Vlad Guerrero and got him out twice, and that's why he stayed there," Girardi explained.

No. No. No. No. No.

Sabathia was brought over to the Yankees for moments like this. He was the ONLY pitcher at that moment who was supposed to face Hamilton and shut down Guerrero. If he couldn't, at least you knew that your best was out there. But Girardi never gave himself or his team their best chance to stay in the game.

So went the game, so went the series.

"You have to give some credit to their pitchers," Girardi said. "They obviously made some good pitches when they had to."

You have to also give credit to Ron Washington, who out-managed Girardi and optimized his pitch staff because he had to.

Enter Sandman??

So we've reached the crossroads, fanatics. The Yankees have lost their third straight game in this ALCS; a 10-3 rout by the Rangers, and are now down 3-1.

For the second straight night in a row at Yankee Stadium, the New York faithful exited the park early; unwilling to further watch the Bombers sink deeper into the dark abyss, aka early winter.

If there is anything positive that can be taken away from last night's game 4 debacle, it's that AJ Burnett pitched a quality game. The AJ of old was in full force for the first couple of innings of a game, that many fanatics--myself included--believed would go their way. He retired the first six batters he faced, with a fierce fastball that averaged 95 on the radar gun. Things got a little shaky for Burnett in the third inning when he walked Rangers left fielder David Murphy after being ahead in the count, 0-2, and then followed that with a hit to catcher Bengie Molina's left elbow. Shortstop Elvis Andrus scored Murphy on a ground-out, and third baseman Michael Young scored Molina on a tapper that Alex Rodriguez couldn't handle. But AJ recovered well and allowed the game to remain close until he gave up a 3-run moon shot by Molina in the 6th inning, which put Texas up 5-3. The Bombers would never recover.

I for one was proud of Burnett. I thought he was aggressive, confident and unnerved by the obvious pressure of a big game that would probably make-or-break the Yankees in this series. He did his job, albeit the mistake to Molina cost them the game, but he did his job nonetheless.

With that said, however, there are some questions that have to be answered about the sequence that lead to Molina's 2-run homer, and they need to be answered by Joe Girardi.

Why was Burnett kept in the game after allowing a lead-off single to Vladimir Guerrero in the sixth inning? At that point the Yankees were leading 3-2; Burnett had already given the Yankees what they needed from him, so why not pull him and perhaps bring in Dustin Moseley, who pitched a two-inning masterpiece in game 1 and hasn't seen action since?


Rangers top Yankees in Game 4
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Why in the world would you have Burnett walk Murphy to pitch to Molina, essentially putting the go-ahead run on base that late in the game? Typical Girardi wanting to play the "numbers" game; realizing that Murphy hit well against Burnett. Instead of a walk, wouldn't this have been the right time to call in a reliever? YOU DO NOT WALK THE GO-AHEAD RUN IN A POTENTIAL DO-OR-DIE GAME IN LATE INNINGS. Can anyone say baseball management 101?

And, why was David Robertson, who had excellent command of his fastball, pulled in the seventh after quickly taking care of the only two batters he faced, Andrus and Young? Was it absolutely necessary to bring in Boone Logan for a lefty-to-lefty match up with Josh Hamilton, who has become what A-Rod was to the the Yankees last year?



This kid's face says it all.

 Let's talk about A-Rod and Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher who are 2-for-15, 0-for-14 and 1-for-15, respectively. People talk about how good pitching and defense wins games. Well, what good is good pitching without good hitting to back it up?  When it's all said and done, this ALCS will probably be most remembered for the silent bats of one of the best offenses in baseball.

Can the Yankees stage a comeback? Of course they can. Has it been done before? Absolutely. Will fanatics be sitting on the edge of their seats for this afternoon's do-or-die game 5? No question.

Game Notes:
AJ Burnett: 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 HR (Molina), 4 strikeouts
Tommy Hunter: 3.1 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 1 HR (Cano), 5 strikeouts
Cano: 2-for-3, 1 HR, 1 BB
Jeter: 2-for-5, 1 run
Rangers scored 8 runs innings 6 through 9

Take A Breath Fanatics, The Bombers Are Still In This

Okay, if you're a Yankees fan, you're probably ready to push the panic button after last night's baffling 6-run 9th inning, 8-0 loss to the Texas Rangers in game 3 of the ALCS. You might be thinking that maybe the baseball Gods have decreed that the Yankees domination of the Rangers in the postseason has finally come to an end; that maybe it's the Bombers' turn this time to walk away acknowledging--for the first time in a long while--that they were not the better team.

Let's face it, in this ALCS the Yankees have been completely over matched by the Rangers starting rotation; in all 3 games they've had to play from behind, and in their only win in game 1, the Yankees were only able to get to the Rangers' bullpen. Their offense seems to be asleep, having hit for a .194 AVG. with only 2 homers and 8 runs in the first 27 innings of this series. In last night's game, the Yankees could only muster 2 hits and work 1 walk off of "The Assassin", aka Cliff Lee.




"Bottom line, we just need to swing the bats better," said Alex Rodriguez after the game. "We had...chances to come up with some big hits and good at-bats. Bottom line, two hits and one walk is just not good enough for our offense."

Clearly. But it's not time to push the panic button just yet.

"Yeah, we're down 2 games to 1," Girardi said during the postgame interview. "But we're a very good club. We've been resilient all year. You don't win 95 games in our division without being resilient."

Exactly.

I will be the first to admit that I sat through last night's game feeling every emotion a fan feels when their team is being completely shut down by its opposition: anger, anxiety, sadness, fear, shock, etc., etc. But after awhile, I began to breathe again, and try to remind myself of the "Yogi-ism" the Rangers were forced to learn after game 1: It ain't over 'til it's over.

We've seen the Yankees lose back-to-back games before, only to come out in full force thereafter. Albeit three of the Yankees' all-stars--Jeter, Teixeira and Rodriguez--have not swung the bats well at all in this series, having combined for 3 runs on 5 hits with 12 strikeouts thus far, there's still something to be said for the Yankees only being down 2-1. Add to this sentiment the fact that with the exception of Andy Pettitte, who really pitched an excellent, gritty game 3, the Yankees' starting pitching has been lackluster to say the least. One can argue that this should be a 3-0 series and the Yankees should be preparing for an early exit. But fans know that you can never count the Yankees out in situations like this; that these Yankees are like a cornered gutter rat in New York City: they attack.

Of course, trying to show great face and stay optimistic will be a challenge for fanatics in tonight's game 4, with the unpredictable AJ Burnett getting the start against the Rangers' Tommy Hunter. AJ's "problems" this season have been well-documented, so we don't need to list them here. But, AJ does sport a 2.50 ERA in 3 starts against the Rangers in 2010, so we know that he can certainly come up big tonight.

"If you put [Burnett] out there, his stuff could get nasty," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "One guy who you don't think is going to do anything might be the guy who steps up and has everything fall into place. I'm concerned about him."

Hunter on the other hand has an 0-1 record with a 4.50 ERA this postseason. Another postseason rookie, he boasts a 4.45 ERA for his career, with batters hitting .265 against him. Hunter is a far better pitcher at home with a 3.06 ERA as opposed to .448 on the road. You figure that even if AJ sputters tonight, Yankees batters could fare well against Hunter and get this series tied at 2-2.

"I don't think we're in trouble," Girardi said. 'As I said we're a good club. We're down two to one; we're not down three to nothing losing in the bottom of the 9th."

It is clearly not over for the Bombers. Again, we've seen them in this situation before. Remember the 1996 World Series against the Atlanta Braves?

Game Notes:

• Andy Pettitte pitched 7 innings on 110 pitches, allowing 2 runs off 5 hits with 5 strikeouts; walked 0.
• Yankees had 2 hits and 0 runs with 15 strikeouts in 29 ABs; 0-3 RISP
• Cliff Lee pitched 12 innings on 122 pitches, allowing 0 runs off 2 hits with 13 strikeouts; walked 1

Follow Rasheeda Cooper on twitter: @ra_cooper