Kuzul

Surprisingly, a lot of Yankees fans last night had hope. There seemed to be some hope that despite his struggles all season long, A.J. Burnett was going to give his team a winning effort and help his team even up the series with the Texas Rangers.

That hope seemed to be a reality, until manager Joe Girardi messed with it.

The key moment was in the top of the sixth inning. The Yankees had a 3-2 lead with two outs and a runner on second base. Instead of letting Burnett take his chances against David Murphy, Girardi had his righty intentionally walk the batter to get to Bengie Molina.

Now, sure, Murphy had hit a home run off Burnett earlier this season. So what?! Murphy is a platoon outfielder. Molina is a starting catcher that also has some pop in his bat. Molina has his share of dramatic home runs against the Yankees in his career. So, why walk Murphy with two outs? It does not make sense.

Continue full article at Double G Sports.

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The ALCS has not been good for the New York Yankees thus far, but blaming the pitching is just a mask for the real issue.

The issue is not hitting, which means runs don’t score. With zero or two as a team’s score, it forces the pitching into having to be almost perfect to get a win.

For example look back at CC Sabathia’s start in Game 1 of the ALCS. Sabathia, who is an ace in all terms is human at times and that CC was on the mound against the Rangers that night.

Sabathia posted his shortest outing of the season, leaving the game after four innings, giving up six hits, five earned runs, one a home-run, while walking four and striking out three. To say he imploded would be correct, but guess who won that game?

The Yankees did in one inning, being down 5-1 entering the top of the eighth the bats scored the five runs needed to take the lead. Then it was over because Mariano Rivera in the ninth is a postseason God.

So, the reason behind the Yankees losing ALCS Game 4 is not AJ Burnett’s fault, as he pitched much better than Sabathia.

In the sixth inning Burnett threw one bad pitch, which turned into a Bengie Molina home-run. Molina scored the two Rangers on base and turned the Yankees 3-2 lead into a 3-5 New York deficient and an eventual Yankee loss.

Whatever is not happening on the mound is also not happening at the plate and that is the Yankees or any other team’s recipe for disaster. This holds even truer in the tough postseason.

Philadelphia Phillies seem to be following in the Yankees footsteps in the NLCS, as the Giants 3-0 shut out the Phillies. A post-game quote from Phillies Shane Victorino sums up my point:

“If you don’t hit, it doesn’t matter how good the pitching is,” Shane Victorino said. “So you can’t blame our pitching right now. We need to find a way. Cole gave up three runs today and we scored nothing.”

It is crazy that the two best teams can’t seem to hit the ball and it is a shame for baseball. A rematch of a Yankees-Phillies World Series make for an awesome series, ratings would be through the roof.

Without question, MLB will see it’s worst ratings if the Giants-Rangers both make it into the championship ever! No one in the northeast (huge sports media market) will even care to watch, which only hurts the game itself.

A rematch is still possible but surely cutting it too close.

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Grady Little is forever remembered as the manager who was fired on the demerit of a single postseason game. Joe Girardi will probably avoid that same fate, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve it.

It’s hard to imagine Girardi having a worse game than he did on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. That he had such a bad night, with the stakes being as high as they were, is damn near unforgivable.

Put it this way: If The Boss was alive and still The Boss, reports of Girardi’s disappearance would have already been circulating around the Internet.

Girardi manages like a tortured man. The game of baseball doesn’t seem fun to him, at least not in his current role. If Charlie Manuel is the type of manager who goes with his gut then lets it play out without regret, Girardi represents the exact opposite.

Things fester. His neurosis consumes him. It even manifests itself physically in the veins that bulge from his neck as he stares onto the field.

In Game 4, we watched many of Girardi’s internal fears about his team collapse onto one another, plot lines tying together like a cruel Seinfeld episode.

“How much can I get from A.J.?” “Can Joba be trusted?” “How should I handle Posada and Cervelli?” “Can I get by with someone other than Mo?”

Every button he pushed was like a nuclear launch. By the time he made his final horrible decision of the evening—inserting Sergio Mitre over Rivera in the ninth—it was almost comical. Almost.

There was one inning in particular that both typified Girardi’s awful night and likely doomed the Yankees‘ season.

With a man on second and two outs in the sixth, Girardi decided to intentionally walk David Murphy to get to Bengie Molina. He had Joba Chamberlain warming in the bullpen, only problem was, he had long lost any semblance of trust in the reliever. This lack of faith was pronounced enough that leaving in Burnett seemed like an acceptable alternative, even after the right-hander nearly threw an intentional ball to the screen.

Had Girardi been thinking clearly at the moment, he would have understood that two runs in five-and-two-thirds innings was more than the Yankees could have ever asked for from Burnett. The grotesque nature of Burnett’s regular season demanded a leash that was short and unforgiving. And yet, instead of bringing in Chamberlain, he trusted a man who hadn’t pitched in 17 days before Tuesday.

Burnett didn’t reward his skipper’s faith. Molina drilled the next pitch into the seats in left, dragging his impressive gut around the bases and into a jubilant Rangers dugout. He likely took the Yankees’ hopes of repeating as champs with him.

Does Burnett deserve blame? Of course. But remember that part of a manager’s job is to protect a player from himself. Girardi should’ve known better than to ask for extra outs from a 15-game loser. He left Burnett in to hang himself. And that’s exactly what he did.

Is there any way to recover at this point? Conceivably, yes. A team as recently as 2007 (Boston over Cleveland) overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the pennant. But it’s hard to shake the nagging feeling that the Yankees you saw in September have returned when the games count the most.

CC Sabathia gets one more start to salvage what has been a disconcerting end to a Cy Young caliber season. If he can get it done, Phil Hughes will have to get back on the rubber in Arlington, where he was picked apart on Saturday. The Yankees survive that, they get to face the invincible Cliff Lee in a Game 7.

The odds are—as they say—not good.

I wondered all season if this Yankees team had the character to make a memorable October run. As they faded in September I was convinced for sure they didn’t … but then watched in amazement as they started winning playoff games like it was 1996 all over again.

Yeah, I’ll admit it. They sucked me in. I know I’m not alone, either. But these last four days are now making me wonder if I was right about them all along.

So who are these Yankees? The proud defending champs with the ability to overcome any obstacle, or just another team loaded with All-Stars but not enough character to translate that to lasting success?

I honestly have no idea. I guess we’ll know by tonight.

Stray thoughts:

• It’s fitting that Mark Teixeira’s worst season as a pro ended with him crumpled on the first-base bag after another frustrating, empty at-bat. The LoHud Blog reports it’s a six to eight week hamstring injury, problematic since the Yankees’ season may have just 12 hours left in it.

• This was a weird game, wasn’t it? You had a Jeffrey Maier redux with this glorious mongo in right field, and a Steve Bartman redux with this bloated corporate Legends Seat doofus down the third-base line. Love those types of nights, especially since they usually end with a Yankee win. Alas.

• Something tells me we just witnessed Joba Chamberlain’s final performance in pinstripes. Anybody upset about this?

• Nick Swisher, you have to do a better job selling your hit-by-pitch in the eighth inning. Had he rightfully taken first, it’s a 7-4 game with bases still loaded, only one out, and the incredibly mortal Darren Oliver on the mound. The game could have gone in a lot of different directions at that point. Emblematic of a frustrating night.

• Great line from the homer hero Molina: “It’s not bad for a fat kid that everyone makes fun of when he runs.”

• Make no mistake: The Rangers are dominating this series. Texas has outscored the Yankees 30-11, outhit them 43-26 and would have already closed this out if not for wasting a five-run lead in Game 1. New York is hitting a pathetic .154 (6-for-39) with runners in scoring position. The recession must have claimed the jobs of Aura and Mystique.

• Finally, I’ll be live blogging Game 5 tomorrow afternoon. If you’re stuck at work, click over to me and watch me slowly lose my mind in real time like the dude from Grizzly Man. Good times!

Dan Hanzus writes the Yankees blog River & Sunset and can be reached at dhanzus@gmail.com. Follow Dan on Twitter @danhanzus.

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The Yankees had a lead with A.J. Burnett on the mound, but manager Joe Girardi got greedy and left him in too long as the Rangers eventually broke the game open for a 10-3 victory at Yankee Stadium.

Here are some highlights:

• Burnett held the Rangers to two runs over five innings, but gave up a three-run shot to Bengie Molina in the sixth that put the Yankees behind 5-3.

• Mark Teixeira seriously injured his groin running to first base. He’s likely out for the remainder of the playoffs no matter how long the Yankees go.

• Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter each had multiple hits, including a Cano solo shot. Nobody else had more than one hit.

The Yankees have a tall order ahead of them. They have to win the next three games, and they have to face Cliff Lee again in Game 7, if it gets that far.

Related Stories

• October 18, 2010 — Yankees News: Rotation is Set, Cliff Lee’s Hat, Teixeira’s Thumb, and More
• October 7, 2010 — Yankees Notes: Teixeira, Burnett, Rivera, and Girardi
• September 28, 2010 — An A.J. Disaster
• September 22, 2010 — Yankees Notes: Teixeira, Marte, and More

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The Texas Rangers have embarrassed the New York Yankees in the Bronx over the last two days and are on the verge of a pennant.

The Yankees sent A.J. Burnett to the mound, hoping to even the ALCS at two games apiece but one pitch doomed him and his team.

The Rangers’ Tommy Hunter didn’t do a bad job but didn’t last long, leaving it to reliever Derek Holland to get the job done.

Texas scored a little early and a lot late, eventually putting the Yankees away and taking a 3-1 series lead. Here’s a report card breaking down the Rangers’ 10-3 win on Tuesday night.

Begin Slideshow

It was unclear which starter would go in game three for the Yankees after the ace they courted in a trade earlier this year jilted them again with yet another magnificent playoff performance.

The worst shut out home loss in Yankee history came during a start for their left hander who is the most prolific winners in MLB playoff history: Andy Pettitte.

The opposing lefty laced them with cut fastballs and knuckle curves while taking a two-run lead into the top of the ninth.

His curve broke out of the strike zone and nibbled just off the plate all night.

The dieting-on-hits New Yorkers tried to snack on his cut fastball, but it was the Rangers’ lefty who ate their gosh darned snack.

Throwing several change ups for easy outs, it was very hard to diagnose his delivery, and his change up was dissecting the corners.

No reason for him to risk injury in the bottom of the ninth with the game in hand.

The Rangers scored six runs in the top of the inning.

Yankee Stadium all but emptied after the fourth run scored.  The bleeding finally stopped after the normally rock-steady New York bull pen had fully collapsed in the Bronx.

Dave Robertson who has dealt with back problems had trouble dealing his pitches, and he could not get any out. 

Neftali Feliz closed the ninth inning without a whimper from the Yankees, and the Rangers took the lead in the three game series.

In the fourth game tomorrow night, Tommy Hunter will start for Texas. He started the season on the disabled list and pitched well for the Rangers this season.

He won 13 games and lost only four and had a 3.73 ERA.

The Yankees batted .300 against him in one five-inning start this season.  He struck out eight, but left the game with no decision.

Speculation is that AJ Burnett will start, but he may end up riding the bench in favor of CC Sabathia who only pitched four innings in the first game of the series.

Burnett has struggled almost all year, and notably more so after the All-Star Break.  It was like he was a totally transformed pitcher than the one who helped win the 2009 World Series.

Texas slugged a team batting average of only .233 against Burnett this year.  He finished 10-15 with a 5.7 earned run average for the season.

Sabathia has had some outstanding playoff performances on three day’s rest.  He has a 2.40 earned run average in seven post season starts off three day’s rest.

He is accustomed to being the ace down the stretch carrying the team to glory.  He did it with Cleveland, Milwaukee, and with the Yankees.

During the press conference after the game, manager Joe Girardi looked confident in saying his team’s chances were good to bring home a playoff victory behind Burnett.

There is no hiding in baseball, and AJ is too big to stuff in a club house closet.  What difference does it make if he gets beat in the fourth game or in the fifth game?

Start him against the mighty Rangers.

Cliff Lee gave up two hits, and he had 13 strike outs and one walk in eight innings.

A total of 34 strike outs and one walk in three post season starts for Lee this year.

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With the 2010 ALCS between the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers tied at 1-1, and Rangers’ starter Cliff Lee looming in Game 3, the Yanks made a big statement by sticking with A.J. Burnett as their Game 4 starter.

If the Yankees found themselves down 2-1 in the series, it was possible they wouldn’t give Burnett the start, and with Lee on the mound, a 2-1 series deficit seems likely.

But the Yankees’ kept their plan in motion and Burnett will see Game 4.

During the regular season, Lee went 2-0 in three starts against the Yankees with a 3.09 ERA and .209 BAA. But during this postseason, Lee has dominated, beating the Tampa Bay Rays twice to get the Rangers into the ALCS.

Tonight in New York, Lee will look to give his team a series lead, which is all the more important knowing that Burnett will start Game 4.

Burnett struggled this season to the tune of a 10-15 record and a 5.26 ERA and was left off the postseason roster for the ALDS against Minnesota. Despite his struggles, the Yankees have shown a lot of confidence in Burnett by giving him the ball in Game 4, especially with the all-too-real possibility of being behind in the series after tonight.

The road that got the Yankees to where they are now has been outlined with signs pointing to Burnett getting a start. They didn’t need him in the five game ALDS, opting instead for a three man rotation. That’s not an option here in a seven game series, unless you want to start CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte on short rest the rest of the way.

Sabathia didn’t look good in his start in Game 1 and was bailed out by a big rally and Hughes was shelled in Game 2 to even the series, 1-1. No matter how Pettitte pitches tonight, short rest wont be an option.

So the Yankees will go forward with Burnett, who has pitched well against Texas. During the regular season, Burnett was 1-0 in three starts with a 2.50 ERA and 17 Ks. He’ll need to pitch at least that well to reward the Yankees. If not, if Burnett struggles, it’s going to be anarchy in the Bronx as the Yankees could be staring at a 3-1 series deficit and their postseason hopes drifting away.

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The 2010 playoffs have been somewhat predictable up to a point;

• Minnesota Twins were defeated before the playoffs began (Pedro’s dad has another child)

• Good pitching will beat good hitting (Cliff Lee dominates Tampa Bay)

• Cincinnati Reds were facing, arguably, the best three-man rotation in the game (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt)

• A miracle was needed for Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves to skirt past the Giants (more Eric Hinske magic)

With all that said, the ALDS and NLDS have started a little differently, the baseball gods have apparently decided to shake things up this October.

Yankee folklore, mystique, whatever you want to call it, reared its head in Game 1.  But wait.. the Texas Rangers after all but giving away a Game 1 victory decided to “cowboy up” in Game 2 and make this a series.

As mentioned, Game 2 was a different story when Phil Hughes, Mr. October, apparently thought is was mid-August.

The Philadelphia Phillies looked unstoppable, until they were confronted with a “freak” who was not really bothered by the history making of Halladay and decided to outperform a magician.

We will leave the Phillies-Giants series alone.  The Giants appear to be that team destined for something special.  The cards have been dealt, and they are using every bit of leverage to their advantage; Cody Ross has become irreplaceable, bad defense—Brooks Conrad, and Brian Wilson (the bearded one), is getting more and more intimidating, even though “his beard is weird.”

Focusing on Texas versus New York, all signs point to Lee again solidifying himself as this generations Dave Stewart.

Assuming after Game 3 the Rangers are up one game, and if the reports stay true to form, Game 4 lies in the hands of A.J. Burnett.

If Burnett, as many predict, tanks, the “Dark Side” will be in the unfamiliar position of down 3-1 in the series.

Highlight this point, Burnett will have a quality start in Game 4, thus giving the Bronx Bombers another opportunity to crush Ranger dreams. (I even gave Burnett my vote of confidence on Twitter, a few days ago)

@devonteeple Devon Teeple

Surprise of the ALDS, Burnett has a quality start and they win his game. When everyone bets one way, you bet the other….just saying!

Look at this from Burnett’s perspective, he has nothing to lose. The whole baseball community is betting against him, and subtract one bad outing against the Toronto Blue Jays (2 innings, 7 runs, 9/27/10), and Burnett has been decent in six September starts: 33 innings pitched, 15 earned runs, 31 strikeouts against 31 hits and 14 walks. 

Specifically, it gives Burnett a WHIP of 1.36 or somewhere between Brett Cecil and Gavin Floyd, an ERA hovering around 4.10 and nearly nine strikeouts per nine innings. 

We all know Burnett is having a bad year, but don’t forget he still pumps out fastballs around 93mph (slight 1mph decrease from 2009) and has the ability to be lights out when he is on.

The numbers show (courtesy of fangraphs.com) his reliance on his fastball is a great at it has every been—69.0 percent.  This leaves little to the imagination of the hitter. Burnett’s O-contact percentage is 12 percent higher than at any point is his 12-year career, even when Burnett misses his spots, hitters are teeing off with aggressive swings.

Will Jorge Posada stay Burnett’s battery-mate for Game 4? Maybe, but why not give Francisco Cervelli his chance.
 
Posada is batting .143; the Rangers are running at will, all while Posada is making some questionable decisions behind the plate (not looking the runner back to third in the first inning of Game 2).

Millions will be watching Game 4, many waiting to see an athlete implode on its biggest stage, except this is when the cream rises to the top.  Or in a case like this, a player who many had given up hope on reaffirms his place in history, restoring shattered confidence in the most unexpected pressure filled situation imaginable.

This article can also be found on The GM’s Perspective

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Normally, a visiting team would feel pretty confident bringing a best-of-seven series back home tied 1-1.  They would have beaten one of the opponent’s best pitchers, and they would have the chance to wrap up the series at home with all of their fans behind them.

However, this is not a normal situation by any means. The Yankees will head back to the Bronx for Game 3 and face a probable Cy Young winner in Cliff Lee, who almost single-handedly pitched this Rangers team through the ALDS with two stellar starts in which he sported a 1.13 ERA and a nasty 0.69 WHIP.  Lee also rung up 21 batters, tying an MLB record for most strikeouts by a pitcher in a series.

Lee is 6-0 with a 1.44 ERA in the postseason for his career, including two wins over the Yankees in last year’s World Series.

Starting for the Yankees will be Andy Pettitte, who is known for coming up big in postseason starts.  Yet big might not be good enough against Lee, who may only need one or two runs to seal the deal.

A loss in Game 3 could be devastating for the Yankees, as they will send A.J. Burnett to the hill for Game 4.  Burnett has been anything but what the Yankees were hoping for since he arrived in New York, sporting a 23-24 overall record in pinstripes. 

Burnett has been up-and-down all season, but mostly down, as he finished the season with six losses in his final 10 starts, ending the season with a 10-15 record and a miserable ERA of 5.26.

The Yankees chose not to use Burnett in the ALDS and instead went with a three-man rotation.  The decision to employ the four-man rotation was made in order to prevent using ace C.C. Sabathia twice in a row on three days rest, but C.C may get the entire offseason to rest if Burnett cannot control his command in Game 4.

Sabathia, who has not been at his best this postseason (7.20 ERA over two starts), will start Game 5, hopefully not with the series on the line. 

Supposing the Yankees enter Game 6 down 3-2, they will have to rely on Phil Hughes, who got roughed up in Game 2, surrendering seven earned runs in only four innings pitched.  Game 7, if the series were to come down to it, would be a rematch of Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte.

Needless to say, it is going to be a tough road to the World Series if the Yankees cannot take both games from Texas this weekend. The Yankee bats are going to have to do a lot of talking if they want to chase Lee out of the game early and then support the struggling Burnett in the next game.

However, it would be naive to count the Yankees out after only two games, especially in a sport where anything can happen.  After all, the Yankees did get to Cliff Lee in Game 5 of the World Series last fall, scoring five runs in seven innings.

Perhaps Girardi will reconsider his decision to use Burnett in anything other than long relief in this series, especially after A.J. hit two batters in a wild simulation game yesterday.  If not, this club could see its season end slightly sooner than expected.

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The New York Yankees need a fourth starter for the ALCS. But the one they named was wrong. It should not have been A.J. Burnett, but rather Ivan Nova.

Nova, whom the Yankees refused to trade, was a major reason that they didn’t get Cliff Lee from the Mariners midseason. He has since justified their retaining him. Except for one very bad start that skewed his respectable 4.50 ERA upward, he has been quite a serviceable pitcher both as a starter and a reliever. And he’s only 23, in his first season.

There is a very good reason that Nova was the “not Lee.” Cliff Lee is a very good pitcher in the present. But Nova could be the pitcher for the future. That’s why he was rightly put in the “untouchable” category earlier reserved for the likes of Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.

The homegrown core of the Yankees rotation is still Andy Pettitte (for now), Phil Hughes and now Ivan Nova. Of the three “hired hands,” CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Javier Vazquez, only Sabathia has more or less worked out. Two-fifths of the earlier rotation was a question mark, and it came from the experienced pitchers. 

Some years ago, the future Yankees rotation was something like Chien Ming Wang, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy, among others. Of these, only Hughes has become the present, with Wang having collapsed, Kennedy having been traded and Chamberlain been sent to the bullpen.

Besides Kennedy (who pitched well for the Arizona Diamondbacks this year), the Yankees also traded away Ross Ohlendorf (along with Jose Tabata, Jeff Karstens and Dan McCutchen), for a two-month “rental” in Xavier Nady plus reliever Damaso Marte. Ohlendorf could have been a full-time starter, and Tabata a fielder by now (although the other two represented no loss, being players more typical of Pirates than Yankees).

Worse yet, the Bombers traded a promising prospect, Arodys Vizcaino (plus the declining Melky Cabrera) for Vazquez, after a late season surge put him into the Cy Young conversation. He pitched nowhere that well this year, albeit in the American, not National, League.

The core of the Yankees for the past 15 years has been Jorge Posada behind the plate, Derek Jeter at shortstop and Mariano Rivera as a closer. More recently, they were joined by Robinson Cano at second and (until he was traded), Melky Cabrera in center field. At one time, the “backbone” of the Yankees team was “up the middle,” with the corner positions being filled by hired hands.

Some would say that in the postseason, you need your most experienced hands. The flip side of that is that you need to give experience to get experienced players.

And it was T Boone Pickens, the American oil man that defined a veteran as an 18-year-old rookie who has survived a month of campaigning. That said, there is no better month for Nova to become a veteran.

A medieval philosopher once opined that if you must lose a battle, it was better to lose with an army of “native sons” than with an army of mercenaries. The reason was that your (surviving) native sons would fight for you another day, with greater experience, while the mercenaries wouldn’t.

With the ability to buy almost any player, the Yankees have unfortunately overvalued veteran players from other teams and undervalued homegrown players. After having done so too often in the recent past, refusing to trade Nova for Lee was a good first step in reversing course. They should have followed up by putting Nova in the postseason rotation where Lee would otherwise have been.

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