Texas Pounds Yankees To Punch Ticket To World Series

New York Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, started a tradition of having the next title number of the Yankees as his Jersey number upon his hiring as manager. When hired the Yankees had a total of 26 World Series titles won and his jersey number was "27". After winning number 27 upon the conclusion of the 2009 baseball season he changed his number to "28" for the 2010 season. The Yankees look poised to change his number yet again that is until they were outplayed by the Texas Rangers in the American League Championship Series, Girardi will keep that number for at least one more season.

The Yankees entered the ALCS with a high vote of confidence after sweeping the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series. The Yankees offense looked great and their pitching staff looked even better. The Ace of their staff, CC Sabathia, pitched a good game, but actually pitched the worst of the three Yankees starters with a 4.50 ERA and three earned runs. AJ Burnett was left off the pitching staff for the ALCS. Texas on the other hand struggled to beat the Tampa Bay Rays needing the full five games to advance. It was their first playoff series win in team history.

After the first game of the ALCS, it appeared as if the Yankees were going to win the series. They trailed by five runs and it seemed as if Sabathia was struggling after only reaching five innings. However, the Yankees showed the same kind of formula that championship teams are made of after that. Their bullpen pitched six innings with no runs, one hit, two walks and seven strikeouts. Their offense came through in the clutch and the Yankees came back to win it 6-5.

If there were any starts the Yankees were guaranteed to win was the game in which Texas started Colby Lewis. The Rangers number two starter had pitched the two previous seasons in Japan and before that he was let go by Texas, Detroit and Oakland. This season he had a sub .500 record and allowed more than 2 walks a game. The Yankees should have won this game and been able to go up two games to nothing. Knowing Cliff Lee was pitching in Game 3 for Texas made Game 2 more important because losing in Game 2 almost guaranteed the Yankees would go down two games to one. The Yankees failed to win. They showed all of the bad from the first game with none of the good. Eighteen game winner Phil Hughes pitched four innings, but gave up 10 hits, seven runs and three walks. The offense only got two runs from Lewis and none from the bullpen as the Yankees lost the game 7-2 and the series was now tied 1-1. This was a must win for the Yankees and they lost.

Then came the epic match of the postseason: Lee versus Andy Pettitte. It was the man of the 2009 and 2010 postseason against the man with the most postseason wins. Lee pitched eight innings allowing only three base runners and striking out 13 batters. Pettitte pitched well, but like in Game 2, the Yankees offense failed to show up and the bullpen looked horrible. The Yankees went down in the series 2-1 and would stay down.

Despite the bad play so far, the Yankees still could potentially win the series. In Game 4, the Yankees had Burnett going against the Texas youngster, Tommy Hunter. Burnett out pitched the youngster, but a mistake by Girardi erased that. In the sixth inning, Girardi walk David Murphy in order to pitch to Bengie Molina with two men on the base paths. Instead of getting an out, Molina hit a three run home run to put his team ahead for good in the game. This was the point in the series in which the Yankees chances of winning the series turned to almost zero.

Girardi is a numbers manager. He will almost always go with the statistics instead of by his gut feeling. While it has worked for him in the past, it failed him in this series. While Murphy was on a hot streak, it is Molina who has the experience of doing well in the playoffs. A Yankee fan only has to look back to 2002 to be reminded. Girardi made another mistake of bringing in a lefty to pitch to eventual MVP Josh Hamilton in the seventh inning . Hamilton is the one he should have walked because he hit his first of two homeruns for the game. Texas won the game 10 to 3.

After winning Game 5, the Yankees would lose Game 6 to none other than Lewis. In this game Lewis dominated going eight innings striking out seven.

The Yankees did not lose this series. Texas won it. They outplayed the Yankees for a majority of this series through clutch hits and taking advantage of mistakes made by the Yankees. If it was not for a great comeback in Game one, Texas could very well have swept the Yankees. It was said the Yankees played as if they had nothing to prove going down the stretch. Well here was the time they really needed to get their game together and they failed. Coming off an easy series against the Twins, maybe they came in a little too confident. Maybe they underestimated the Texas Rangers which would be shocking since Texas swept the Yankees in their last meeting back in September.

Now as the Yankees go to their beloved stadium in the Bronx to pack their things away until Spring Training 2011, GM Brian Cashman will have time to mull over just how much money he will throw to Cliff Lee during the offseason. Lee is a free agent at the end of the year. Yankee fans are already salivating over the prospect of having a rotation with Lee and Sabathia as their one, two punch. They should take a breath. Should Texas win the World Series, do not look for Lee to just bolt out of Arlington. There is more to the game of baseball than just money. After all, money does not buy championships. The Yankees certainly learned that this year.