Posted on 10/20/2010 2:37:27 PM PDT by BluesDuke
Do you want to know how bad it's getting for the New York Yankees? A Yankee Stadium fan ran onto the field Monday night to bring Alex Rodriguez to account over . . . his reported relationship with actress Cameron Diaz. Said fan's plan was to choke the living daylights out of A-Rod the better to make himself a hero to Diaz, on whom the fan is said to have a ferocious crush.
And that was before Cliff Lee finished what he started, a Game Three masterpiece that left the Yankees on the wrong end of the worst postseason shutout in their history.
That was before A.J. Burnett showed up a little late for a pre-Game Four presser Tuesday because he was shopping for Halloween paraphernalia for his children. Considering the outcome, Burnett might have been better off having dinner with the Grim Reaper than going to work in a Yankee Stadium that may yet turn out to be the Yankees' haunted house.
Did anyone really figure that when the American League Championship Series moved to the House That Ruthless Built the Empire Emeritus would find themselves in a hole they haven't seen in any postseason contest since the 1958 World Series?
That was then: The Milwaukee Braves had the Yankees down 3-1, and the Yankees' number one nemesis---carrying over from the year before, when he beat them thrice to lead the Braves to only their second World Series ring---was a Yankee reject named Lew Burdette.
This is now---The Texas Rangers, also known as the erstwhile Washington Senators II, have the Yankees one game away from winter vacation without a trip to the World Series, after a Game Four blowout powered by, of all people, a stumpy catcher who usually gives righthanded pitchers adrenaline rushes for the outs they're likely, most of the time, to bank before he even steps into the box.
And that was the day after Lee turned the Yankees into his own simulated game, having his way with them to an extent unseen by any Yankee postseason team since Sandy Koufax made fifteen of them his strikeout patsies to open the 1963 World Series.
Yankee fans will be grumbling for time immemorial---even if the Yankees pick up, dust off, and do what they did in 1958 (they ended up winning that Series and beating Burdette twice to do it)---over manager Joe Girardi's decision to have Burnett walk David Murphy on the house in the top of the sixth.
Two out, Nelson Cruz (who'd taken the base on some smartly daring baserunning on a fly out to center field, beating the throw in by inches) on second, first base open, a hitter who usually can't hit righthanded pitching with a hangar door, the Yankees clinging to a 3-2 lead, and Girardi couldn't quite think beyond Murphy having a 5-for-18 jacket against Burnett.
You'd think Girardi had the script right. Especially with Burnett having had one of his better fastballs of recent weeks and a curve ball that was none too shabby, either, to that point. You'd think Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli, spelling Jorge Posada, had the script right, when he set up for a service outside. And you'd think Bengie Molina, the hitter coming up, would stay on the script and do what he normally does against righthanded pitching, which is nothing much to write home about.
The trouble, a little bit further, was that Molina has a history against the Yankees in postseason play, and it's not a history Yankee fans prefer to glorify. Ask any of them who were there when the squat catcher cleared the fences three times against their heroes in the 2005 division series against the Los Angeles Angels.
Now, Burnett threw. He threw a tightly-gripped fastball belt high and practically down the pipe. It was his first and last pitch to Molina. The ball sailed inside the foul pole and about ten rows up the left field seats.
That's one way to make up for suspected theft in the second inning, when Cruz drew a bead on Robinson Cano's drive, ran back to the right field wall, and took a leap for a catch only to see a fan touch his glove as he tried for the drive and no interference review made on the play after the ball landed just above and over the fence.
Television replays didn't necessarily give as conclusive a look at the play as they ended up doing when Lance Berkman's drive two batters later went just outside the right field foul pole and what began as a home run call was ruled, properly enough, foul on review. Poor Berkman. The erstwhile Houston Astro looked at strike three posthaste.
Another way to make up for suspected theft is to do just what Cruz himself did in the top of the ninth, hitting one no doubt over the right field fence for two more, after a long enough spell in which the Rangers were playing foot loose and fancy free in the Yankee bullpen.
A spell that only began with Josh Hamilton flattening a 1-0 pitch from Boone Logan and sending it into the right field seats, making Logan's night's work a one-batter, two-pitch, one-bomb affair. A spell that only continued with Ian Kinsler singling home Vladimir Guerrero off Joba Chamberlain, whose night's work began with Guerrero hitting the first service to the back of center field for a double. A spell that only got worse for the Yankees when Hamilton led off the ninth against Sergio Mitre and hit a 2-1 pitch into the right field seats.
It's not that the Yankees hadn't had bad news earlier in the game. Mark Teixiera hadn't done much of anything against his old team all series long as it was, but he is lost to the Yankees as of the bottom of the fifth, when he grounded a hard one to Michael Young at third, on which Young made a quick grab and step on the pad to force Derek Jeter (leadoff double) before throwing a little wide of first.
Teixiera felt a pop in his leg as he arrived at first sliding, and had his hand on his hamstring as he landed in pain. Gone for the rest of the way no matter what happens to the Yankees.
Cano had opened the scoring with his arguable bomb; the Rangers wrested a 2-1 lead in the third on an infield forceout and an infield RBI single; the Yankees took it back with an RBI infield single (Curtis Granderson) in the third and a zippy play in the fourth, when Texas shortstop Elvis Andrus dove into the hole for Brett Gardner's hopper and winged it quick to Young to force Cano while A-Rod was busy scoring.
Texas manager Ron Washington was living a very charmed life Tuesday. He got away with starting righthanded and slightly home run prone Tommy Hunter instead of lefthanded and considerably less home run prone Derek Holland, in a ballpark favourable to lefthanded power hitting. But then Holland hadn't pitched as many regular season Ranger innings than Hunter, even if he rolled a better strikeout-to-walk ratio.
On the other hand, Holland got his licks in, anyway---Washington brought him in in the fourth, when the Yankees took their brief lead. He surrendered the third Yankee run on the Gardner-Andrus play but kept the Yankees in check through the seventh inning.
Three Texas bulls squirmed out of trouble in the eighth, after Holland walked Granderson to open while the Rangers held a 7-3 lead. Darren O'Day swished Marcus Thames (who'd come into the game as Teixiera's pinch runner) but walked A-Rod. Rapada relieved O'Day and walked Cano to load the pads for Nick Swisher. Darren Oliver spelled Rapada and got Nick Swisher---who could have tied it up with one swing---to sky to center and Berkman to force Cano at second for the side.
Meanwhile, their chunky catcher was agreeing that Girardi made the right move in putting Murphy on.
"He kills righthanders," Molina said of his teammate after the game. "So why not walk him and face me? I haven't been having a great season. I don't think it's a bad move. I think it's the right move that went wrong."
He might not have been having a great season until Tuesday, but once Tuesday was in the books Bengie Molina looked like he had just sent the Rangers' season from good to great to somewhat off the charts.
Why, he even looked like a man who could have the Yankees praying they get one more chance to be obliterated by Cliff Lee, and it only begins with hoping CC Sabathia can do in Game Five what the Rangers wouldn't let him do in Game One, even if they couldn't stop the Yankees from overthrowing them in the ninth that night.
Lee won't be scheduled to face the Yankees again until a Game Seven the Rangers hope doesn't have to happen. Oh, he was merely in the tenth dimension against the Empire Emeritus Monday night, but the Rangers would rather save Lee for something more important.
Game One of the World Series comes to mind immediately. The trouble was that Burnett, who actually pitched a little better than serviceably until he was ordered to put Murphy on, averted his gaze from the script just long enough.
An afternoon game seems to agree with the Yankees. They are up 5-0 against the Rangers as we speak. Bottom of the 4th.
Go Rangers!
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I’ve seen Cameron at parties. I’m not attracted to her, she’s too damn skinny and pocked marked.
She looks hot as heck on film but okay in person.
On the other hand she is just pleasant to talk with and has a beautiful smile.
Super nice girl though
P.S. Texas is now on the scoreboard with one on and nobody out, top of the 5th.
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