With his Yankee legacy already set in stone and the Hall of Fame not too far away, pitcher Andy Pettite took the mound with Hall of Fame captain Derek Jeter just over his right shoulder manning short stop. Both players, along with catcher Jorge Posada and closer Mariano Rivera, were team mates of Tino Martinez's; a sign of both their storied careers and that they will soon be joining Tino in throwing no more than ceremonial first pitches. Tonight one of them fought back the hands of time and turned in another vintage performance while the other one continued to wilt into the twilight of his career.
Derek Jeter came into this game hitting over .400 against Phillies starter Cliff Lee in 44 at bats with only a handful of strikeouts. This was the night for him to break out of his post season slump and show he isn't old yet. This is the type of night that his excellence in built the reputation earning him the nickname "Captain Clutch" that has defined his career.
With teammate Marcus Thames recently saying that Lee "gives you one pitch to hit in every at bat," Jeter kept that in mind as he led off the bottom of the first inning running up a full count and driving the ball all the way to the warning track before it was caught by Rangers right fielder Jeff Francoeur. That's the closest he would come to a hit all night, going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and showing he is no longer the Jeter we used to know.
With teammate Marcus Thames recently saying that Lee "gives you one pitch to hit in every at bat," Jeter kept that in mind as he led off the bottom of the first inning running up a full count and driving the ball all the way to the warning track before it was caught by Rangers right fielder Jeff Francoeur. That's the closest he would come to a hit all night, going 0-4 with 3 strikeouts and showing he is no longer the Jeter we used to know.
Pitchers who come up throwing a fastball in the mid-90s with the type of stuff Andy had when he broke into the majors and was winning rings as often as he was picking runners off at first base rarely make the transition to pitching at an older age, their careers fade with the velocity on their fastballs when they don't know how to stop just throwing. Pettite has learned how to pitch and has arguably been as good at 38 as he has at any point in his career by mixing in more curveballs and changeups to compliment his legendary cutter.
The first inning was a showcase of what has made Pettitte so great as he has aged. One of the greatest big game pitchers in baseball history, "it doesn't matter who I go out there and pitch against...I just go out there and battle my tail off," started the game off with pitches of 89 and 76 MPH to go 0-2 on Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus en route to inducing him to ground out to the pitcher for the first out as the roll call echoed out from the right field bleachers through the rest of the cavernous Stadium.
Then came Michael Young who, after starting with no balls and 2 strikes and battling back to a full count, walked on the 9th pitch of his at bat. The Rangers 3rd hitter Josh Hamilton homered on the second pitch of his at bat, a hanging slider, to make it 2-0 Rangers in the top of the first inning. The homer was only Hamilton's second hit in the ALCS at that point, both were home runs.
"It was very important, any time you can take the crowd out of it means a lot...we know what its like having our fans at home cheer for us and we want to take the opposing team out of it," Josh Hamilton told Peter Gammons on MLB Network after the game.
The Rangers continued their torrid hitting and extended the 10-0 scoring advantage they have had in the first three innings of the games the two teams have played in the ALCS. Pettitte showed the lack of memory he has by causing DH Vladimir Guerrero to fly out to right fielder Nick Swisher and Nelson Cruz to strike out on a curve ball in the dirt to end the inning as the crowd rallied behind old reliable knowing he would end the inning without another mistake and still keep his team in the game for as long as he was pitching.
Cliff Lee is not quite as accomplished in the postseason as Pettitte, but he came into the game tied with Lefty Gomez for the third most postseason wins to start a career with 6; trailing only Orel Hersheiser with 7 and former Yankee Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez with 8 for the record according to ESPN. He would end the night tied with Orel and trailing only El Duque.
Lee is one of the greatest pitchers in the game today and isn't afraid to challenge anyone because of how dominant he is at times, tonight was the best example he has ever given of how great he can pitch. After setting down Jeter, he induced a come backer to him from Swisher that he promptly fired to first to record the put out and struck first baseman Mark Teixeira out on a cut fastball about 6 inches off the plate, to continue Teixeira's perfect hitless ALCS.
Pettitte showed why he is a champion, rebounding to set the Rangers down in order in the 2nd and putting an exclamation point on the inning by striking Rangers catcher Bengie Molina out looking with a curveball as he walked off the mound to a roaring Yankee Stadium crowd while Molina barked at home plate umpire Jim Reynolds.
Pettitte went on to retire 15 of the next 16 batters, striking out 4, after Hamilton's home run to match Lee as well as anyone could given the performance the Rangers former Cy Young award winning righty was putting on in front of his potential new employers come next season. Nolan Ryan remarked when asked how much it would cost to keep Lee next season "I don't know, ask those guys over there," looking over in the direction of the Yankees dugout. The only hitter not named Josh Hamilton that was able to break through against Pettite was Michael Young, who earned his third hit in the 6th inning to give him 3 hits in 3 at bats to go with his first inning walk.
Cliff Lee not only matched Pettitte hitter for hitter, he was perfect through 3 2/3 innings. Punctuating his dominance by striking out 7 of the first 11 batters he faced, including Jeter twice. The last out of the third inning was by far the most interesting one of the game to this point for the Yankees. New York left fielder Brett Gardner hit a bouncer to Texas' first baseman Mitch Moreland that he fielded and tossed to Lee like an Army quarterback running the option. Lee bounded towards first base as Gardner raced up the line and dove in a desperate attempt to try repeating his great play in the eighth inning of game 1 to start the Yanks historic rally that won the game for them. This time when he dove he inexplicably pulled his left hand away from the bag at the last second and was called out. One can only guess he heard the footsteps after having his hand stepped on the last time he dove into first.
Lee lost the perfect game surrendering a full count walk to Teixeira with two outs in the fourth inning after an 11 pitch at bat to Swisher the at bat before. As much as Yankee fans cheered on the small victories, Nelson Cruz vanquished all hope by scooping the next batter Alex Rodriguez's line drive to left field out of the air extending his arm fully while in mid stride a few steps in front of the warning track. Lee was able to keep a no hitter going until Jorge Posada's inside-out swing produced a two out single that dropped into right field in the 5th inning. It was a broken bat blooper over the head of Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler off a curveball that jammed him but had eyes for the outfield. Lee fixed that by striking Granderson out to end the inning and give him 9 through 5 innings and 19 strikeouts in 13 innings pitched over the course of the only two LCS starts of his career to that point.
After giving up another single to Michael Young, Pettitte pitched his next face off against Hamilton trying to induce a ground ball double play but gave up a long fly ball to right field that silenced the crowd until Swisher caught it on the warning track with his back literally up against the wall. He would then strike Guerrero out looking on his 100th pitch of the game to end the inning, Pettitte's 5th strikeout in 7 brilliant innings.
Brett Gardner woke the Stadium up with a line drive single into center field and caused a great deal of distraction to Cliff Lee, causing him to throw over to first three times before he threw two pitches to Derek Jeter, both of them way out of the strike zone for balls. On the fourth pitch of the at bat Gardner took off and stole second base with a great jump before the fourth pitch of Jeter's at bat was thrown for strike two. Gardner dove head-first into second base and the throw from Molina sailed into center field before Jeter struck out on a high fastball. Gardner danced off second base, keeping Lee further distracted, until Swisher advanced him to third by grounding out to Kinsler and Teixeira ground out to Andrus to end the inning.
The Yankees Swisher, Teixeira, third baseman Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada came into the game a collective 4 for 32 in the ALCS, they could only be held down for so long. Tonight they didn't fare much better outside of Posada's bloop single to right with two out in the 5th to break up the no hitter. The four hitters had no other hits otherwise. In order for the Yanks to win these guys need to break out of this slump.
Going into the 7th, Pettitte had thrown 100 pitches and needed only a few to retire the first two batters before giving an infield single to Jeff Francoeur that he earned by racing down the line to beat Alex Rodriguez's throw from deep in the hole and on the foul line from behind the bag at third. The next batter, Molina, hit a bouncer up the third base line that Rodriguez dove for, bounded to his feet and threw low to Teixeira before he dug it out with a spectacular play to end the inning triumphantly holding his glove in the air to show the first base umpire he saved the ball on the 110th and possibly final pitch in the brilliant career of Andy Pettitte. The final line on Pettitte was 7IP with 2 earned runs, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts and no walks.
"He pitched a great game, you know, he left one cutter up a little bit and Josh Hamilton hit it out of the ballpark and we know how dangerous he is. The two balls that he's hit out of the ballpark have been breaking balls that we didn't get where we wanted. We didn't get them down and away. He got CC for one and he got Andy for one...we know how dangerous he is," said Girardi. As if to emphasize how dangerous he is, he felt the need to say it more than once.
Cliff Lee came back by setting down the heart of the Yankees order (Rodriguez, Cano, Thames) without allowing a hit in the 7th, putting a bow on his brilliant performance by striking Thames out on a high 93MPH fastball, giving him 11 strikeouts on the night, at least one in each inning and tying him with Bob Gibson as the only 2 pitchers in baseball history to have 3 straight starts with 10 or more strikeouts according to STATS LLC. He finished the 7th having allowed 2 hits, and walking one in addition to his 11 Ks. He threw 109 pitches, one less than his counterpart.
"I thought Cliff Lee was excellent tonight. He knows how to change speeds, he knows how to pitch in and out, he knows how to read swings and he adapts very quickly," said Girardi, "we haven't swung the bats great, but we've seen some pretty good pitching. We aren't the only lineup that they've shut down, but I still believe that we are going to hit...tomorrow's a new day."
He wasn't done yet, he struck Posada out looking on a fastball after he almost had him looking with a curveball that not only buckled his knees, but also those of a couple million Yankee fans in the tri state area. He also struck out Brett Gardner looking on a fastball at the knees to walk off the mound at the end of the 8th inning having thrown 122 pitches. Once he reached the dugout he told Rangers Manager Ron Washington "I'm good" when asked if he could continue. In the 2010 post season he has 34 strikeouts and only one walk; he's not good, he's great.
"Just throwing strikes, the cutter was a really good pitch for me today. Working ahead in the count and staying out of the heart of the plate. That's the name of the game as far as pitching goes and I was able to do that tonight..." Lee told TBS' Craig Sager after the game, "I'm not satisfied by that, we still got some work to do here."
Kerry Wood came on to pitch the 8th from the Yankees bullpen and did so very effectively, retiring all three batters he faced without allowing a ball out of the infield for a perfect inning to make way for Boone Logan to face one hitter in the 9th, Josh Hamilton. Logan gave up a double on a gapper to left center field and walked off to a chorus of boos while David Robertson trotted to the mound from the bullpen and warmed up to Sweet Home Alabama.
On not bringing Mariano Rivera in at this point Girardi said: "Mo's a guy that sometimes we use multiple innings in a situation where we're ahead, our bullpen had been really good up until that point...they hadn't given up much...if you bring in Mo you might not have him available for multiple innings tomorrow if you want to use him."
While the Rangers 22 year old rookie closer Neftali Feliz warmed up in the visitor's bullpen and the crowd cheered "Let's go Yankees!" over and over, Robertson surrendered a single to Guerrero on a low 1-2 pitch he practically scraped off the ground and put in the hole between Rodriguez and Jeter and into left field to advance Hamilton to third, giving the Rangers two men on with no one out.
By the end of Guerrero's at bat Feliz was sitting and watching his team pad the lead on a single by Nelson Cruz that advanced the pinch runner Julio Bourbon to third and scored Hamilton to make it 3-0. Ian Kinsler then strode to the plate and struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt that allowed Cruz to advance to second, leaving runners at second and third with one out and negating the double play to end the inning. David Murphy pinch hit for Francoeur and was intentionally walked to load the bases, reinstating the possibility of a double play with the catcher Molina batting.
As Molina began his at bat the Yankee faithful had already begun streaming out of their seats and into the neighborhood surrounding the Stadium. On the first pitch of his at bat he hit a ground ball through the hole between Rodriguez and Jeter to score a run and make it 4-0 Rangers. The next batter, Mitch Moreland, ripped a ball down the right field line just inside the first base bag to score two more and make it 6-0 Rangers. The few remaining Yankee fans left in their seats at this point began oddly chanting "USA! USA! USA!" for a minute or two as the Rangers pulled away with the lead, the game and the momentum in the series.
The Rangers would score another run on a long single to right over Swisher's head by Andrus on a hanging cutter to make it 7-0 before Sergio Mitre came in. He started by throwing his first pitch into the backstop and dropping the throw from Jorge Posada and allowing Mitch Moreland to score and Andrus to advance to third while pitching to the 9th batter of the inning for the Rangers, Michael Young. When he finally induced Young to ground out to first he received a sarcastic cheer from the few die hard fans still left.
At this point it made no sense for Cliff Lee to finish the game. Feliz warmed up for a second time during Young's at bat and took the mound to mercifully end the game for the Yankees and their fans. He started the inning striking Jeter out with a 99MPH fastball right down the middle, Derek's 6th strikeout in his last 9 at bats. He then induced a groundout from Nick Swisher before Mark Teixeira walked to the plate with Twisted Sister's "I Wanna Rock" playing a little lower and shorter than usual. He would also strikeout on a 99MPH fastball to end the game, the 15th K against the Yankees of the evening.
With the Yankees losing this game, the pertinent question is now whether or not to start AJ Burnett. Though Manager Joe Girardi has repeatedly said "We're on a rotation" in response to why he is starting Burnett in game 4, he now has to rethink that strategy unless he wants Yankee fans to all pitch in and buy his one way ticket to Chicago to manage his hometown Cubs as has been rumored in the news since their legendary Manager Lou Pinella retired mid-season.
Girardi emphatically answered "Yes" when asked if AJ Burnett would still start tomorrow night. Girardi could be the only person in the world who has faith Burnett can win game 4, at this point you wonder if AJ himself thinks he can win the game. "The approach is still the same, you prepare the same, you try to win a game tomorrow just like you do everyday...I expect our guys to come out and play well tomorrow," said Girardi
Tommy Hunter, game 4 starter for the Rangers had this to say about Yankee fans: "I've had mom screaming at me since I was 12, that's a lot more intimidating than people I don't know." The Yankees might be able to even the series if AJ Burnett could handle the pressure the same way Hunter appears to be able to. Expect the fans to get on Burnett early if he struggles. In the words of another famous Yankee, "It gets late early out there."
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