Girardi, Pineda, Bullpen Blow the Sanchez Show; Josh Hamilton Blows His Own Show

The Yankees should have won last night's series opener in Seattle against the Mariners. After all, they got what should have been enough runs.

But they sure didn't get enough pitching. Michael Pineda started, and the Yankees gave him a 2-0 lead going into the bottom of the 4th inning, thanks to home runs by rookie sensation Gary Sanchez and Starlin Castro. But Pineda couldn't hold it, and the inning ended 3-2 Mariners.

The rest of the game was essentially a rerun. In the top of the 6th, the Yankees retook the lead, thanks to home runs by Sanchez and Castro. Sanchez already has 8 home runs in the brief time he's been up, Castro 17 in this 1st season as a Yankee.

But, again, Pineda couldn't hold it. The leadoff batter in the bottom of the 6th was former Yankee Robinson Cano, and he singled. Pineda got Nelson Cruz to pop up, but he walked Kyle Seager to put the tying runs on base.

Joe Girardi did the right thing, and took Pineda out of the game. But then he did some serious Joe Girardi-ing: He brought Tommy Layne in to pitch to Adam Lind, and it worked: Lind popped up, and the infield fly rule was called. Layne got the out.

But instead of leaving Layne in to pitch to the next batter, Mike Zunino, he took Layne out, in favor of Anthony Swarzak. Why? Because Layne and Linda are both lefthanded, and Zunino and Swarzak are both righthanded.

Any manager who uses his brain would have left Layne in. But Girardi uses that damned binder of his, and with a full count, Zunino crushed a home run to right field, turning 5-3 Yankees into 6-5 Mariners.

I could blame Swarzak, but the truth is that Swarzak wouldn't have been in there if Girardi had a goddamned clue! He doesn't!

The game was essentially over right there. The Mariners tacked another run on in the 8th, to make the final Mariners 7, Yankees 5. WP: Nick Vincent (3-3). SV: Edwin Diaz (10). LP: Swarzak (1-2).

The series continues tonight, though without much point for the Yankees, as Girardi (and general manager Brian Cashman) have thrown a decent shot at the Playoffs away. CC Sabathia starts for the Yankees tonight, Taijuan Walker for the M's.

*

In other baseball news, the Texas Rangers dumped Josh Hamilton for the 2nd time today. From 2008 to 2011, he was a great redemption story. But his relapses with alcohol and cocaine from 2012 onward, coupled with his injuries from 2014 onward and his infamous performance with the Los Angeles Angels in the 2014 American League Division Series against the Kansas City Royals, have tarnished him, perhaps to the point of no return.

He was the hero (but not the winner) of the 2008 Home Run Derby at the old Yankee Stadium, and the AL Most Valuable Player in 2010, powering the Rangers past the Yankees in the AL Championship Series, partly due to Girardi trusting the pathetic Boone Logan in not 1 but 2 lefty-on-lefty situations that resulted in long home runs.

Now, he has a .290 lifetime batting average, and exactly 200 home runs. He didn't reach the major leagues until he was 26, was a star from 27 to 32, and, at 35, may well be done.

People, especially in sports, love to give a fallen hero a second chance. They tend not to give a third. It goes from, "You disappointed us, but we still have faith in you" to, "You let us down. Again. Just go away, already! We don't want to see you anymore!"

Unless, of course, you're Alex Rodriguez. Some Yankee Fans would like to give him yet another chance.

There is a difference here, though: The drugs Josh Hamilton has been ingesting are most definitely not enhancing his performance.

UPDATE: The Rangers did bring Hamilton back for the 2017 season, but he hurt his left knee again. He was operated on, and while rehabbing that knee, hurt the right one. He was released on April 21, 2017. Through April 30, 2019, he hasn't been signed by any other professional baseball team, at any level, anywhere in the world, and he hasn't appeared in a major league game since October 11, 2015.

Don't Blame Hughes, Blame Logan and Girardi

The Yankees could not complete the 4-game sweep over the Los Angeles Angels of Not Really Los Angeles.

They fell behind 3-1 after 4 innings, and it looked like Phil Hughes was again going to make us freak out. Actually, Hughes (now just 4-12) didn't pitch all that badly. He went 6 innings, allowing 3 runs on 6 hits and only 1 walk. He did allow a home run to Angel 3rd baseman Chris Nelson. (Yes, kids, a home run hit by a 3rd baseman. It used to happen for us.)

The Yankee run was scored in the bottom of the 3rd. With 1 out, Brett Gardner tripled, and our big RBI man lately, Alfonso Soriano, got him home with a single. Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez singled to load the bases with still only 1 out. But Vernon Wells, who looked so good early in the season, is now in the most horrid of slumps, and grounded into a double play. Had he gotten a hit, it would have been 3-3, and we would have been looking at a very different ballgame.

Shawn Kelley pitched a perfect 7th, and it was still 3-1 Angels, largely because C.J. Wilson, as he usually does, pitched well against the Yankees (13-6). But in the top of the 8th, Kelley allowed a leadoff double to Mike Trout.

The next batter was Josh Hamilton. Now, if you've been a Yankee Fan since 2010, you know the last man to bring in to face Hamilton is Boone Logan. Especially since Kelley had allowed only 1 baserunner to this point. The right thing to do would have been to leave Kelley in.

But Joe Girardi, instead of using his common sense, consulted his Binder Full of Strategies, and it said, "Josh Hamilton coming up late in the game? Bring in Boone Logan."

And so, Girardi brought in Binder Boy Boone.

Actually, this time, bringing in Logan to face Hamilton worked: Logan struck Hamilton out. Maybe if he'd done that in the 2010 ALCS, when Hamilton took him deep twice for the Texas Rangers, Logan would not now be seen as such a bum. (Actually, the problem is that he isn't seen as a bum, when he so obviously is one.)

And then, Logan got Erick Aybar to pop out. Hey, maybe he's going to get the job done this time.

But then Girardi consulted the Binder again, and ordered Logan to intentionally walk Mark Trumbo. Made sense, right? Set up the force play at 2nd base.

It made sense until Angel manager Mike Scioscia, who actually thinks for himself instead of consulting a binder, ordered a double steal. Men on 2nd and 3rd. 1st base open. This time, Logan walked Hank Conger -- apparently one of those "unintentional intentional walks."

Nelson came up again, and hit his 2nd homer of the game. A grand slam. 3-1 Angels became 7-1 Angels.

Boone Logan, ladies and gentlemen!

Girardi pulled the bum (those of you from England, no, that phrase has nothing to do with sex), and brought in Joba Chamberlain. Joba allowed a double to Grant Green and a single to J.B. Shuck before striking out Kole Calhoun to finally end the threat.

The Yankees went into the bottom of the 9th trailing 8-1. With 1 out, Brett Gardner walked. Soriano singled him to 3rd. Cano singled Gardner home. 8-2. A-Rod struck out. (Hardly a clutch situation, although it might have been if Logan hadn't fucked up again.) Wells woke up, and doubled home Sori and Robbie. 8-4. Curtis Granderson walked. 1st & 2nd, 2 out, if the next batter hits one out, it's 8-7.

The next batter was Eduardo Nunez. He grounded weakly to 1st. Angels win.

So, Chapter 32 in Logan's Litany of Losing. Don't blame Phil Hughes for the loss: Blame Logan. And Girardi.

And now, we have to go to Boston.

Oy.

Palpitations For Purists

In sports, a "purist" is usually someone who favors defense over offense. You hear it in football and basketball, especially: "Defense wins championships." Which is a lie: You can't win if you don't score.

You see it in hockey, where the Conn Smythe Trophy for Playoff MVP so often goes to the goalie or the top defenseman of the winning team, especially if said defenseman is team captain.

In soccer, this seems especially true. There is a strain of thought that says that no English Premier League team can be successful without stout-hearted English defenders. Well, Manchester United keeps winning with Rio Ferdinand in "central defence"; he's English, but he's hardly stout-hearted. And Chelsea keeps winning with John Terry in central defence; he's English, but it's not his heart that's stout -- and some of you know what I mean. Certainly, the Arsenal teams of the 1990s with Tony Adams and the early 2000s with Sol Campbell fit the bill.

Gianni Brera, a sportswriter who was to Italy what Red Smith and Howard Cosell combined would have been to America, believed that the perfect soccer game was one that ended 0-0. A great writer, but he would never have made it in America, where most people like lots of scoring. The long bomb. The slam dunk. The three-point shot. The slap shot. "Chicks dig the long ball."

And, of course, in baseball, there is the purist who thinks that what makes a team great is pitching, pitching and more pitching.

The Yankees have proven this more than most:

1920s: Yes, there was Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri tearing the cover off the ball. But without Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Bob Shawkey, Sad Sam Jones and Bullet Joe Bush, they wouldn't have won 6 Pennants and 3 World Series.

1930s and early '40s: Yes, there was still Ruth for the first half of the decade, and there was Gehrig and now Bill Dickey, and then in the second half there was Joe DiMaggio, and then at the end of the '30s and into the '40s came Tommy Henrich and Charlie Keller. But without the righty-lefty combination of Red Ruffing and Lefty Gomez, the Yankees would not have become "the lordly Yankees."

Late 1940s and early '50s: Yes, there was still DiMaggio for a little while, and Yogi Berra arrived, and soon so did Mickey Mantle. But the key was the Big Three pitchers: Allie Reynolds, the Superchief, fireballer; Steady Eddie Lopat, the Junkman, slow; and Vic Raschi, the Springfield Rifle, fireballer. You faced those three, in that order, there's the recipe for getting swept.

Late 1950s and early '60s: Yes, there was Mantle, and still Berra, and Moose Skowron and Elston Howard arrived, and then came Roger Maris. But Whitey Ford actually had a better winning percentage than the rest of his team, and that's saying something. The cast changed -- Bob Turley and Ralph Terry were there for most of it, but it wasn't often that both had a good year in the same year -- but the Yankees always had enough good pitching to carry them.

Late 1970s and early '80s: After the late '60s and early '70s seemed to break the pattern -- Mel Stottlemyre, Al Downing, Fritz Peterson and some others pitched their asses off but the hitting was pathetic -- the tide turned again. Yes, there was Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Chris Chambliss, Lou Piniella, then table-setters Mickey Rivers and Willie Randolph, and then the big man, Reggie Jackson. But the key was signing Catfish Hunter, and then trading for Ed Figueroa, and then developing Ron Guidry, and then going to the bullpen for Sparky Lyle, and later Goose Gossage.

1980s: In 1985, '86, '87 and '88, the Yankees got close, but couldn't close the deal. They always seemed to be one starting pitcher away. Late in the 1985 season, when Billy Martin was moving the pieces around the chessboard the way he so often did so well -- and had the Yankees won just 3 more games, enough to win the AL East, it would have been Billy's best managing job ever -- somebody reminded him of the adage, allegedly from another great manager, near the beginning of the 20th Century: "Connie Mack said that pitching is 75 percent of baseball." Billy said, "Connie Mack lied."

1990s: It took until 1996 for this team to finally put it all together, but this was the one that finally taught me just how important pitching is. Yes, there was Wade Boggs, Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, and a kid named Derek Jeter. But what a starting rotation: David Cone, Dwight Gooden, Jimmy Key, and a young Andy Pettitte. Then it was Cone, Pettitte, David Wells and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. Then it was Cone, Pettitte, El Duque and Roger Clemens. And, of course, the bullpen, first led by John Wetteland, with young Mariano Rivera and Jeff Nelson backing him up. Then Mo becomes the closer, with Nelson and Mike Stanton as the setup men.

2000s: If you need any proof that deep pitching is necessary, look at 3 seasons: 2004, '05 and '06. Clemens left for Houston, and Pettitte, another Houstonian and the only lefty in the Yankee rotation followed him. The Yankees did not have a lefthander in the 2004 rotation, but they did have Javier Vazquez and Kevin Brown on the right side. It didn't matter much until Game 4 of the ALCS. Granted, Pettitte got hurt, and wasn't available for the Astros' '04 Playoff run, so he might not have been there to pitch Game 7 for the Yankees anyway. But suppose a lefty was available. You think the Big Fat Lying Cheating Bastard and the Idiot (who became our friend in 2006) would have hit those home runs? I don't. Then, George Steinbrenner, in the last great overreaction of his career, demands Randy Johnson, the greatest lefthanded starter of the last 20 years, who wins 17 in '05 and another 17 in '06, but melts down in Game 3 of the ALDS both times. Thank God Pettitte was brought back, and that Mo never left.

So, yes, pitching is important. It might not be 75 percent of baseball, but it's pretty important.

*

Last night proved it again. Hiroki Kuroda started the 1st of a 4-game home set with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. (Unless, of course, they've changed their name again.)

Josh Hamilton doubled to lead off the 2nd. Erick Aybar walked to lead off the 4th. Mike Trout singled to lead off the 7th. Chris Iannetta doubled with 2 out in the 8th.

Those were the only baserunners that Kuroda allowed. None of them gained any additional bases.

I don't know if the Japanese eat bacon, but Kuroda has sure saved our bacon this season.

Of course, it wouldn't have mattered if the Yankees hadn't gotten some runs. With 1 out in the 3rd, Eduardo Nunez singled. Chris Stewart moved him over with a groundout, and Brett Gardner, twice the hero against the Detroit Tigers this weekend, singled him home. In the 7th, Curtis Granderson hit a home run, his 3rd of the season. (That doesn't sound like much, but remember, he was hurt most of the way.)

After 3 blown saves in 5 days, Joe Girardi gave Mariano Rivera the night off. Understandable. So to pitch the 9th, and get the last 3 outs, he brings in...

Oh, dear God, no...

Boone Logan.

The chant went up from the Stadium stands: "WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO!"

It's good to know that, in what is, competitively speaking, the worst stretch of his career, the fans still have Mariano's back. But maybe they're finally seeing what I see: That Logan is a bum.

Why did Girardi bring Logan in? Because there were 2 lefthanders coming up: The 2nd batter of the inning was Kole Calhoun; and, if somebody got on, the 4th man due up was Josh Hamilton.

Remember the 2010 ALCS? Yanks vs. Texas Rangers? Twice, Girardi brought Logan in specifically to pitch to Hamilton.  Both times, Hamilton launched a Logan meatball into orbit. Many times, Logan has choked against lefty power hitters, the very guys he is in the major leagues to stop.

At this point, bringing in Boone Logan to stop Josh Hamilton is like calling the Republicans in Congress trying to repeal Obamacare: No matter how many times you try it, you're going to look like an idiot.

And, sure enough, Logan allowed the leadoff hitter, J.B. Shuck, to get on base with a single. Now the tying run, Calhoun, was at the plate.

The chant went up again, and even on the radio, it spoke volumes: "WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO!"

Logan struck Calhoun out.

This means he's doing his job, right? Not really: He's still allowed a baserunner, and, barring a game-ending double play, Hamilton will still come up. And, before him, coming up next, the similarly dangerous Mike Trout.

Maybe something finally clicked in Girardi's head. Or maybe someone rewrote a page in his Binder. Either way, he took Logan out, and brought in David Robertson.

Apparently, the fans weren't ready to accept D-Rob as Mariano's heir apparent: "WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO!"

Trout worked Robertson for a walk. And Hamilton, uncharacteristically, but nearly as effectively, dropped a looper into short left field. Shuck scored from 2nd, Trout got to 3rd, and Hamilton got to 2nd.

Hell, Logan could have allowed that.

"WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO! WE WANT MO!"

Girardi ordered Aybar walked to load the bases, to set up a game-ending double play, or, at least, a force play at home.

Cringe time.

Mark Trumbo up. Robertson struck him out. One out to go.

Not out of the woods yet. Chris Nelson is up, and the bases are still loaded.

Robertson struck him out to end the ballgame.

Heck, Mo could have done that.

But that's why they call Robertson "Houdini": He escapes.

Then again, it's not an entirely complimentary nickname, as was the case with Mitch Williams being called "the Wild Thing." The escape wouldn't be necessary if he hadn't gotten into the trap.

Not that it was all his fault. After all, Logan did walk the leadoff man, potentially setting up his 32nd entry in Logan's Litany of Losing.

But this game, which could have resulted in blowing a wonderful performance by Kuroda, and giving a baseball purist heart palpitations -- or, as our old friend Phil Rizzuto would have said, given them agita -- resulted in Yankees 2, Angels 1.

WP: Kuroda (11-7). SV: Robertson (1). LP: Garrett Richards (3-5, although he didn't pitch badly at all, allowing 2 runs, 7 hits and just 1 walk).

Weather permitting (it's raining hard as I type this), the series continues tonight at The Stadium, with CC Sabathia pitching against Jason Vargas, a 30-year-old lefthander who has bounced around a bit, including 2 games with the Mets in 2007, and was 14-11 for a not very good Seattle Mariners team last year. He's 6-4, 3.65 for the Angels this year.

Three of Four Is Good, But the Fourth Was Bad

Last night, the Yankees and Rangers began the 3rd game of their 4-game series in The Bronx late, due to rain. When it was played, Freddy Garcia started for the Yankees -- and if you had told me before the series started that the Yankees would take 3 of the 4 against the 2-time defending American League Champions, I would have guessed this would be the one they would lose.

I would have guessed wrong. Freddy pitched pretty well, allowing only 2 runs in nearly 7 innings. Both were on home runs by Josh Hamilton, one in the 4th inning and one in the 6th.

After he hit the 1st one, a long drive into the 2nd deck in right field, I (at a New York bar) asked no one in particular, "How come nobody ever tests Hamilton for steroids?"

The guy next to me at the bar said, "Because the only thing that would turn up in his blood would be heroin."

Cheap shot. But not without merit, by Hamilton's own admissions.

Meanwhile, the Yanks had given Freddy the lead with 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd, off Scott Feldman (6-8), who otherwise pitched well for Texas. Jayson Nix led off with a single, and stole 2nd. Derek Jeter singled, but Nix only got to 3rd. No matter: Nick Swisher, who is hitting the stuffing out of the ball lately, doubled home Nix, and got Jeter only to 3rd.

Is 3rd base coach Rob Thompson a little hesitant to send runners home? Because that's back-to-back at-bats when he could have.

Curtis Granderson then hit a sacrifice fly to get Jeter home. After Mark Teixeira struck out, Eric Chavez, still doing the business even though he wasn't expect to do much when we got him, singled home Swish.

Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano (29th save) pitched scoreless ball in relief of Garcia (7-5). Yankees 3, Rangers 2.

*

But this afternoon, there was a slugfest, and the Yankees were on the wrong end of it. Ivan Nova, again, did not have good stuff, allowing 4 runs in less than 6 innings.

But the Yankees fought back, including Andruw Jones' 13th homer of the year -- another veteran who was a nice surprise. But later on, he stranded 2 runners when he himself represented the tying run.

The Yankees tried 5 pitchers today: Nova, Cody Eppley, Logan, Joba Chamberlain (who was clearly not ready to come back) and Clay Rapada. None of them had anything.  The Rangers racked up 16 hits.

Rangers 10, Yankees 6. WP: Tanner Scheppers (1-0). LP: Logan (4-1).

Not the way you want to go into a Red Sox series. The Scum come back to The Bronx tomorrow night.

They've become a circus -- or, as Squawker Lisa (see Subway Squawkers) calls them, The Real Housewives of Boston. Real Housewives? More like Cape Cod, a.k.a. Jersey Shore North.

Sox management gave manager Bobby Valentine a vote of confidence today, in light of the story that some players wanted him fired.  They say he won't be fired in what remains of the season.

You know the old saying: The vote of confidence is soon followed by the kiss of death.

CC Wins, Or See You Next Year

So it comes down to this. The Yankees are one game away from being eliminated in the American League Championship Series.

By the Texas Rangers. The Dallas/Arlington Rangers. The George W. "I'm not the dumbest President ever, I just play him on TV" Bush Rangers. The 95 Degrees In the Shade Rangers. The team that turned Billy Martin from a paranoid alcoholic into a paranoid alcoholic who thought he was a cowboy.

Joe Girardi made all the right moves last year. The Yankee bats, especially Alex Rodriguez, came through in the postseason last year. This year is not last year. The bats, except for Robinson Cano's 3 homers (the only homers the Yanks have hit in this series), have been sotto voce. And Girardi has fubared the pitching situation. (FUBAR: Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition.)

He has forgotten 2 of baseball's unwritten rules:

1. If a guy is pitching well, you leave him in. To hell with lefty vs. lefty or righty vs. righty: Leave him in. Go with the hot hand.

2. If a guy is killing you with his bat, don't bring in a pitcher just to face him. Keep the guy who's pitching well in there. Josh Hamilton has been doing his best David Ortiz impression (with steroids?), and in both Game 3 and Game 4, Girardi brought in young lefty Boone Logan to face him, with disastrous results.

Now, I'm not saying that, if this series stays on its current course and the Yankees lose, Girardi should be fired as manager. I am saying that, if the George Steinbrenner we all once knew were still in charge, Girardi might be fired.

True, he can't control how well the Yankee bats hit the Ranger pitchers, or how well the Ranger pitchers pitch. But he can control who goes out to pitch for the Yankees. And while he almost got away with starting the strugg-a-ling A.J. Burnett last night (not to mention he almost got away with letting Francisco Cervelli catch him, especially since Jorge Posada hasn't been hitting much better), he left A.J. in too long.

Girardi has been managing the Yankees in the postseason no better than Jerry Manuel managed the Mets in the regular season. Which, ask any Mets fan tell you, felt a bit irregular. And the Mets, 2 years too late, finally used milk of magnesia and got rid of the Manuel/Omar Minaya irregularity.

CC Sabathia starts Game 5 this afternoon. I have a feeling he'll come through, so that the Rangers won't clinch at Yankee Stadium.

But it will most likely be a small reprieve. After all, the Rangers have 3 chances to win 1. And, as Mike Francesa said on WFAN this afternoon, they can pretty much clown their way through Games 5 and 6, and rely on Cliff Lee in Game 7.

Thus would it seem that the Yankees have no chance.

We've heard that before. Nevertheless, as they say in medical dramas, "I gotta be honest with you, it doesn't look good."  By the time you next hear from me, the Yankees could be eliminated.

If so, I have no problem with cheering on either the Philadelphia Phillies or the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. The Phillies, due to proximity, how good they were in my formative years as a baseball fan (1976 to 1983), how great their new ballpark is, and how much they get Met fans steamed, are an easy team to root for. And, for all their history, they still have only the 2 titles. I have no problem with them winning a 3rd, as long as they don't have to beat the Yankees to do so.

The Giants, currently leading the NLCS 2 games to 1, haven't won a World Series since they moved to San Francisco in 1958 (the last was in New York in 1954), and have become one of those star-crossed franchises. And only 3 Pennants in all that time. With some close calls, including a few moments of what could be called "curse material." There are a number of explanations for why they might be cursed.

So either of them would be a deserving World Champion.

Not the team of George W. Bush. To hell with the fact that he long ago sold them: I'll forgive them when he admits he stole the election.

Besides, Dallas Sucks. Or, as we say in another sport, Rangers Suck.

Defiant To the End

This is my 500th post on this blog. And my 499th, in which I said the Yankees should not be afraid of Cliff Lee, set me up to look like a fool.

In fact, I remain defiant to the end.

Yes, Cliff Lee pitched one of the best games in postseason history last night, enabling the Texas Rangers to go up 2 games to 1 over the Yankees, and take home-field advantage back.

But the truth is, after 8 innings, the score was only 2-0. Had that remained the score, Lee would have had to pitch the 9th, having thrown 82 pitches. That's not a lot, but 9 innings is still 9 innings. And 2 runs, as Yankee broadcaster John Sterling would stay, "That's just a bloop and a blast." Or a walk and a wallop.

What killed the Yankees last night wasn't Lee's stinginess -- 2 hits and a walk against 13 strikeouts, just 2 off the postseason record for Yankee opponents set by Sandy Koufax in Game 1 of the 1963 World Series -- but the bullpen implosion in the top of the 9th.

After allowing a 1st-inning homer to Josh Hamilton -- test him for drugs, steroids or otherwise -- Pettitte was fine the rest of the way, through the 7th. Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless 8th. Had Joe Girardi left Wood in for the 9th, it doesn't seem likely that he would have been worse than the double-barreled backfire of Boone Logan and David Robertson, before Sergio Mitre finally locked the barn door -- after the horse had not only escaped but knocked over a lantern that burned the barn down -- and it was 8-0. That may have been the worst Yankee inning I've ever seen.

Frankly, I don't know why Joe didn't leave Pettitte in to pitch the 8th. He'd only thrown 67 pitches. That's an average of 9.57 pitches for inning, less than Lee's exceptional 10.25. He hadn't pitched as well as Lee, but had pitched very well and was fresher. Had Andy pitched the 8th, Wood could have pitched the 9th; had they done as well as they actually did, it would still have been 2-0 Texas in the bottom of the 9th, and people would be writing different stuff today.

The back page of today's Daily News reads, "PANIC IN THE BRONX."

But, you see, that's the thing: The Yankees never panic. Never. Who wrote that headline, noted Met fan and Yankee Hater Mike Lupica?

Ranger catcher Benjie Molina, a member of the Anaheim Angels team that beat the Yankees in the 2002 ALDS on the way to winning the World Series, said, "I don't think anybody thinks this series is over. No way can you think this series is over. When you think it's over, that's when everything goes sour."

This is the 21st time that a team has held a 2-1 lead in a best-4-out-of-7 ALCS. In the previous 20, the team holding the 2-1 lead has ended up winning the series 15 times.

One of the 5 times the team down 2-1 came back was in 1998, when the Cleveland Indians had such a lead over the Yankees, and had the next 2 games at Jacobs Field, where they were really tough. The Indians didn't win another game until April, as the Yanks took the next 3.

The Yankees have had a number of postseason comebacks:

* 1923 World Series: Down 2-1 to the New York Giants, won 4-2.

* 1952 World Series: Down 3-2 to the Brooklyn Dodgers, won 4-3.

* 1958 World Series: Down 3-1 to the Milwaukee Braves, won 4-3.

* 1977 ALCS: Down 1-0 and 2-1 to the Kansas City Royals, won 3-2. (The LCS format was best-3-out-of-5 from 1969 to 1984, and has been best 4-out-of-7 since 1985.)

* 1978 World Series: Down 2-0 to the Los Angeles Dodgers, won 4-2.

* 1996 ALDS: Down 1-0 to the Texas Rangers, won 3-1. The Rangers never won another postseason game until this year's ALDS.

* 1996 World Series: Down 2-0 to the Atlanta Braves, won 4-2.

* 1998 ALCS: As stated, down 2-1 to the Cleveland Indians, won 4-2.

* 2000 ALDS: Down 1-0 to the Oakland Athletics, won 3-2.

* 2001 ALDS: Down 2-0 to the A's, both at Yankee Stadium, won 3-2.

* 2003 ALCS: Down 1-0 to the Boston Red Sox, at Yankee Stadium, won 4-3.

* 2009 World Series: Down 1-0 to the Philadelphia Phillies, at Yankee Stadium II, won 4-2.

So while the Yankees were not intimidated by Cliff Lee -- frustrated, maybe, but not intimidated -- neither are they intimidated by being down 2-1 with the Rangers having regained home-field advantage.

A.J. Burnett starts tonight in Game 4. He's been awful this season, and his last postseason start, Game 5 of last year's World Series -- also started by Lee, for the Phillies -- was awful.

But the Rangers' starter is Tommy Hunter. Who? 13-4 this season, his .765 winning percentage leading the AL. ERA 3.73, pretty good in a hitters' park in the AL. (And, like George Thomas Seaver, Raymond Thomas Hunter uses his middle name and becomes "Tom." Just like his boss, Lynn N. Ryan, uses his middle name. Not that that's particularly relevant.) But he was already beaten by Tampa Bay in this year's ALDS, and that's his only postseason experience. Contrast that with Allan James Burnett, whose postseason ERA is 5.27, but has won both a postseason game and a ring. (Two, in fact: He was with the Marlins in 2003 but was hurt and did not appear in the postseason.)

Panic in The Bronx? Perish the thought. The Yankees can come back from this. And unless Ron Washington wants to be the one to panic, and pitch him on 3 days' rest in Game 6... Cliff Lee may not pitch again this season. If so, he may never pitch for the Rangers again. Who knows if Ryan is going to shell out the cash necessary to keep Lee?

Tonight's game tells the story: If A.J. has his good stuff, the Yankees win the Pennant. If he doesn't, it's the Rangers vs. the Phillies-Giants winner in the World Series.

The Rangers have proven nothing yet. The Yankees have. And the Rangers are the Division winner facing the Wild Card winner. And they've got the home-field advantage. By all measures, they should win.

The pressure's all on them. Let's see how these postseason neophytes handle it.

The bastards.