Yankees’ Playoff Existence Flashes Before Their Eyes

When Alex Rodriguez crossed the plate with the go-ahead run in the eighth inning, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi must have looked to the heavens and asked, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’

In retrospect, the Texas Rangers were only six outs away from capturing Game 1 of the American League Championship Series for the first home playoff victory in franchise history. But like the Minnesota Twins before them, Texas appears to have difficulty handling prosperity against the Yankees in the postseason.

Since a Game 1 road win over New York in the 1996 American League Divisional Series and a 4-2 seventh inning lead in Game 2, the Rangers have lost ten consecutive games to the Bronx Bombers in the playoffs. However, the latest defeat had to sting infinitely more than any of the others.

With Texas holding a seemingly commanding 5-0 lead entering the seventh inning, all seemed lost for the Yankees. Even a solo home run by second baseman Robinson Cano to put New York’s first run on the scoreboard didn’t come close to sounding the alarm for the impending rally on the horizon.

Nevertheless, Brett Gardner’s infield single to lead off the top half of the eighth was the beginning of seven consecutive batters reaching base in a five-run explosion, an outburst that gave the Yankees a lead they would never relinquish.

More importantly though, New York moved one step closer to assuring Rangers ace Cliff Lee doesn’t take the mound twice in the series. And ultimately, with a victory in Saturday afternoon’s Game 2, all the team with the second-best home record in the American League would have to do is win two out of three games to avoid going back to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

On the flip side of the coin, assuming Lee is a virtual lock to win Game 3, if the Rangers pitching staff can manage to collect two wins over the next few days then a Game 7 would still be in the offing. The potential problem is what losing a golden opportunity to take control of the ALCS has done to the team’s psyche.

In New York, a collective sigh of relief was breathed when closer Mariano Rivera recorded his MLB record 42nd postseason save by retiring leading AL MVP candidate Josh Hamilton on a groundout. A loss would have meant a momentum-building first home playoff victory for the Rangers and the increased odds of twice facing the pitcher who defeated them in Game 1 and Game 5 of last year’s World Series.

Click here to read the original article on Examiner.com, which includes relevant links and highlights of Game 1 of the ALCS between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers.