The New York Yankees finally figured out how to score runs off of the Texas Rangers starting pitchers, but A.J. Burnett’s and the Yankees bullpen couldn’t stop Bengie Molina and the high-powered Texas offense.

Molina and Vladamir Guerrero combined for seven of the Rangers thirteen hits, leading the team to a 10-3 victory and 3-1 series lead over the Yankees.

The Rangers are now 5-0 on the road this postseason, and will have three chances to advance to the team’s first World Series.

After a quick first inning, the game had some controversy in the bottom of the second. Yankees second baseman hit a long drive to right field. Nelson Cruz attempted to rob Cano of the homerun, but had his glove grabbed by a Yankees fan in the first row. The ball bounced on top of the wall for a homerun, giving the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

Rangers Manager Ron Washington came out and argued that the play should be reviewed, but the umpiring crew decided that wasn’t necessary. Because Cruz had reached over the wall and at no point made contact with the ball, it wasn’t actually fan interference, but the umpiring crew probably should have taken advantage of instant replay given the high number of bad calls so far in the 2010 playoffs.

A couple batters later, Lance Berkman hit another long shot, which was also ruled a homerun. Ron Washington came out to argue the ball was foul, and the umpires overturned the call. Berkman later struck out, and the Yankees lead was still at 1-0.

The Rangers answered in the top of the third, scoring a pair of runs off of Burnett to take a 2-1 lead. Tommy Hunter, the Rangers starting pitcher, was unable to hold the Yankees and gave up a run in both the third and fourth innings. On the day, Hunter worked just 3.1 innings and allowed all three Yankee runs.

A.J. Burnett pitched well for the first five innings, but ran into trouble in the sixth. With two outs and a runner on second base, Burnett intentionally walked David Murphy to get to Bengie Molina. Molina promptly deposited Burnett’s first offering over the left field wall, giving the Rangers a 5-3 lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Following his season of struggles, Yankees fans won’t be happy with another subpar performance tonight. A.J. allowed five runs in six innings and had runners on base all night. With the Yankees now down 3-1, many will likely question Joe Girardi’s decision not to go with CC Sabathia on short rest.

The Rangers added a few insurance runs off the Yankees bullpen, including two homeruns from Josh Hamilton (in the seventh and ninth) and another from Nelson Cruz (in the ninth). Hamilton has now hit four homeruns in the series.

Derek Holland pitched extremely well in relief, shutting the Yankees out over 3.2 innings while allowing just one hit. Although the Rangers ran into some trouble (the Yankees loaded the bases in the eighth against four Texas relief pitchers) they held the Yankees scoreless from the fourth inning on to get the win. After working out of the eighth inning jam, Darren Oliver remained in the game for the ninth and sealed the win for Texas.

Game Five will be tomorrow afternoon (4:00 PM ET) and will be a repeat of the Game One matchup between C.J. Wilson and CC Sabathia. Although Wilson pitched better in that game, the Rangers bullpen blew the lead in the eighth inning, allowing the Yankees to jump out to an early series lead.

The Yankees will have their backs up against the wall with Colby Lewis and Cliff Lee waiting if they are able to get past Wilson. Additionally, if New York is going to make a comeback they would have to win two games in Texas, where the Rangers won 51 games during the Regular season.

Used with permission of the author.

Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media. Follow Brett on Twitter.

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