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.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Scoring in each of the first three innings, the The Texas Rangers again started out with a bang against the New York Yankees but this time their bullpen was able to hold on for a 7-2 win and allow Texas to even the ALCS at one game apiece.

The Rangers jumped all over Yankees starter Phil Hughes, scoring one run in the first and a pair of runs in the second, third and fifth. All said and done, Hughes finished the day with a line of four innings pitched and seven earned runs allowed.

Four batters on the Rangers tallied multi-hit games. Mitch Moreland notched a pair of singles and Nelson Cruz rapped two doubles against the Yankees. David Murphy knocked the Rangers only homerun on the night, a solo shot off Hughes in the second inning. Elvis Andrus was the final Ranger with a pair of hits, and he also stole home to give the Rangers their first run.

For the second night in a row, the Yankees offense had trouble scoring off the Rangers starter. C.J. Wilson allowed just two earned runs in 5.2 innings while striking out six batters.

Robinson Cano was the only Yankee with two hits, one of them a solo homerun, and he scored both of the Yankees runs.

The Rangers bullpen, which imploded last night against the Yankees lineup, was sharp today, allowing just one hit over the final 3.1 innings. Although Neftali Feliz (who didn’t take part in last night’s meltdown) walked two batters in the ninth he was able to shut the door.

Game Three will be Monday Night in New York and will feature Rangers ace Cliff Lee, who has been dominant in his in both of his trips to the postseason. The Yankees will counter with veteran Andy Pettitte, whose 19 postseason wins are the most all-time.

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.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Yankees vs. Rangers ALCS is off to exciting start. Although it was the Texas Rangers starting Game 1 off with a bang, in the end it was the New York Yankees shocking the Texas home crowd and walking away with a 6-5 win and 1-0 series lead.

After trailing most of the game, the Yankees came from five runs down with the help of a five-run eighth to take the first game of the seven game series on the road in Arlington.

CC Sabathia got the start for the Yankees and struggled right off the bat. A leadoff walk to Elvis Andrus was followed by a Michael Young single for the Rangers in the bottom of the first. Josh Hamilton followed it up with a three run homerun to give the Rangers the early lead. If not for a lucky bounce and nice play following a passed ball with men on base, the Yankees might have been in an even deeper hole.

The Rangers added a pair of runs in the fourth inning, and Sabathia finished his start allowing five earned runs in just four innings of work.

Texas starter C.J. Wilson was in control for most of the game. He threw six scoreless innings before allowing a solo homerun to Robinson Cano in the seventh.

Things came unraveled for the Rangers in the eighth. Wilson started the inning on the hill, and allowed an infield single to Brett Gardner and a double to Derek Jeter. Darren Oliver relieved Wilson, and walked both of the batters he faced, giving the Yankees bases loaded with no outs.

Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Marcus Thames then proceeded to hit back-to-back-to-back singles off three separate Rangers pitchers to give the Yankees a 6-5 lead.

The Rangers seemed to be off to a good start in the bottom of the eighth when Ian Kinsler drew a leadoff walk, but he was caught napping on first base and picked off by Kerry Wood.

After escaping the top of the ninth without allowing a run despite a leadoff double to Derek Jeter, the Rangers had one more chance to regain the lead off of Mariano Rivera.

Pinch hitter Mitch Moreland led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, and was quickly bunted over to second base by Elvis Andrus. The Rangers were then silenced by Rivera, who struck out Michael Young and got Josh Hamilton to hit a weak groundball to third to preserve the win.

The Yankees get a dramatic road win to open the series despite a less than stellar performance from Sabathia, which was almost needed knowing that Cliff Lee will be pitching the first game after the series shifts to New York.

Game Two will be Monday night with Phil Hughes (1-0, 0.00 this postseason) facing off against Texas’ Colby Lewis (0-0, 0.00 in one start this postseason).

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.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC