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While Cliff Lee of the Texas Rangers continues his somewhat surprising march toward baseball immortality, each of his subsequent dominant postseason starts helps him climb higher and higher toward the pinnacle of baseball’s Mount Olympus.

Already, after only parts of two seasons performing on baseball’s grandest stage, Lee has earned himself the right to be mentioned alongside legends of the game like Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford and Bob Gibson, pitchers who excelled when the stakes were the highest.

As baseball fans, we constantly attempt to place our heroes within their proper historical context, by comparing them with stars of the divergent eras in the history of the game. Sure, Albert Pujols is amazing today, but how would he fare in the Polo Grounds, or against spit-ball pitchers? Could Babe Ruth possibly have crushed 714 home runs against today’s fire-balling hurlers and relief specialists? Tim Lincecum may be “The Freak,” but could his dominance withstand the expectation to throw 300 innings a year?

The comparison between Cliff Lee and Sandy Koufax becomes inevitable, as their names now sit near each other on many postseason baseball leader boards. Obviously, their shared, left-handed throwing hand makes them easy to group together, but more so, the way in which they have dominated their playoff opponents has elevated them above the rest of the field into a class of their own. After eight playoff appearances each, seven starts for Koufax, and eight for Lee, they are at a nearly identical point in their postseason careers, making the comparisons even more appropriate.

These similarities between the two dominant left-handed hurlers practically beg the question: if your team was facing a decisive Game 7 in a playoff series, who would you prefer to have starting on the hill? Cliff Lee or Sandy Koufax?

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The hit television show “Glee” has dominated Fox for the past year, but this October Cliff Lee, or “Clee,” as one site likes to call him, looks to take over Fox. 

Before the game in which Cliff Lee last pitched, Cliff Lee facts were trending on Twitter (#cleefacts). Some of the facts were ridiculous, such as “Cy Young won five Cliff Lee Awards” and “Neftali Feliz does not have to come to the game when Cliff Lee pitches, because Cliff Lee needs no closer.”

Here was my personal favorite: “Cliff Lee’s wife does not flirt with him, because no one hits on Cliff Lee.” These jokes were made all in good fun before the game, seeming more like hyperbole than fact. Then the game started and suddenly some of those “facts” looked more like the truth.

Cliff Lee dominated the Yankees, and the “facts kept coming.” This prompted one site, Cleefacts.com to begin to market the Clee Facts, and post them on to a site.

As a personal friend of the creators of the site, here are some facts you need to know about the widespread phenomenon that is CleeFacts. Clee Facts started out as knock off jokes of the Chuck Norris and Jack Bauer jokes that we have already heard a thousand times. They quickly grew into more baseball jokes until they were a huge hit with Rangers fans, Cliff Lee fans and baseball fans alike.

Here is a brief overview of the site that is quickly becoming very popular. I briefly spoke to two of the site creators today. Jorge Parrales and Jacob Herrera gave me a quick rundown of the site.

Cleefacts.com is a place that you can go and see your favorite facts about Cliff Lee, and even submit some yourself. At the bottom of the front page on the site, you can enter your name, email and an original Clee Fact, to receive credit for it on the site.

Each week the site will be running a contest to see who can come up with the best Clee Fact. The winner of the Contest each week will receive a free “I Heart Clee” T-shirt, as seen below. These very popular t-shirts, are selling like crazy, and are available for order on the site, for only $20. 

Clee Facts are becoming more and more popular each time Cliff Lee pitches. Go to Cleefacts.com and submit your own Clee Fact, or order a “I Heart Clee” t-shirt.

The next time Cliff Lee pitches, you do not want to be the only one without an “I Heart Clee” shirt.

This will be the next “Claw” and “Antlers” fad for all you Rangers fans.

“Clee Facts,” the facts about the most interesting man in baseball.

I will leave you with one more fact. “Cliff Lee was just banned from baseball for being a performance enhancing drug #CleeFacts.”

All you Rangers fans, Go and check out Cleefacts.com, or follow them on twitter at @Cleefacts to get all the latest info on our star pitcher.

For questions regarding the article, please comment or send me an e-mail.

Paul Ferguson is an intern at Bleacher Report.

Paul is the director of NFL Content at Premier Sports Talk

Visit Clee Facts

Follow him on twitter at: @paulwall5

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The New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies avoided elimination by winning Game 5, as both teams trailed 3-1 in their respective series. 

The New York Yankees down travel down south to play the Texas Rangers in Game 6 of ALCS Friday night.  If the Yankees can stay alive, Game 7 will take place on Saturday night. 

The San Francisco Giants must head back east to play the Philadelphia Phillies in Citizens Bank Park in Game 6 of the NLCS.  The game will either be played on Saturday afternoon or night, depending on the outcome of Game 6 of the ALCS. 

In order for there to be a rematch of the 2009 World Series, New York and Philadelphia must win three games in a row (two now).  Both teams have a pretty good shot to force a Game 7, but the Phillies have a better chance of advancing to the 2010 World Series. 

Here are five reasons why the Philadelphia Phillies are more likely than the New York Yankees to comeback and advance to the World Series.  

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The aggressive pursuit of free agents by the New York Yankees has become the norm every offseason.

Now, with the Yankees on the brink of elimination, it’s time to start looking toward next year.

Before looking around the league for help, there are some pressing issues to attend to on the home front.

The Bronx Bombers need to decide what to do with aging pillars Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.

Could two of the most polarizing Yankees ever really be allowed to walk?

Meanwhile, the Cliff Lee watch has already started with the lefty giving the Yanks a first-hand look at what he brings to the table.

Here’s a closer look at how free agency could shape up for the New York Yankees heading into 2011.

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The preseason favorites. The favorites after 162 games. The favorites after Game 6 in 2009.

These titles refer to the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yet they stand on the wrong side of the win-loss hyphen.

Both are losing to unproven teams with little postseason experience who were considered World Series long-shots before the season—the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.

Here’s some advice to both teams on how they can turn things around.

Yankees

The Yankees need the most help, looking up at a 3-1 deficit. On top of that, they have to face Cliff Lee again and play two games in Arlington, Texas. Ouch. The Yankees’ to-do list is long. Or it’s a singular item, depending on your approach.

The Yankees still have to face this guy—in Texas—if they want a chance to repeat as world champions.

The List:

• Turn the pressure around. Even though the pressure is on the Yankees right now to win three straight, they can’t allow themselves to be enveloped by that pressure. Take some, use it for fuel, and turn the rest onto the Rangers. Prove to them you aren’t out of it. If nothing else, make them fear you just because you’re the Yankees.
• Make the Rangers work for their last win. That means taking pitches and getting to the bullpen. It means driving the ball hard, even if it’s for an out. It means not giving them easy outs. They still need 27 outs.
• Jump on the starters early. You’ve now seen CJ Wilson and Colby Lewis in the series. You know what they’ve got. Know what pitch you can hit, and jump on it.
• Play perfect defense. A good team makes you pay for giving them 4 (or more) outs in an inning. A team like the Rangers uses it to put you away.

Then there’s the short list:

• Play Yankees baseball.

Phillies

The Phillies are in a better position. Down 2-1, they still have the best pitching trio in baseball set to pitch in three of four games. Not coincidentally, three wins will get them to the World Series. The problem is, the Giants have a pretty good trio of their own.

The List:

• Stop helping the Giants. You can’t give a team extra outs and expect to survive. The Phillies almost suffered that fate against the Cincinnati Reds in Game 2 of the NLDS, but luckily the Reds defense turned around and gave those outs right back…and then some.
• Get a strong outing from Joe Blanton in Game 4. Winning Game 4 would be huge, and the key is staying in the game early on. With the Philly offense sputtering (okay, more like breaking down a few miles from home), the pitching needs to be extra sharp.
• Take Cody Ross out of the game. This is not a call for head-hunting, but you have to do something to keep this guy from hurting you. Pitch around him.  Don’t let anyone on base in front of him. But most importantly, don’t throw the ball down and in.

Cody Ross has killed the Phillies through three games. Limiting his opportunities is a key to the Phillies’ comeback attempts.

• Shake up the lineup. Charlie Manuel has to find a way to jump-start this offense. After hitting .212 against the Reds, they are under .200 in the NLCS. Maybe you put Jimmy Rollins back in the lead-off spot. Maybe you sit Raul Ibanez against the lefty in Game 4, going instead with Ben Francisco. Maybe you completely change the lineup—the Phillies have five guys in their lineup who have led-off for this team in the past, and another with the OBP to do so.
• Hit home runs. Ryan Howard is hitting the ball hard, but not out.  He needs to launch one to energize this team. A home run out of the lead-off spot would set the tone for the offense as well.
• Capitalize on opportunities. You know why Cody Ross is killing you? It’s because he’s doing what you’re not—taking a mistake pitch, or his pitch, and jumping on it. Don’t let opportunities—like lead-off base-runners and belt-high fastballs—go to waste.
• Know when to be patient and when to be aggressive. Guys like Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain don’t give you much to hit, so when you get a fastball, swing. You handled Sanchez perfectly. Knowing his tendency to be wild, you were patient early and were rewarded with walks. But as the game wore on, Sanchez tried harder to throw strikes, and you jumped on fastballs thrown early in the count.

That might seem like a lot, and frankly, it is. But it’s nothing that these teams haven’t done for years with roughly the same group of guys. A Phillies-Yankees rematch is still a possibility, and until a team has been beaten four times, don’t count either of them out.  This should be one heck of a finish.

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When the 2010 MLB Playoffs began, almost everyone who watches or cares for baseball penciled the New York Yankees in as a probable World Series participant. A great deal of folks also had the Yankees winning it all,…again. Ah,…the Texas Rangers say “Not so Fast,” and are exposing the Yankees for what they are, OLD.

Several things about this year’s version of the Bronx Bombers are the same as always. The Yankees payroll exceeds $200 million. Derek Jeter is at shortstop, and the No. 1 closer of all-time, Mariano Rivera, is waiting in the bullpen to douse the hopes and dreams of opposing hitters.

What fans of the game of baseball are witnessing during this ALCS is the realization that save for a few young stars like Robinson Cano and CC Sabathia, the New York Yankees are just plain old.

Sure the argument can be made that baseball is a sport in which men play well into their 30s, and are productive players during that age range. The Yankees have several front-line players that are on the near-side of 40, including Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.

Mariano the Great (Rivera) will be 41 next month, and Posada is just shy of 12 months away from his 40th birthday. Andy Pettitte is 38, and pitching just OK of late. Lance Berkman will turn 35 before the start of next season, Rodriguez is already 35 and Jeter is 36.

The tip-off for all those watching the ALCS are the plays and hits we have become accustomed to seeing these guys make just aren’t there anymore. Starting pitching is not lasting long enough to get to Rivera, and balls that used to be routine grabs for Jeter are finding left field more often than not.

Aside from Cano, the rest of the Yankee lineup is struggling to hit the baseball. Texas has 40-plus base hits in four games thus far, the Yankees have just over 20. The Rangers are batting over .300 with runners on base in this series, the Yankees are closer to the Mendoza line in that category.

Game 4 exposed a crack in the Yankees’ armor as manager Joe Girardi stayed with starter A.J. Burnett in the sixth inning. By not bringing in a reliever, much to the dismay of Yankee fans, Bengie Molina hit a go-ahead three-run homer.

Don’t blame Girardi for not making the call to the bullpen. It’s not like he could call on anyone who hasn’t been battered by the Rangers already. The middle of the sixth inning is also way too soon to bring in the closer, even Mariano Rivera.

Reality should set in for the Yankees and their fans sometime after Game 5 when Texas will celebrate its first World Series berth in the team’s 50-year franchise history. The Rangers will do the partying in New York, which will add additional insult to injury for lovers of the Pinstriped ones.

The Steinbrenner clan will have the dubious task of re-tooling a roster of aging stars in the coming years. Doing so will mean that perhaps the Yankees will see a few seasons outside of the playoff picture. It will also mean Yankee fans, and fans of the game of baseball may say goodbye to iconic figures like Jeter and Rivera.

A-Rod and his massive contract will be hard to deal with, but he has underachieved during this postseason, and Yankees brass will be wise to explore all possibilities where he is concerned. The check book of the Brothers Steinbrenner will not allow New York to stay down for long, but get ready for them to be down.

Having the New York Yankees not in the hunt for another World Championship can only be good for the game right? The Yankees winning titles seemingly every year feels a lot like their roster…it’s just getting old.

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It’s fitting that in what became “The Year of the Pitcher,” we would see fantastic post-season pitching up to this point of the playoffs.  Were you really that surprised that Roy Halladay fired a no-hitter in his first post-season appearance?  If not, you couldn’t have been that surprised that Tim Lincecum threw a two-hit shutout, striking out 14 in his first post-season start.

We’ve seen more great pitching as well.  Matt Cain delivered a lights out outing yesterday afternoon.  We’ve also seen the likes of Cole Hamels, Phil Hughes, and Roy Oswalt step up and pitch fantastic games at one time or another this post-season.  However, with all of their collective efforts, none of them are in the same league as the Rangers Cliff Lee when it comes to post-season dominance.

Just look at Lee’s mind blowing numbers this post-season.  To this point in the 2010 playoffs, the Rangers ace has thrown 24 innings, allowing only two earned runs.  Opponents are hitting a mere .151 off of Lee.  Still not impressed?  How about Lee’s 34 strikeouts to only one walk.  I know, how did he ever walk one?  The guy has lousy control.  Lee’s 3-0 by the way, winning Game 1 of the ALDS when he out-pitched David Price.  He also won the clinching game of the ALDS when he out-dueled Price once again.  Even more impressive was the outing Lee just turned in in Game 3 of the ALCS at Yankee Stadium.

This begs the question, is Lee the greatest post-season pitcher of all-time?  There is a very small list of pitchers that have dominated in October.  Until Lee came along, only Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Jack Morris, John Smoltz, and Curt Schilling were on that list.  I’d even give guys like Dave Stewart and Randy Johnson some consideration, but none of those guys are doing what Lee is currently doing.

Maybe Lee’s name should be pencilled in at the top of that list.

It’s not just a one year sample from Lee.  After his 4-0 performance last year for the Phillies, Lee is now 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA, allowing only nine earned runs in eight career post-season games.  Three complete games to go with 67 career post-season strike outs to only seven walks.

The guy is the definition of a work horse.  Look up clutch performer in the dictionary and Lee’s picture will be there.

You may agree to disagree on the topic of Lee being the greatest post-season pitcher in history, but the numbers are hard to argue against.  He’s definitely on one of the greatest runs of all-time.

You can choose whom ever you want.  In a one game situation, bring on your guy.  I’m giving the ball to Lee and I’m probably going to win.

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Do I really need to say anything or can I just SMILE!

I’ll touch on a couple things:

Yankee “Home Runs”

In the second inning—easy one first—Berkman’s was not a home run, no doubt about that. Not sure what the umpire was watching there, but whatever. It was a foul, and instant replay clearly showed it. However, two batters before, Robby Cano hit a deep fly ball that Yankee “bleacher creatures” assisted out for the home run. 

Here’s my problem—and I can quote the MLB Official Rulebook, if necessary—that play should have been reviewed. Not a doubt in my mind on that. And had the umpires reviewed it and still decided to call it a home run, I would not have been happy, but I would have been “cool with it.” 

My opinion is that the fans obviously interfered with it, but I have watched it too many times. From my vantage point, if you completely remove the fans, the ball might have just been out of Cruz’s reach. However, we will never know, and if that’s what New York needs to keep “home-field advantage,” so be it…because I know for a fact had that been Arlington and a Rangers home run, it would have been reviewed. 

Unsung Hero of the Game

Derek Holland!!! Hello, 3.2 innings pitched in relief of Hunter. He allowed one hit, three Ks, zero runs and only the one inherited runner scored. Very impressive with the young man, even with the TBS announcers telling us he had a “nervous smile,” obviously y’all were wrong…again! 

So happy that Dutch was in the game for all the run-pounding and able to maintain long enough to be the winning pitcher. Before the game there was talk of starting Holland over Hunter in Game 4. If Texas moves on to the World Series, we may very well see that now.

Texas Offense

Apparently the Yankees are slow learners. In Game 3 on Monday they intentionally walked David Murphy to face Bengie Molina—righty vs. righty. Bengie thanked them for that with an RBI single amidst the six-run ninth inning. Last night, they did the same thing in the sixth with two outs. And almost as though on cue coming back from the TBS highlights of his HRs in Games 1, 2 and 3 in the 2005 ALDS against the Yankees, BENGIE goes yard. 

To wrap up another offensive explosion we got to witness DOUBLE BOOMSTICK (not Double Rainbow) from the soon-to-be 2010 AL MVP Josh Hamilton and then a shot from NC-17, none of which were fan-assisted.

In the end the bullpen pulled their weight in a game that we all knew they would have to be strong in for Texas to have a chance. In his 3.1 innings Hunter allowed three runs, in the remaining 5.2 innings the bullpen threw zero after zero after zero. Though the eighth inning got a little nerve-racking, no runs came across. The Rangers slammed the door for good by adding three runs in the ninth behind home runs from Hamilton and Cruz.

Media Bias

I will say that I am getting quite annoyed with the constant attempts by the TBS announcers to justify the pitching performances by Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett. I have heard quite enough comments about Pettitte and that he was one pitch away (Hamilton two-run home run) from matching Cliff Lee’s performance. 

NO HE WASN’T!!! 

Look, Pettitte pitched a very good game and more times than not his performance would have been good enough to get a win. But his final line was seven IP, five hits, two runs (both earned), zero walks and five Ks on 110 pitches—again solid numbers. 

BUT…

Cliff Lee: eight IP, two hits, zero runs, one walk and 13 Ks on 122 pitches. Sorry, that is not one pitch away from matching performances. 

And then in Game 4 the announcers tried to justify that Burnett pitched a good game except for one mistake. Through five innings he did pitch well and kept the Ranger bats at bay, but this is a nine-inning game, not five. And in the sixth he didn’t make the pitch he had to make and Bengie blasted a three-run homer.

New Yorkers and a bulk of the East Coast media may not want to admit it, but face facts: the Rangers are one game away from moving on, and the Rangers have outscored the Yankees 30-11 (30-6 if you take out the eighth inning of Game 1). If it weren’t for that eighth inning, this series would now be over in a four-game sweep. Right now the Rangers are flat-out pummeling the Yanks in every aspect of the game, no ifs, ands or buts about that. 

Enjoy it, love it and now store it in your memory because the party ain’t over and the excitement we feel right now is all for not if the Rangers don’t finish the job. Yes, we are up three games to one, we have C.J. Wilson, Colby Lewis and then Cliff Lee all going on regular or extra rest. But the Yankees are still the defending champs and until we polish them completely off, I will not allow myself to celebrate even the slightest. Finish the job!

The mindset is right so far, and the players are still saying the right things, so we need to go into today’s game expecting to close it out. We need to act like the series is tied. And we need to continue to play like this Yankees team can come back. Because if the eighth inning of Game 1 taught us anything, it’s that if you give this Yanks team the opportunity, they will come back.

I’ll leave you now, not too far away from Game 5, with the quotes that have been constantly on my mind throughout this entire postseason run:

“It’s amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares about who gets credit.”—Blanton Collier

“When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality.”—Joe Paterno

“Even when I went to the playground, I never picked the best players.  I picked the guys with less talent, but who were willing to work hard, who had the desire to be great.”—Earvin “Magic” Johnson

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Did you ever think, in the middle of October, we’d still be talking about the Texas Rangers?

Normally this time of year is reserved for the Dallas Cowboys and football. Instead, the Cowboys have not only taken a back seat but they’ve been so bad that the Rangers have gotten top billing on just about every radio station in town.

Let me take you back to Opening Day here in Arlington, Texas.

A close friend of mine has his own radio show every Monday afternoon just a few blocks from the ballpark at Arlington. He asked me to come on and talk a little baseball and give my predictions for who would win each division.

While I didn’t call a lot of them right, picking the likes of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Central and the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League West, one prediction I did make ended up coming true. It was the last prediction I ever expected to be right.

It wasn’t the easiest of picks and especially not against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. This was a team that had been the dominant force in the American League West for so many years. Not to mention winning the World Series back in 2002 and taking home five AL West pennants this decade, including four of the previous five years.

But I guess you could call it a hunch or maybe it was a little of the homer in me coming out. Though I don’t know how that could be seeing as I was a California boy born and raised.

There was something I saw in this roster. Something that I felt that told me the Rangers were going to be a team to be reckoned with this season.

They had added Vladimir Guerrero, former Los Angeles Angel, a guy that would take the Rangers apart when he would come to the ballpark as an opponent.

Next to him was a guy by the name of Josh Hamilton. He had a story that just about every baseball fan knew from his days as a young man, to the guy that blew thousands upon thousands of dollars on drugs and alcohol, to the man that’s turned his life around completely and has become one of the more prolific baseball players in the game today.

Along with Guerrero and Hamilton are guys like long-time Ranger Michael Young, young short stop Elvis Andrus, who I remember watching when he was with the team’s Double-A affiliate, the  Frisco Roughriders, second baseman Ian Kinsler and outfielder Nelson Cruz.

The team had the look of being able to do big things this season—I just never expected that it would get to this level.

What I also didn’t count on, from Opening Day to now, was the complete ineffectiveness of pitchers Scott Feldman and Rich Harden. Both of whom aren’t even on the Rangers postseason roster.

After finishing 17-8 with a 4.08 ERA last season, Feldman finished 2010 with a 7-11 record and a 5.48 ERA. As for Harden, this is a season he’d much rather forget. In 18 starts, Harden finished with a 5-5 record and a 5.58 ERA, by far his worst numbers in his career.

The guys that have stepped up are 24-year-old right-hander Tommy Hunter, reliever turned starter C.J. Wilson and 31-year-old right-hander Colby Lewis.

Hunter finished the 2010 regular season with a 13-4 record and 3.73 ERA, Wilson has been even better than that going 15-8 with a 3.35 ERA and Colby Lewis was 12-13 with a 3.72 ERA.

These three guys have been some of the biggest reasons the Rangers are where they are right now. But it was one big move at the trade deadline that has made the biggest difference.

A few days prior to Major League Baseball’s trade deadline at the end of July, the Texas Rangers slipped in front of the New York Yankees and stole away left-hander Cliff Lee all by offering up Justin Smoak, one of the Rangers’ top prospects.

The deal looked like it backfired on them after Lee struggled through his first few starts. However, after the Rangers took him out of the rotation and had him checked out by a doctor, he was given a few cortisone shots for what the team called a back issue and was given a clean bill of health.

Since then, Lee has been nothing short of unstoppable. Through three postseason starts, he is 3-0 with an incredible 0.75 ERA and has double-digit strikeouts in all three of his starts, including a 13-strikeout performance in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Yankees.

Now, with the Rangers up three games to one in the American League Championship Series, this franchise is one win away from their first-ever trip to the World Series.

After struggling to get past the Tampa Bay Rays in the first round of the playoffs, the Rangers have dominated the Yankees in every aspect of the game. If not for one bad inning in Game 1, the Rangers would be coming home with a four-game sweep of the defending champions. That in itself is far more telling of how this series has gone.

The Yankees bullpen has been, for the most part, ineffective, as has their ace CC Sabathia, No. 2 man Philip Hughes and the October disappearing act Alex Rodriguez, who has just two hits in 15 at-bats against Texas in this series.

What might make this win even sweeter for Rangers fans is reading an article like this from the New York Daily News, showing the kind of respect or lack thereof that was given to this ball club before this series started.

So as Dallas and Fort Worth, along with the outlying North Texas areas, get ready to celebrate tonight if the Rangers can wrap this series up, I sit here and wonder if this changes the dynamics of sports here in Texas.

With the new ownership in place and guys like Nolan Ryan and Chuck Greenberg running the team, they are set up to be a franchise that can contend year in and year out.

With that in mind and the fact that the Dallas Cowboys have just one playoff win in over 15 years, could this slowly become more of a Ranger town than a Cowboy town?

Before you say no, don’t forget that this is one of the biggest bandwagon towns in sports. Those that were saying, “Who cares about the Rangers?” at the beginning of this season are the same ones that are wearing the “claw and antler” T-shirts and yelling, “Go Rangers” at the top of their lungs.

That’s a question that can be debated until the Rangers take the field for the 2011 season. But, for right now, these sports fans are throwing their support behind, and keeping their focus on, a team that deserves it.

There’s excitement in Texas and it has nothing to do with football.

The Rangers are one win away from the World Series. How do you like that?

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After the 10-3 shelling that the New York Yankees took at the hands of the Texas Rangers in the “House that George Built,” one can’t help but begin to worry. What began in game one with the exception of an offensive outburst in one inning has only steadily gotten worse through the first four games.

Is this really what a payroll in excess of $200 million looks like?

It’s not like the Yankees are losing close games. They have let a Texas Ranger team with almost no postseason experience outside of Cliff Lee make them look like amateurs.

Rewind only six months ago and the New York Yankees were coming off of their record 27th World Series title and looked primed to defend it. At the same time, the Texas Rangers were dealing with bankruptcy issues and a manager who was involved in a scandal involving his cocaine use.

My how things have changed throughout the course of the season. To the Rangers’ credit, they didn’t let the off-field issue distract them and even went out and picked up super-ace Cliff Lee just as the Yankees were primed to add him to their roster.

But even with all the success that Texas had throughout the regular season and against the Tampa Bay Rays in the divisional series, how many people were really expecting these Rangers to compete with the Bronx Bombers?

Through the first four games, not only have they competed, but they’ve dominated. After losing game one 6-5 in Arlington, the Rangers have outscored the Yankees 25-5. The powerful Yankees offense has been pedestrian. Outside of Andy Pettitte, their high priced pitching staff has looked average.

With the exception of Robinson Cano’s incredible .467 average, no other Yankee has an average higher than .286. In fact, the entire team is hitting a paltry .198.

Compare that with the Rangers’ lineup that has managed to hit .307 as a team. Six of the Rangers’ nine offensive starters are hitting over .300 for the series. Of those nine, only Ian Kinsler is batting lower than .286.

New York has not only been beaten on the scoreboard. They’ve also looked old and tired. They don’t seem to have the fire of the 2009 team that brought home that 27th World Series championship. In the eighth inning with the bases loaded when a pitch appeared to hit Nick Swisher‘s foot, Joe Girardi didn’t even make an argument.

Even before the eighth inning, many of the seats began to empty after the Texas took a 7-3 lead in the seventh. By the time the Rangers put up their final three runs in the top of the ninth inning, the stands began to look like an early season afternoon Tampa Bay-Kansas City game at Tropicana field. It certainly didn’t look like Game 4 of the American League Championship series.

With C.C. Sabathia heading to the mound in this afternoon’s game five in the Bronx, it’s make or break time for the Yankees. There is no tomorrow. Pitching on short rest, he gives New York by far their best chance to pickup a win and take the series back to Texas.

If New York is going to pick up a game five win today, they will have to do it without Mark Teixeira, who left Tuesday night’s game with a strained hamstring and is finished for the remainder of the season. Of course, Tex hadn’t been doing much anyway on offense after going 0-14 with three walks through the first four games.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, it may be too little too late. Even it they were to reel off two consecutive victories, Cliff Lee is set to start game seven in Arlington; not exactly a matchup with good odds.

However, baseball is a funny game. Things can change quicker than a C.C. Sabathia fastball. Just like last week when nearly everyone was counting the Rangers out, the court of public opinion is now certifying the Yankees all but dead. We all know how that has turned out so far.

There are some things one should always do in their life—love your wife, never bet the house, and don’t ever count out the New York Yankees. If Sabathia comes out tonight and pitches like he’s capable of, and the Yankee bats finally come out of hibernation, the momentum could quickly turn back into the Yankee’s favor.

With all of that experience in the New York dugout compared to that of the Rangers, a change in momentum might be the only chance the Yankees have left.

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