Kuzul

“In this fall, this is very tough, in this fall I’m going to take my talents to South Beach and join the Miami Heat.”

With that one sentence, a city that once loved NBA superstar LeBron James began to burn his jerseys, t-shirts and anything else with the number 23 on it.

He had become the second most hated man in the city, second only to Art Modell of course, the former owner of the Cleveland Browns that oversaw the move of the beloved franchise to Baltimore.

Meanwhile, 1,241 miles south of Cleveland, Miami has gone into a frenzy. The Heat have managed to land the three biggest stars of NBA free agency. Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and James have formed a mega team, with the goal of becoming world champions not just for this season, but for years to come.

According to bodog.com, the odds of the Heat winning are at 17/10, by far the best in the league. It would be one of the greatest shock moments in sports if the Heat were to somehow be stopped short of their goal.

It’s a sure thing, or is it?

The New York Yankees found out the hard way that building a championship team is about more than spending money and getting all the great talent available. With a payroll of $206,738,389 (yes, you read that correctly) the Yankees should roll through any team in the league.

Friday night, however, their season came to an anti-climactic end. With two outs in the ninth inning, New York’s $33 Million dollar man Alex Rodriguez took a called third strike against the Texas Rangers’ rookie closer Neftali Feliz. How much does Feliz earn a year? How about $402,000?

The Rangers have something money can’t buy: a core of hard working players that play the game in a fundamentally sound way. Their main offensive weapon is Josh Hamilton, a recovering drug addict who can’t even enjoy the champagne celebration for fear of relapse into alcoholism.

They believe in each other and have built up such trust in each other that they truly play as a team. Nobody is a star and everybody contributes. They are the definition of the word team.

So yes, on paper the Heat have the best team with all the superstars, so did the Yankees. Miami will have sold out games and a passionate fanbase, so did the Yankees. The Miami Heat expect to win the whole thing, and so did the Yankees.

When the 2010-2011 NBA basketball season kicks off don’t assume that Wade and company will be victors at the end. They play the games for a reason: just ask the Yankees.  

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A phenom who struggled with substance abuse; a manager who endured the same problems; a pitcher who was traded for an upgrade; another pitcher that wasn’t going to make it in the majors; a veteran whose career was declining.

These are just some of the players that make up the now 2010 AL Champions and have led the Texas Rangers to their first World Series in the team’s history.

The Rangers sealed the deal tonight by beating the defending World Series Champion New York Yankees in game 6, winning 6-1.

The 2010 Texas Rangers are a true story of comebacks.

Things hadn’t gotten off to a good start for the rangers at the beginning of their season. News reports had come out about manager Ron Washington‘s cocaine use and how he had tested positive in a 2009 drug test. Rangers management could have fired him at the time but decided against it because of Washington’s admittance of his drug use prior to the test results.

With the talk of Washington’s issues, it was difficult not to remember Josh Hamilton’s similar experience with addiction problems. In his early playing days Hamilton had been indefinitely banned from the MLB for drug and alcohol abuse. Hamilton got his life together and the Rangers decided to give him a second chance. That decision would end up paying great dividends to the Rangers, especially this season with an MVP caliber season.

Another question mark, Vladimir Guerrero, was acquired during the offseason. His old team, the Los Angeles Angels, showed very little interest in re-signing a player who had provided for them during his entire stay there. Guerrero had only 15 homers, had 50 RBIs and played in 100 games for the Angels last year and was thought to be washed up. This season he played in 152 games, had 29 home runs and 115 RBIs, proving that the Angels were too quick to give up on him.

Then in the middle of the season the Rangers made one of there biggest acquisitions by trading for Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners. Lee had been traded to the Mariners from the Phillies because the Phillies were upgrading with star pitcher Roy Halladay. With the Mariners headed to a losing season, the Rangers lucked out and were able to get the staff ace that they were looking for.

Now with all of the pieces together, the Rangers have beaten the Yankees with the most unlikely contribution of all. Pitcher Colby Lewis was playing in Japan last year, with fleeting hope of making it in the MLB.

But the Rangers are a team that believes in giving people chances. The chance with Lewis payed off. Lewis gave the Rangers 8 innings, 3 hits and 1 run in the ALCS clincher to advance the Rangers to the World Series.

In the ultimate story of irony, the Rangers defeated the player that used to be the face of the franchise, Alex Rodriguez. To finish the series closer Neftali Feliz struck out Rodriguez for the final out of the game.

Now a team built on second chances is headed to the World Series. They better hope to win it in their first try though. Not too many teams get a second chance at a championship.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In their 50th season as the Washington Senators/Texas Rangers franchise, a pennant has finally been won. The Rangers knocked off the Yankees on Friday night 6-1 to take the AL flag in their own home in front of 50,000-plus crazy fans.

The Rangers got on the board first and after the Yankees got a gift run, the Rangers put them away. Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz got the big hits they couldn’t get in Game 5 and the team’s young closer put the hammer down in the ninth.

The Yankees couldn’t hit Colby Lewis as many expected, and although Phil Hughes wasn’t terrible, he wasn’t good enough.

With the win on Friday, Cliff Lee now will be on full rest to start Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday in either Philadelphia or San Francisco. Here’s a report card of how the Rangers won Game 6.

Begin Slideshow

A terrific NLCS between the Phillies and Giants will continue Saturday in Philadelphia. Notes from Game 5 are below:

• Buster Posey was a vacuum behind the plate. He wouldn’t allow a pitch to get away from him no matter the location, giving Tim Lincecum the confidence to consistently bury his changeup low. 
• The Phillies clearly had a different approach against Posey, consistently attacking him on the inner half of the plate. The strategy worked as the young star catcher went hitless a night after dominating the Phils’ pitching staff with four hits.
• Ryan Howard has given the Phillies nothing so far this series.
• If Charlie Manuel doesn’t want to hit Placido Polanco between Chase Utley and Ryan Howard consistently, why not use Jayson Werth to break up the left-handed combination? Is there a downside to this?
• Howard made a nice play on a sharp liner by Aubrey Huff in the first inning with two on and no outs. After that however, The Big Piece (probably my least favorite nickname for an athlete ever) misplayed two ground balls. One was ruled an error while the other, incorrectly, was not.
• Freddy Sanchez scares me. The guy is a perfect No. 2 hitter and the hit and run Bochy called for in the first inning was executed perfectly.
• Chase Utley continues to look shaky in the field as well as at the plate. Every time he slips into a slump, local media is quick to play the ‘injury card’ but hey, maybe the guy isn’t otherworldly anymore and falls into rough patches like the rest of the Major League population.
• While Jimmy Rollins has continued his poor approach at the plate, his defense has been sparkling. 
• Despite the Phillies mini-rally in the top of the *third inning, they continue to lack the ability to sustain innings without help from poor pitching or poor defense. The team isn’t maximizing its chances and while home runs are often referred to as “rally killers” what better way to maximize a big inning than a two- or three-run blast? Jayson Werth stroked an opposite-field home run to right field in the top of the ninth for an insurance run, but aside from his Game 1 two-run bomb against Lincecum, the Phillies’ vaunted power has been shut down by the Giants.
• Cody Ross isn’t as good as he’s playing right now. Hitting is such a mental aspect of baseball and Ross simply believes he’s better than he is, if that makes sense. And I’m not taking a shot at the guy; his confidence is off the charts as he continues to lock in on each and every at-bat. Ross is locked in and reacting to, not guessing at pitches.
• As good as Ross has been, it was beautiful to watch Werth hose him in the bottom of the fourth. Ross committed the cardinal sin of baseball: making the third out at third base and it took a perfect strike by Starfox to get the job done.
• I find it strange that there are benches on the playing field in San Francisco. I can only assume this is an old-school style tradition? Either way, it’s a bit odd to me.
• The Giants really made Halladay work forcing him to go deep in counts batter after batter. Even when Doc got ahead of the Giants, he often lacked the ability to put them away immediately, most likely due to his injured groin.
• My wife found it funny that several Giants players were “itching their armpits with their bats” during the bottom of the sixth. I kindly explained that this tactic was used to keep their bats dry in the rain.
• Posey led off with a walk in the bottom of the sixth after two close pitches called for balls on 2-2 and 3-2 counts. As a Phillies fan I wanted those pitches, but I was impressed by Home Plate umpire Jeff Nelson. A lesser man would have been easily intimidated by Roy Halladay, but Nelson stuck to his guns.
• It was a great sign to see Rollins steal both second and third base in the top of the seventh inning. A great at-bat by Chooch put runners on first and third and I thought Bruce Bochy made a huge mistake leaving Lincecum in to pitch to pinch-hitter Ross Gload. Gload smashed the first pitch he saw, which was caught by Huff and turned into a double play.
• I’ve never been to San Francisco, but I can’t imagine a better representation of the difference between the two cities than the lady who came out to sing ‘God Bless America’ during the seventh inning stretch.
• I’d like a few less closeups from Fox of those hideous black playoff beards sported by Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson. I think I dislike Romo’s more, but it’s a tough call. 
• I did enjoy the shots of the San Fran crowd. They were into the game from the first pitch and showed an excited, expectant attitude throughout. They believe in their bunch, and now it’s time for Philadelphians to help fuel their team.
• The Phillies bullpen came up huge. JC Romero hadn’t pitched since Game 2 of the NLDS but got an important out, and Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge dominated. Lidge relied heavily on throwing his slider as a strike, not to get hitters to chase, which is often his plan. The Big Truck, Jose Contreras, came up big yet again as well.
• Madson mowed down the most dangerous section of the Giants lineup, striking out the trio of Posey, Burrell and Ross in the eighth.
• Jayson Werth, like Ryan Howard, is at his best when he’s going the opposite way. Maybe Howard took notes on Werth’s opposite-field insurance bomb and will keep his front shoulder from flying out in Game 6, a key, particularly against the left-handed Jonathan Sanchez.
• I thought Bochy made another bad call when he brought in the left-handed Jeremy Affeldt to pitch to Shane Victorino. Vic looked bad at the plate and hit nearly 90 points higher from the right side on the year. Like the Lincecum vs. Gload move, this one didn’t backfire, but why turn a struggling lefty around?
• White towels > Orange Pom-poms

*The top of the third inning turned the tide. The Phillies looked helpless and harmless against Lincecum through the first two frames. Raul Ibanez’s punched a leadoff single into no-man’s land and after the Giants ace hit Carlos Ruiz in the arm, the inning got strange.

Roy Halladay is a very poor bunter. I’d be surprised if there were five other starting pitchers in the National League who failed more consistently at laying down a solid bunt than Doc. (Maybe the MLB should organize an off-season “Bunt Off” competition between pitchers similar to the Home-Run Derby? I’d watch!)

But anyway, Halladay had a chance to advance two runners into scoring position with just one out. And somehow, someway, he got the job done. It was a crazy play and Pablo Sandoval certainly handed the Phillies a break when he failed to be in position to get the force at third.

After Halladay’s fair/foul bunt The Struggling Shane Victorino stepped to the plate. Victorino hit the ball hard, but right at Aubrey Huff. It wasn’t a difficult play for the first baseman, but he managed to make it look so as he booted the ball into shallow right field. Two runs scored and Victorino, in contrast to Game 4, alertly moved into scoring position.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

To force a Game 6, the Philadelphia Phillies offense needed to figure out San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum. They did not, but, helped by an umpire’s blindness, a bad hop, and a hit-by-pitch, enough runs were scored against the the unorthodox right-hander to send the NLCS back to Philly.

How they pushed them across makes the season-prolonging trip to Philadelphia far from deserving. Lincecum sent the first six down and, considering how well he was mixing his pitches and how fooled the Phillies were, he appeared to be well on his way to another dominating start.

Then came the third, a nightmarish inning for the Giants and their fans. Raul Ibañez led off with a blistering single to right and absurdity ensued. Ahead 0-2 on a completely overwhelmed Carlos Ruiz, Lincecum’s change-up missed its spot and drifted inside. It headed towards Ruiz, but its pace was slow, meaning Ruiz had plenty of time to react and move out of the way.

Did he? No. He just took the pitch right in the side without a flinch. Umpires can nullify a hit-by-pitch if they feel the hitter doesn’t make an effort to get out of the way. This was certainly a time for that rule to go into effect, but umpire Jeff Nelson pointed to first. With that, a rally was formed, and with what followed, Nelson made some more enemies in the crowd, in the Giants dugout, and on the field.

Opposing pitcher Roy Halladay was up with one goal in mind: to bunt the runners to second and third. In essence, he did, but, if Nelson was competent, he wouldn’t have. The ball was bunted off home-plate, but it trickled foul. Nelson signaled fair.

Halladay didn’t run, thinking it was called foul. He was thrown out at first by third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who received Buster Posey’s throw in time to get Ibañez at third but, with Sandoval well off the bag, Halladay’s goal was attained.

Shane Victorino capitalized, but needed a favorable hop to indeed deliver. He laced a fastball from Lincecum to Aubrey Huff, a ball the first baseman should have been able to snag but instead watched ricochet off his glove and hit hard off his knee.

The ball struck his left knee so hard the ball shot into the center-field grass on a couple of bounds. Both runners scored with ease. Two gaffes by the umpire and an error; the Giants lead was lost. Adding insult to injury, Placido Polanco followed by driving in the third Phillies run with a single.

But, as in Game 1, Halladay wasn’t at his best atop the mound, as the fourth inning indicated. San Francisco needed to put the disastrous third behind them, and then did, as Pat Burrell and the continuously clutch Cody Ross hit back-to-back one out doubles to trim the margin in half.

Yet, though Halladay had his hiccups from time to time, he wasn’t that hittable. No more production came San Francisco’s way in the fourth, nor in the following five innings.

Halladay pitched six, and the bullpen did the rest. Jose Contreras, once a fairly good starting pitcher, then a mediocre starting pitcher, and now a valuable reliever, retired two in the seventh and J.C. Romero put the finishing touches on the frame. The Giants were six outs away from having to go back to Philadelphia, an unenviable situation despite their series advantage.

Ryan Madson dominated in the eighth, striking out the dangerous trip of Posey, Burrell, and Ross primarily using a cut-fastball with devastating late break down. He used his changeup, seen as his best pitch, only once. Closer Brad Lidge, who hadn’t pitched since struggling in Game 1, sent down San Francisco in order as well.

As the Giants were unable to clinch a World Series berth with their best pitcher on the mound, they now must win one of the next two games in hostile territory. Their offensive struggles are worrisome, but if the umpires can regain their competence and eye-sight in Game 6 and if the Giants possess the ability to field well, San Francisco will be World Series bound. It will just happen a couple days later than they had hoped.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Philadelphia Phillies have nobody to blame for their Game 4 loss to the San Francisco Giants but themselves.

The Phillies made a series of coaching mistakes and mental mistakes and lost to the Giants 6-5 in Game 4 and now face a 3-1 series hole as they head into Game 4 and a rematch of Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay.

Let’s take a look at the Phillies’ mistakes in this game.It started for the Phillies in the fifth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Shane Victorino singled up the middle. Ben Francisco scored and Carlos Ruiz was thrown at home.

There is absolutely no way Sam Perlozzo can send Ruiz in that spot. The ball that Victorino hit was a sharp groundball up the middle. It wasn’t a 30-hopper that just barely made it through.

Perlozzo has to be 100 percent sure that Ruiz is going to score. Runs have been too precious in this series to be careless in that situation. Instead of having runners on first and third with one out, the Phillies had just a runner on first with two outs.

Something that was overlooked on that play—how is Victorino not on second? There was no chance of the throw from Aaron Rowand being cut off. Victorino had to be on second.

It didn’t end up hurting the Phillies that Victorino wasn’t on second because of Placido Polanco‘s double, but it’s plays or lack thereof that have made me scratch my head in this series.

Then in the eighth, how does Manuel not bunt with Jimmy Rollins at the plate and Jayson Werth on second with nobody out? I thought Charlie Manuel said before the game his team was going to play “small ball?”

That was a must-bunt situation for Manuel. Rollins hasn’t done much and Manuel had to believe that Francisco and Ruiz could have gotten the run home with less than two outs.

Now, people will say it didn’t matter because Francisco and Ruiz struck out after Rollins popped up. Having a runner on third completely changes the dynamic of the inning and perhaps the pitch selection to both batters.

The biggest decision by Manuel in this game was his decision to bring in Roy Oswalt to start the ninth. At the time, I didn’t have a problem with it. Then I found out he threw a bullpen session earlier in the day and I almost fell off my chair.

Manuel was going to make a guy throw a bullpen session in the afternoon and then come out in the ninth in a tie game later that night on two days’ rest? No thanks.

Oswalt wasn’t sharp and gave up the game-winning run when Juan Uribe hit a deep flyball to left that scored Aubrey Huff. Speaking of that Uribe at-bat, it was another mental mistake by the Phillies.

Uribe has a bad wrist and couldn’t catch up to Oswalt’s fastball in the AB. Why on Earth would Ruiz call a change-up and Oswalt agree to throw it? The only thing they are doing is helping Uribe out. Terrible.

Here are some other observations from Game 4…

Joe Blanton threw two wild pitches in 175.2 regular season innings and threw two wild pitches in the first inning of Game 4.

Despite his less than stellar performance (three runs in 4.2 IP), I still believe it was the right decision to start Blanton over Halladay.

The Tampa Bay Rays took SS Tim Beckham with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 Draft when they needed a catcher. Fail.

Home plate umpire Wally Bell was all over the place.

Can the Phillies come back from this 3-1 deficit? Absolutely. With Halladay, Oswalt, and Cole Hamels in the next three games, they have a very good chance of coming back.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Last night’s NLCS game followed a script very familiar to Phillies fans.

The team scratched out a first-inning run, helped along by the miscues of their opponent.  They got key contributions throughout the lineup.  The unexpected hitting star continued to shine.  They were patient and did some damage against an opposing reliever.  The relief ace was lights out.  And they won the game thanks to some late-game heroics.

Since 2008, the Phillies have seemed to follow that script several times en route to six series wins, two pennants and one World Series championship.  Except last night, it was the Giants who managed to follow the winning formula, and the Phillies who came up short.

It was the Giants who took advantage of two wild pitches to score a first-inning run.  It was the Giants who got big hits throughout their lineup.  It wasn’t Carlos Ruiz who continued to emerge as a postseason star—but rather Cody Ross.  Instead of the Phillies beating up on Jonathan Broxton, it was the Giants taking the lead against Chad Durbin.  It wasn’t Brad Lidge shutting down his opponents, but rather Brian Wilson who left the Phillies’ hitters looking helpless. 

And finally, it was the Giants who scored the winning run in the ninth inning.

And now it is the Giants who look poised to capture the National League pennant, which most people had pretty much handed to the Phillies before the postseason began.

The Giants look very similar to the 2008 Phillies right now.  Their lineup might not be nearly as dangerous—but as we’ve seen in the postseason, that doesn’t necessarily matter.  What does matter is that they’re receiving strong pitching performances, making all the necessary plays and coming up with key hits.

On the other hand, the Phillies look lost.  This series is starting to look an awful lot like the August series against the Astros where everything just seemed to go against the Phillies.  Their hitters are struggling.  The pitchers perform decently, but not quite well enough. The manager’s moves don’t work.  Umpire calls go against them.  (I’m certainly not blaming the umps for the loss, but that was one of the worst performances by a home plate umpire in awhile.  The strike zone had absolutely no consistency.)

Even when they appear to get a break, it doesn’t end up helping them.  Pablo Sandoval hit a ball that was ruled foul, but replays showed that it was probably fair.  (To be honest, that was about as close as a ball can come, and I don’t know if they could have overturned it even with replay).  Sandoval just came back and hit a double.

Or when a pitch seemed to hit Juan Uribe on the hand, but it was ruled a foul.  That didn’t stop Uribe from hitting the game-winning sacrifice fly.

So now the Phillies are trailing the series 3-1, and have to win three games against the Giants’ starting trio of Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain.  Considering the way they’ve struggled at the plate, it doesn’t seem like a promising scenario.

There was a lot of debate over Charlie Manuel’s decision to start Joe Blanton last night instead of Roy Halladay on short rest.  I agreed with the move, even though it didn’t work out.

First, Blanton is a much better pitcher than people think.  He’s not as good as the “Big Three,” but he’s proven to be a solid major-league starter.  He’s won postseason games for this team before, and pitched well in the second half.  A start by Blanton was far from an automatic loss.

More importantly, if they had gone with Halladay on short rest, then they would have also had to go with Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and then possibly Halladay again on short rest.  It seems like a bad idea to have the final four games of a series started by pitchers on short rest.

For those who suggested that they could just use Blanton for Game 5 or 6 instead, I don’t understand the logic behind that move.  If you don’t trust him in Game 4 matched against rookie Madison Bumgarner, then why would you trust him in a potentially more important game against Lincecum, Cain or Sanchez?

If there was a move by Manuel that should be questioned, it would be the use of Oswalt in relief.  While it isn’t unusual for a starter to be used in the bullpen between starts, the manager typically prepares the starter ahead of time, and tells him not to take his usual throwing session that day.  Supposedly, Oswalt had already thrown earlier in the day. 

I could understand using him if the game had gone into extra innings, and they were left with no other options.  But Manuel still had three relievers available.  Obviously, using the inconsistent Kyle Kendrick isn’t the preferred option (and they’d want to save him in case the game went long anyway), and I can understand saving Brad Lidge until they got a lead, otherwise he’d have to pitch multiple innings or be replaced. 

But why didn’t Manuel use JC Romero in the ninth?  I’d think that using an experienced relief pitcher would be a much better option than using one of his starters who had already thrown earlier in the day.  Was Romero unavailable for some reason?

Regardless, the game is over, and the Phillies are now faced with the task of winning three games in a row.  It is a difficult situation, but far from impossible.  The upside of going with Blanton last night is that they now have Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels lined up to start on full rest. 

The Giants’ starters may be imposing, but expecting the Phillies to win three straight games (two at home) started by their aces is far from unrealistic.

Hopefully starting tonight, the Phillies can remember how to get back to their winning ways.  Otherwise, they’re going to be faced with a script that has become very unfamiliar to them: Someone else celebrating a National League pennant.

Originally published on my blog: Stranger in a Strange Land

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The San Francisco Giants are where few thought they would be at the beginning of the season…hell, at the beginning of the postseason. They are one win away from representing the National League in the World Series.

The Giants came into this series as heavy underdogs to the reigning two-time NL champion Philadelphia Phillies.

After shocking the world and hitting around Roy Halladay in Game 1, they have taken care of business so far at home and throw out the winner of the last two Cy Young Awards in Tim Lincecum.

Gotta love the irony here of the Phillies’ Roy Halladay likely winning the Cy Young this year with the Giants likely to go to the World Series. I’m sure Tim Lincecum will gladly accept this reversal of roles.

This was a very emotional win for San Francisco, and they need to avoid any hangover from this game and close out the series tomorrow.

If they don’t, we see two games in Philly against one of the game’s best double-barreled 2-3 punch in Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels.

Wednesday’s game saw the uprising of a recently dormant Philadelphia offense, which struck lightning to the tune of four runs in the fifth inning, aided by the erratic pitching of Santiago Casilla.

In the end, it was the bullpen that let down Philadelphia. Chad Durbin left a fastball up to Pablo Sandoval that put the Giants up 5-4 in the sixth inning.

After willing back to tie on a Jayson Werth double, Oswalt came on in relief in the ninth and proceeded to allow a game-winning sacrifice fly to Juan Uribe.

Aubrey Huff slid across home plate with ease and the Giants took a 3-1 series lead into the night.

Halladay will need to be very sharp tomorrow because this Giants’ lineup is an opportunistic group.

They have had Cody Ross shouldering the load so far, but in this game, everybody who was asked to do so seemingly delivered with RBI from Uribe, Posey, Huff, and Sandoval.

Lincecum will need to be sharp in this last home game of the series for the Giants. Because if he doesn’t bring all he has, this is going back to Philly.

That would be a dangerous proposition, one that this ragtag bunch can’t afford to risk.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The Yankees are on the verge of their 2010 season ending.

After winning Game One, the Yankees dropped Games Two, Three and Four and fell behind the Texas Rangers 3-1 in the American League Championship Series.

The Yankees also lost Mark Teixeira for the remainder of the 2010 postseason with a strained hamstring, which is a crucial loss to the Yankees offense and defense.

So on Wednesday afternoon, the season rested on the shoulders of ace CC Sabathia, who coming into Game Five had not been pitching like an ace the Yankees needed.

The Rangers were countering with a lefty of their own in C.J. Wilson, who had the Yankees off balanced and almost defeated in Game One.

Wilson was not nearly as effective as he was in that game.

In the bottom of the second, with Alex Rodriguez on second and Lance Berkman on first with one out, Jorge Posada hit an RBI single to score A-Rod and the Yankees were up 1-0.

Next up was Curtis Granderson, continuing his strong postseason play by hitting a two-run single to right and the Yankees were now up 3-0.

The Yankees were far from done in the next inning.

Leading off the bottom of the third, Nick Swisher hit a solo home run to left and the Yankees took a 4-0 lead.

Following Swisher, Robinson Cano hit his own solo home run to right and now the Yankees were up 5-0.

Sabathia was cruising along at least until the top of the fifth when Matt Treanor hit a solo home run to get the Rangers on the scoreboard at 5-1.

In the bottom of the fifth, with the bases loaded, Berkman hit a sacrifice fly to center, which scored Swisher and the Yankees took a 6-1 lead.

In the top of the sixth, Sabathia started to run into trouble. After Vladimir Guerrero struck out, David Murphy, Ian Kinsler and Jeff Francoeur  all singled to load the bases for Treanor.

Treanor grounded out to third, which scored Murphy and the score was now 6-2. Mitch Moreland struck out to end the Texas threat in the sixth inning.

In the top of the seventh, Kerry Wood relieved Sabathia and Elvis Andrus attempted to get the Rangers offense ignited by getting an infield single, then got to second on a wild pitch by Wood.

After Michael Young struck out, Wood picked off Andrus at second for the second out of the inning and killed a potential rally by getting Josh Hamilton to strike out.

In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yankees got some insurance with a solo home run by Granderson, making it a 7-2 Yankees lead.

In the top of the ninth, Mariano Rivera came in a non-save situation, but got Francoeur to ground out and Treanor to fly out for the first two outs. Moreland singled to keep the game alive, but Andrus fouled out to first to end the game and the Yankees took Game Five 7-2.

Sabathia got the win for the Yankees, pitching six innings, allowed 11 hits, two runs, walked none and struck out seven. It wasn’t his best performance, but he was gritty, showed a lot of toughness out on the mound, and when the Yankees were staring elimination in the face, got the Yankees to live to play another day, which is exactly why they are paying him the $162 million dollar contract.

Wilson took the loss, going just five innings, allowed six hits, six runs, walked four and only struck out two. Wilson didn’t have great command and got smacked around in his second time around against the Yankees.

The Yankees showed they have some fight left in them and weren’t going to let the Rangers beat them in three straight in their own building to end their own season. With Teixeira now out of the lineup, Granderson, Cano and Swisher carried the offense today and will have to continue to do so if they want to keep winning.

Now trailing 3-2, the Yankees will travel back to Arlington to play the Rangers in Game Six of the ALCS. Phil Hughes will get a shot at redemption and look to keep the Yankees season alive when he squares off against Colby Lewis, who pitched well back in Game Two.

For now, the Yankees aren’t done just yet. They still have some fight left.

Five down, six to go until number 28 for Yankees Universe.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

There’s no doubt about it. That was a heart breaker. And while the Phillies have their Big 3 lined up to attempt to climb out of the hole they find themselves in, they’ll be facing a Big 3 every bit as formidable—at least in these playoffs—of the Giants.

So what went wrong in Game 4? Well, the Phillies finally scored some runs. Five of them in fact. But they had chances to score more.

Every bit as important (and fatal) was poor run prevention. Here’s what I saw happen in Game 5:

THE BIG PICTURE

• I feel like every game has featured an inconsistent strike zone. It was, however, consistently poor for both teams.

• Madison Bumgarner, despite striking out five batters his first time through the Phillies order, didn’t scare me. His fastball was straight and his offspeed pitches were not overly impressive. The Phillies could have and probably should have put more runs on him before getting into the Giants’ bullpen.

• Joe Blanton pitched OK, recovering from early command issues. However, his inability to pitch deep into the game exposed the Phillies’ lack of bullpen depth. The assumption is that our bullpen is fine—and it is when Doc, Oswalt or Hamels go seven, but outside of Madson, Contreras and Lidge, the teams lacks power relievers. While it’s tough to be hard on a guy who pitched just one-third of an inning against the Reds in the postseason, Chad Durbin did not get the job done tonight. His fastball was lifeless and he was lucky to survive the sixth inning allowing just two runs.

THE LITTLE THINGS

• I know what a balk is and so does Mitch Williams. First base umpire Jeff Nelson apparently does not.

• Tim McCarver is the worst.

• After prodding from Fox, I considered purchasing stock in Giants Starting Pitching on E-Trade…searched and searched, but couldn’t find it.

• That was the best bunt of Joe Blanton’s life in the fifth inning. He really shocked me there as outside of Halladay, he has to be the worst bunter on the starting pitchers.

• Third base coach Sam Perlozzo cost the Phillies a run when he windmilled Carlos Ruiz home on a Shane Victorino single in the top of the fifth. The team would have had runners on the corners with one out for Chase Utley who singled in his at-bat.

• Shane Victorino showed inattention to detail when he failed to move up to second base on the play at the plate on Ruiz. This did not end up hurting the Phils as Placido Polanco came up with a huge two-out double, but when the offense is struggling, you need to take advantage of every opportunity.

• Jimmy Rollins went 0-3 with RISP and had a particularly horrendous at-bat in the top of the eighth. After Howard and Werth started the inning with back-to-back doubles, Rollins lofted a weak pop-up to shallow left field, failing in his duty to advance Werth to third.

• Second guessing Charlie: Why not bring in a lefty to pitch to Huff in the bottom of the fifth? Why not pinch-hit for Ben Francisco with Ross Gload or Raul Ibanez against Sergio Romo in the top of the eighth? Yes, Francisco can hit a fastball from either a lefty or a righty, but Romo had no intention of giving in and threw him three straight sliders.

• Leadoff walks to Andres Torres in the fifth and Pat Burrell in the sixth turned into two runs for the Giants. YOU CAN’T WALK THE LEADOFF MAN. Especially, when those leadoff men are Torres and Burrell.

• Placido Polanco misplayed a potential double play ball in the bottom of the fifth that would eventually allow Torres to score. Combining a leadoff walk with a misplay with a bad matchup of Blanton vs. Huff for a run was a frustrating result.

• I think it may have been a mistake to include Domonic Brown on the playoff roster. He’s basically useless as a pinch-hitter, going 3-for-17 on the year as a substitute. As terrible as Greg Dobbs was on the year, I’d prefer his experience to seeing Brown look simply overmatched in his two postseason trips to the plate.

• Juan Uribe made the play of the game robbing Ross Gload of a hit to lead off the ninth. Of course, Gload could easily have been called safe (tie goes to the runner, si?).

• Brian Wilson is either a lot better than I thought he was or he’s simply pitching right now a lot better than he actually is. As Buck and McCarver correctly pointed out, he hasn’t given the Phillies a chance to do much damage against him. He’s stayed on the outer half of the plate and thrown strikes. I do not fear his beard.

• I still don’t know what to think about tossing Oswalt out there. Obviously the move didn’t work, as Roy was charged with the loss and apparently he had already thrown his bullpen session in preparation for Saturday’s (hopeful) start. Seems a bit risky to me, but then of course, Charlie’s alternatives were Kyle Kendrick and JC Romero. Desperate times call for desperate measures I guess.

• Just in case he reads this, Dan Lauletta correctly pointed out on Facebook that Carlos Ruiz has to be questioned a bit for some of his calls behind the plate. First and foremost was the offspeed pitch he called against Juan Uribe that turned into the game winning sacrifice fly. I’m guessing his thought process was to surprise Uribe after four straight fastballs but the move backfired. In addition, the high fastball he called for in Pablo Sandoval’s at-bat wasn’t my cup of tea. 89 MPH fastballs at the belt can get smashed in the big leagues, and the Panda smashed Durbin’s offering.

• Cody Ross. What a pain in the neck. I’m not going to blame Chooch for the ongoing Cody issues. I can’t remember a pitch he’s hit well where Chooch wasn’t moving his glove. I’m pretty sure he’s not calling low inside fastballs, but that everyone keeps missing their spots. I think whoever is facing him is just psyched out by his present aura of invincibility and is trying to be too perfect. As a reminder to Phillies pitchers everywhere: He’s still Cody Ross.

• The Phillies had kept Buster Posey under control in the series so far. Until tonight. It didn’t look like anything they threw him would get him out. Each and every at-bat was very impressive. Oswalt had him down 0-2 in the bottom of the ninth and after just missing a double down the line and spoiling a tough two strike pitch, he poked a single down the line that setup the game-winning sac fly.

There is still light at the end of the tunnel. The offense showed a pulse in Game 4 and I’d say contrary to popular belief, Lincecum didn’t exactly dominate the Phillies in Game 1. They can hit him, but as Wee Willie Keeler would say, the key is “to hit it where they ain’t.”

I don’t see Halladay making the same mistakes he made in Game 1. The key is to bring the series back home and get the crowd involved. The friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park should produce a few home runs and for an offense struggling to sustain more than one (if that) rally per game, the long ball can be a cure-all.

It’ll be difficult, but this remains a winnable series for the Phillies. I still believe…a little.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com