Bengie Molina had other plans.

With two outs in the top of the 6th, Burnett was one out away from giving the Yankees six strong. Something nobody believed Burnett could have done after the type of season he had. Burnett wound up going six, but his day ended on a sore note.

And it wasn’t his fault.

I put this loss on Girardi. A ton of people are always criticizing him and I usually take a backseat and give Joe the benefit of the doubt. This time is different, however. With two outs and a runner on 2nd base, Girardi had to pull Burnett for Joba Chamberlain. Had to do it. Instead he chose to play the numbers game, intentionally walked David Murphy and let Burnett pitch to Molina. Molina pounded a three-run homer to give the Rangers a 5-3 lead and they never looked back.

Before the Yankees chose to intentionally walk Murphy, I told my dad, “You gotta take Burnett out in this situation. Let the bullpen finish this inning.”

Girardi didn’t hear me and the Yankees are now one loss away from being eliminated.

The Yankees’ offense had their chances to put more runs on the board than three, but they couldn’t get the big runs in. The finger point of blame can be pointed in many directions as the Yankees face elimination, but even though they are barely breathing, it’s not time to pull the plug yet. We’ve seen crazier things happen and it’s going to take a huge turnaround, but this series isn’t quite over yet, although it’s hard to make a a case for the Yankees being able to come back.

After what I’ve seen this entire series minus the 8th inning of Game 1, there isn’t much hope. The Yankees are going to need three consecutive outstanding pitching performances by CC Sabathia, Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte to win this series. One implosion by any of them, or by the bullpen, and this series is over because the Yankees’ offense is sputtering.

How wrong I was.

Cliff Lee pitched eight solid innings and an early mistake by Andy Pettitte allowed Texas to score two runs on a Josh Hamilton home run in the first inning and that’s all the Rangers needed in this one. Texas tacked on six runs in the 9th, but it didn’t matter as the Yankees were only able to muster two hits all day in the 8-0 Game 3 loss.

Andy Pettitte gave the Yankees a huge effort after giving up the Hamilton two-run home run in the 1st inning, but with Cliff Lee going, the Rangers were confident that two runs were all they needed.

The Yankees move on to Game 4 down 2-1 and they’ll give the ball to AJ Burnett to try to tie the series up at 2-2.

If Burnett is to have a successful day, the Yankees’ offense is going to have to wake up. Since they went off on the Rangers in the 8th inning of Game 1, they have scored two runs in 19 innings. Mark Teixeira is still without a hit this series and the Yankees struck out 13 times against Cliff Lee in the Game 3 loss.

If this series goes seven games, I’m not confident the Yankees will beat Cliff Lee in the winner-take-all Game 7, but you can’t look that far down the road yet. For the Yankees, they must take it one game at a time and it starts with AJ Burnett in a critical Game 4. It’s not likely that Burnett will match Lee’s Game 3 line, so he’ll need help from the offense in order to win this game.

No matter which team you are hoping wins and becomes the Yankees’ ALCS foe, it bodes well for the Yankees that this series went the distance.

As for the Yankees’ ALCS starters, the first three games of the series are easy to forecast. CC Sabathia will start Game 1, followed by Andy Pettitte in Game 2 and Phil Hughes in Game 3. When it comes to the Game 4 starter, Joe Girardi needs to take a fluid approach. If the Yankees are leading the series 3-0, then I would let AJ Burnett start Game 4. In every other series scenario (up 2-1, down 1-2 or down 0-3), the ball needs to be given to CC Sabathia. Period.

After Game 4, I don’t think the Yankees will go to Andy Pettitte on three days’ rest for Game 5. Game 5 is when we’ll most likely see AJ Burnett. Pettitte slides into Game 6 on full rest, and I would expect Sabathia to go in Game 7 on three days’ rest again.

No matter how the rotation is set, if the Yankees’ top three starters pitch in the ALCS the way they did in the ALDS, they are going to be very hard to beat.

The New York Post has reported that AJ Burnett will not pitch in the ALDS and CC Sabathia will most likely be the game four pitcher (on three days’ rest).

Pitching on three days’ rest is nothing new for Sabathia. He did it during the entire 2009 postseason run and did it down the stretch for the Brewers in 2008. This time, however, the rest of the starters behind him are question marks. In all likelihood, Andy Pettitte will follow Sabathia in game two and Phil Hughes will pitch game three. Pettitte hasn’t pitched very well since returning from injury and Hughes’ great start has been soured by some tough outings in the second half of the year.

Sabathia is the one solid rock in the Yankees’ rotation and if the Yankees don’t win when Sabathia starts, they will not win the World Series. It’s as simple as that. The Yankees have to win every one of Sabathia’s starts in the postseason to have a shot because the rest of the starters have question marks around them. I know Pettitte is a big game pitcher and he proved that in last year’s playoff run, but he stayed relatively healthy the entire year and wasn’t coming into the postseason with a few sub-par starts in late September under is belt.

To say the Yankees haven’t been playing well of late is an understatement, but I do think that they are going to start playing better. The Yankees will ride on Sabathia’s back this postseason. If they win both of Sabathia’s starts in the ALDS, they will need to win just one of the three other games to advance. That’s definitely doable. The ALCS becomes a different story, but let’s worry about that when the Yankees get there.

Then I ran into this guy, @sendAJAway, on Twitter…

Let me get my checkbook out… okay let me make it out to “The New York Yankees” for $5, seal the envelope, send it to the stadium and write “ATTN: Send AJ Away” on it. I’m sure that’s a great department over at the Stadium and they’re waiting so anxiously for my check. Yes! The Yankees are going to deposit my check into their brand new checking account specifically to help pay the rest of AJ’s contract when they release him as soon as they get enough $5 checks. Splendid, I’m giving to such a great cause!

One word comes to mind when thinking about this fool; Sad. Luckily enough, nobody is stooping so low as to follow this guy. He sent out some spam:

… and some more spam:

… and basically is a complete idiot. The Facebook page he is soliciting doesn’t work and he’s in the middle of building a website for his cause.

Alright, let’s get something straight: The Yankees are not getting rid of AJ anytime soon. So put your checkbooks back in your pockets and ignore @sendAJAway. Could the Yankees consider moving Burnett over the winter? Sure, but there won’t be a market for him (especially with his contract).

Hey, we know AJ has pretty much been atrocious this year, but let’s give him some encouragement rather than begging to ship him out because he’s going to be on the roster for the rest of the season whether @sendAJAway likes it or not.

I’m not sticking up for AJ by any means. He has been awful and probably shouldn’t still be in the rotation, but I’d rather try to find a place for him and get him on the right track rather than hoping he gets shipped out of here.

This article wasn’t supposed to be about starting pitching. It was supposed to be about how the Yankees are getting offensive contributions from different and sometimes unexpected guys each night. Going on a tangent about starting pitching shows you just how important it is. Yankee fans don’t need to be reminded of that, however, because they learned the importance of starting pitching throughout the years and saw it at it’s peak in the playoffs last year.

The Yankees’ bullpen hasn’t pitched very well, but the offense has given the bullpen a nice cushion in most games to work with. The source of offense has been a story for the Yankees thus far. With Nick Johnson and Mark Teixeira, the number two and three hitters in the lineup, batting under .200, and Teixeira and A-Rod hitting two home runs each so far, you would think the Yankees were having problems offensively. There is a reason they are still winning games at a high rate. They have actually gotten contributions from unusual sources and strong contributions from one man named Cano. 

Cano has been red-hot and for a few games he was hitting every single ball on the nose and driving them to right field. His nine home runs and 21 RBI can’t go overlooked as a reason they keep winning. It has also been another typical, strong season for the Captain. He is actually second on the team with 20 RBI.

The unusual contributions have come when Randy Winn hit a big three-run home run while replacing the injured Granderson, Cervelli having a big all around game against the Orioles, Thames batting over .400 and taking advantage of his playing time, and Gardner batting over .340 and heating up the base paths. Getting contributions from these guys while some of the big guns are struggling tells you a lot about a team. Somebody has been there to pick up the slack. They’ve been a great “team”. 

Granderson’s hurt, Vazquez is struggling, Posada’s banged up, Mo is stiff, Johnson’s not hitting, Tex is just waking up and A-Rod is having a power outage. This team should be hovering around .500. Instead, other guys are doing their jobs plus a little more, and the incredible starting pitching is allowing the Yankees to score four or five runs and win games. A few years ago they had to score seven or eight runs to win games. That’s no longer the case with the pitching staff the Yankees have today.