Friday, October 15, 2010

The Yankees and the Rangers

The Yankees are, of course, the most successful franchise in baseball history. They are trying to win their 41st AL pennant and their 28th World championship. Since the American League Championship Series ("ALCS") began in 1969, this is the Yankees' 14th appearance in the ALCS (years in which the Yankees won the pennant are in bold):

1976, 1977, 1978, 1980, 1981, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2009

By contrast, the Rangers are one of the very worst franchises in baseball history. The Rangers began in 1961 as an expansion version of the Washington Senators -- added to the American League after the original Senators moved to Minnesota. The expansion Senators were terrible. But not for long, because they abandoned Washington after the 1971 season. They were somewhat better in Texas -- but not by much. Of the 30 MLB teams, the Rangers rank 27th in all-time winning percentage; over some 50 seasons (including the years in DC), they are 459 games under .500. The Rangers have never been to the ALCS, and have never won a playoff game at home.

And yet there is some post-season history between the Yankees and the Rangers. They met in the first round of the playoffs in 1996, 1998, and 1999. The Yankees won all three series with ease.

This year, the Yankees and Rangers went 4-4 against each other. Here are the results of those games (home team listed first):

04/16/2010: New York 5 - 1 Texas (6 innings)
04/17/2010: New York 7 - 3 Texas
04/18/2010: New York 5 - 2 Texas
08/10/2010: Texas 4 - 3 New York (10 innings)
08/11/2010: Texas 6 - 7 New York
09/10/2010: Texas 6 - 5 New York (13 innings)
09/11/2010: Texas 7 - 6 New York
09/12/2010: Texas 4 -1 New York

Significantly, that final game was dominated by Cliff Lee, who held the Yankees to only two hits over eight innings. Lee (who beat the Yankees twice in the World Series last year) will probably pitch game 3 (and presumably game 7, if necessary) in this series. He will be very tough for the Yankees to beat. The issue will be, however, whether the Rangers can somehow win two games that are not pitched by Cliff Lee. Personally, I do not think they can.

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