ALCS Game 3: Cliff Lee Runs Through Yankees, Rangers Take 2-1 Series Lead

I am going to take everyone back to 1986. The New York Mets played the Houston Astros in the National League Championship Series, and Astros’ pitcher Mike Scott went 2-0 with a 0.50 ERA and had 19 K’s in 18 IP. It would have been 3-0 if the Mets had not beaten the Astros in Game 6 to close out the series.

Scott was in the Mets' heads in 1986

The reason I bring this up is because that is the last time I could remember a pitcher being in a team’s head to the point where the game was over before it started. Very rarely have we seen one pitcher play Jedi mind tricks with a team like Scott did with the Mets in '86.

That is until now.

Texas Rangers’ ace Cliff Lee is so in the Yankees’ heads right now that I honestly believe they feel they have no shot at beating him. Lee dominated the Yankees last night for eight innings, and the Rangers’ offense broke the game open in the ninth as Texas defeated the Yankees 8-0 to take a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-seven ALCS.

I really believe this game was over before it started, and when Josh Hamilton hit a two-run HR off of Andy Pettitte in the first inning, this game was really over. That’s how much Lee owns the Yankees right now.

Lee struck out 13, walked just one, and allowed two hits in eight innings of work. And the two hits Lee did give up were nothing special. He gave up a bloop hit to right to Jorge Posada and a little groundball up the middle by Brett Gardner.

Lee was in a rhythm all night and the Yankees did nothing to break it. Even the Yankee crowd couldn’t get into the game. The one time they did get into the game was in the bottom of fourth.

Nick Swisher had fouled off several pitches, and the crowd really got into it with each foul ball. However, Lee buckled down and struck out Swisher on a low changeup. That’s right folks, the one time the Yankee crowd got into a playoff game was when one of their batters fouled off a couple of balls. That’s all you need to know about Lee’s performance yesterday.

Here are some other observations from Game 3:

Pettitte, as usual, was equal to the task. I thought he was very good. Five hits, no walks, and five K’s over seven innings of work. Against a mere mortal, Pettitte probably wins the game.

How did Hamilton’s flyball in the top of the sixth not go out of the ballpark? I thought he hit that ball better than the HR he hit in the first.

Great call by the usually terrible Angel Hernandez on the Gardner slide into first. Gardner never touched the bag, and Hernandez got the call right.

Of course the classic second guess would be: Why didn’t Joe Girardi bring in Mariano Rivera in the ninth to keep it at a two-run game?

I think there are a couple of reasons as to why he didn’t. First, there is no off day anymore between games four and five, and with three games in a row, to pitch Rivera in a hold situation didn’t make much sense.

And second, the Yankee bullpen up until the ninth had been pitching well. I don’t think anyone could have expected David Robertson to get rocked like he did.

Lee is the fourth pitcher with at least 13 K while allowing two hits or fewer in a postseason game.

Lee improved to 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in eight postseason starts.

Mark Teixeira is a career .220 postseason hitter and continues to get a free pass for some odd reason.

At some point, one has to think Vladimir Guerrero is going to start hitting. He can’t be this bad for this long.

Game 4 is tonight at 8:00 PM EST and will pit A.J. Burnett against Tommy Hunter. We should see a pretty high-scoring game, but would anyone be surprised in classic Yankee fashion that Burnett pitches seven innings of one-run baseball?

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