Yankees vs. Tigers: AJ Burnett's Start Means Yankees' Season Is over

The Yankees season is over. Not officially, but it might as well be.

The Yankees trail the Tigers 2-1 in a best of five series. And taking the mound for them in this do-or-die game is AJ Burnett.

The Yankees spend roughly $200 million a year on their roster and the best they can come up with for this start is AJ Burnett. It is hard to believe.

What isn't hard to believe is that Burnett is going to fail spectacularly. Burnett has been a broken pitcher for the better part of two years.

This season, he went 11-11 with an ERA of 5.15. With the Yankees offense, it is not easy to go 11-11. Burnett was lucky to be .500.

Making things worse for the Yankees is the fact that Burnett seemed to get worse as the season went on.

He won just two of 14 starts between July 4th and September 13th.

Yankees fans will hang onto Burnett's last start like a security blanket. On September 25th, he allowed just two runs over 7.2 innings against the Red Sox.

However, it is unlikely that he is going to be that pitcher after sitting and thinking about how awful he has been for over a week.

During his tenure with the Yankees, Burnett is 1-2 with a 5.67 ERA in six career playoff starts. He is about to be 1-3.