And That Happened

Rangers 8, Yankees 0: ESPN’s Howard Bryant talked to Ron Washington before yesterday’s game. Washington told Bryant: “Cliff Lee ain’t no bullshit.” Can’t argue with that.

Lost in the final score is the fact that, for a time, this was a fabulous pitchers duel. Andy Pettitte made one mistake to Josh Hamilton, but after that he kept his head about him and we were rewarded with what, had the Yankees bullpen not imploded in the ninth, a near-classic matchup of two of the best all time playoff pitchers. But Lee was clearly better than Pettitte. On this night Lee was better than most anyone.

And the Yankees now know that they had best take care of business in games 4, 5 and 6 or else they’ll have to revisit the nightmare one final time in Game 7.