New York @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( Sep 10, 2010 ) NY Yankees 5, Texas 6
If their playoff matchup is anything like the series opener in September, the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees will certainly be giving baseball fans something special in October.
The Rangers will be looking to clinch the three-game series when they meet the Yankees again on Saturday.
If the season were to end on Saturday, Texas and New York would be meeting in a five-game series in the divisional round of the playoffs. The clubs proved to be as close to equals as possible on Friday night, with the Rangers finally pulling out a win on Nelson Cruz’s walk-off solo homer in the 13th inning.
Cruz was responsible for forcing the extra frames as well, as his solo blast off Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning knotted the game at 5-5.
New York held a 4-1 lead and a 5-3 edge in the contest but again received a poor start from Javier Vazquez, something that could become a problem in the postseason.
Texas used the luxury of expanded rosters to trot out 10 different relievers after starter C.J. Wilson was knocked out after just three innings.
The victory kept the Rangers 7 1/2 games up on the Oakland Athletics in the AL West with just 21 games left on the schedule.
New York saw its lead over the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East trim to 1 1/2 games, though both figure to make the playoffs due to the wild card.
The Yankees will try to coax a better performance out of right-hander A.J. Burnett on Saturday. Any scenario for New York winning another World Series involves another strong postseason from Burnett, who has been anything but reliable this season. The right-hander is 1-5 in his last seven starts - allowing six runs or more three times during that span.
Burnett, 33, lost to the lowly Baltimore Orioles last time out, surrendering four runs and seven hits while walking four in seven innings. He did turn in a quality start at Texas on Aug. 10, yielding three runs on six hits in seven innings of a no-decision.
Burnett has done well against the Rangers in his career, owning a 4-3 mark with a 3.61 ERA in 11 games - 10 starts.
Texas will counter with right-hander Tommy Hunter. The burly 24-year-old figures to be part of the Rangers' postseason plans, but is coming off one of his worst starts of the season on Monday. The Toronto Blue Jays knocked him around for seven runs and seven hits - including three homers - in seven innings.
Hunter missed the Yankees the last time they came through Arlington and has faced them just once in his career, getting shelled for five runs in 4 1/3 innings back in 2008. Derek Jeter drove in two runs off Hunter in that game.