New York @ Texas preview

Last Meeting ( Sep 11, 2010 ) NY Yankees 6, Texas 7

In July, the big battle between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers centered around which team would land former Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee in a trade from the Seattle Mariners. The Texas Rangers got the win.

Lee will be making his return to the Rangers rotation when they go for a sweep of a three-game set against the Yankees on Sunday.

New York reportedly offered the Mariners a package that included top prospect Jesus Montero, but Seattle preferred Texas’ offer of Justin Smoak and others, landing the Rangers the biggest deadline prize on the market.

Lee was as good as advertised in his first few starts with Texas before running into a wall in the middle of August, going 0-3 with an 8.28 ERA over his last five starts. The poor stretch was blamed on fatigue, and Lee had his last turn in the rotation skipped due to shoulder soreness. He had a similar problem last season after going over to the Philadelphia Phillies in a trade but recovered nicely in the middle of September and led the team to the World Series.

Texas is hoping for the same turn this time around as the franchise marches toward its first playoff berth since 1999. A top-of-the-rotation ace was the one thing that the Rangers were missing, and a healthy Lee is one of the very best pitchers in all of baseball.

His string of “off” outings started against New York on August 11, when he surrendered four runs on eight hits in 6 1/3 innings. He still managed to strike out 11 in the contest, though he did not factor in the decision. Lee was better against them in June, allowing three earned runs in a complete-game win. In 11 career starts against the Yankees, the left-hander owns a 5-4 record with a 4.81 ERA.

If the last game of the series in anything like the first two, the starters won’t have much say at all. After winning in the 13th inning on a walk-off blast by Nelson Cruz on Friday night, Texas did the nearly impossible on Saturday – getting to Mariano Rivera. Ian Kinsler doubled in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth before Rivera hit Jeff Francoeur with a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the winning run.

The Yankees will send Dustin Moseley to the mound in the finale. The 28-year-old right-hander has bounced back and forth from the bullpen to the rotation for New York, posting a 4-2 record and a 5.03 ERA in seven starts.

Moseley came up with the Los Angeles Angels and has faced Texas nine times – four starts – in his career, posting an 0-1 record with a 5.47 ERA and a 1.78 WHIP.