Yankees Flop in Every Facet of ALCS

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Other than getting out-pitched, out-hit and out-managed, the Yankees had a fine American League Championship Series.

After his team was eliminated Friday, general manager Brian Cashman was asked if he was surprised ...

"... that they whacked us like that?" he said, finishing the question. "Yeah, it's surprising.

"Do I think we're better than what we showed in this series? Absolutely."

The Yankees have to be better than they were against the Rangers. The Yankees got outscored 38-19 in the series, just the fifth time in franchise history they were out-scored by a 2-1 margin in a postseason series.

"They hit better than us," Derek Jeter said. "They pitched better than us. Overall, they played better than us. I don't know what the stats are, but they beat us. That's the best way to put it."

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This was just the third time ever the Yankees were outscored by more than three runs a game in a playoff series, after the 1976 and 2001 World Series.

Postseason series in which the Yankees allowed twice as many runs as they scored

Series	Outscored
2010 ALCS	38-19
2001 World Series	37-14
1980 ALCS	14-6
1976 World Series	22-8
1963 World Series	12-4

And this one ended with a thud; the Yankees' three hits were their fewest ever for a game in which they were eliminated from the playoffs.

"They were dominant, like a steamroller," Cashman said of the Rangers. "We just couldn't stop them. They shut us down offensively, we couldn't shut them down, they out-pitched us.

"These guys dominated us. ... I just don't think we played our best, and I think they were exceptionally good."

In the regular season, the Yankees won 95 games to the Rangers' 90, while playing in a tougher division.

"They're moving on," Jeter said, "so it's a better team. We didn't have a better team. They beat us."

"They were dominant, like a steamroller. ... These guys dominated us. ... I just don't think we played our best, and I think they were exceptionally good."
-- Yankees GM Brian Cashman It's hard to say which phase of the Yankees' game was worse for the ALCS.

The offense hit .201 -- and aside from the five-run eighth inning in Game 1, the Yankees managed 14 runs in 52 innings and batted .182. They were shut down twice by Colby Lewis, whose career regular-season ERA is 5.27.

"Nobody wants to hear about lineouts or good at-bats," said Alex Rodriguez, who hit .190 with two RBI in the series. "They want to hear about results. The results weren't good enough.

"We've got to be accountable. You feel like there was no way we were going to go out and score one run tonight, and that's on you."

Brett Gardner hit .176, Jeter batted .231, Nick Swisher was 2-for-22 and the Yankees got one hit by a first baseman in the series, Lance Berkman's triple in Friday's seventh inning.

The pitching? Well, the team ERA for the ALCS was 6.58. They allowed the most runs per game in franchise history for a best-of-seven series.

"We could have pitched a little better," catcher Jorge Posada said, adding that other than in Games 3 (Andy Pettitte) and 5 (CC Sabathia), "We put ourselves in a tough spot.

"It's about pitching here. You win series' with pitching, and we didn't do it."

In six games, the Yankees allowed 35 two-out hits and 44 two-strike hits.

Manager Joe Girardi couldn't pinpoint what was most disappointing.

"I don't know how you measure, quantitate any of it," Girardi said. "It all stinks. It's no fun to be in this situation. It's no fun to be sitting here after the loss. We take this extremely serious. It stinks."

It didn't help that Girardi's moves didn't work. In hindsight -- always clearer, of course -- he stuck with A.J. Burnett and Phil Hughes too long in Games 4 and 6, respectively. Bringing in Dave Robertson with the game close Friday also backfired.

"I wouldn't say Joe had a bad series," Cashman said. "You've got to make decisions, and then they're either going to work or they're not."

Cashman said the results of the ALCS don't affect his offseason plans. But the Rangers exploited the Yankees' relative lack of starting pitching, and Cashman admitted that pitching will be his priority (i.e., Cliff Lee).

"Our team has some areas of weakness we've got to tackle," Cashman said.

"It's always pitching. It's always going to be pitching."

Shortly after Game 6 ended, Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner issued a statement:

"On behalf of the New York Yankees I want to congratulate the Texas Rangers, Chuck Greenberg, Nolan Ryan and their entire ownership, staff and organization on winning their first American League pennant.

"They played liked champions and we wish them the best of luck representing the American League in the World Series."

Even though the Yankees are less than a year removed from a World Series title, they have little to celebrate.

"It was a failure," Rodriguez said when asked about his season. "The team didn't accomplish its goal. I'm one of the leaders of the team. Therefore, it was a failure.

"This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt for a while. And it should."