AL East

The New York Yankees are all but out of their ALCS match-up with the Texas Rangers. 

With the exception of just a few innings, they have been dominated throughout and should have been swept.  Their dramatic comeback in Game 1 is the only reason that they're still in this series.  Now they will need more of that comeback magic to survive.

Many factors have gone into the Rangers' dominance in this series. Lots of ideas have been kicked around, but one that never gets mentioned is the fact that the Rangers are better than the almighty Yankees. 

When Texas Rangers catcher and eighth-place hitter Bengie Molina turned on an inside pitch from New York Yankees starting pitcher A.J Burnett in the sixth inning, all Alex Rodriguez could do was hang his head.

Catcher Francisco Cervelli was similarly dismayed, and Burnett was also in disbelief, with a "What have I done?" reaction.

Surprisingly, a lot of Yankees fans last night had hope. There seemed to be some hope that despite his struggles all season long, A.J. Burnett was going to give his team a winning effort and help his team even up the series with the Texas Rangers.

That hope seemed to be a reality, until manager Joe Girardi messed with it.

I have seen—and laughed at—many Boston Red Sox fans who believe that the Red Sox need to clean house this offseason to have any success next year. The Red Sox had the 10th-best record in all of baseball.

That might not seem impressive, but it truly is considering the injury struggles Boston endured. People can argue that Papelbon was, at times, a major reason for the Red Sox struggles, and they would not be wrong.

The Orioles announced today that they will not play in the 2011 MLB Season. Ownership has decided to forfeit the season in order to regroup for 2012.

Most Baltimorians were surprised by the announcement. Many thought the Orioles had folded after Cal Ripken had retired, and weren't even aware that Baltimore still had an MLB franchise!

"You forget about it whether it was 15-2 or 3-2. It's still a loss. It doesn't matter what the score was if we win tomorrow." - Derek Jeter

The Yankees, down two games to one in the ALCS to the AL West champion Texas Rangers, are in unfamiliar territory.

Cruising through the playoffs for the most part in 2009, Yankees face a must win situation after dropping two games in a row to fall behind in the series.

The good news?  

With A.J. Burnett taking the mound tonight the Yankees will need their offense to show up more than at any point in this series.

Tonight is a very big game for the Yankees. I don’t like to throw around the cliche that it is a must-win game until it actually becomes a must-win, but tonight is pretty close.

Tonight is a very big game for the Yankees. It is not a must-win, but it is pretty much as close to it gets to one.

Unfortunately they have A.J. Burnett on the mound too, which makes things so much harder, but they don’t really have much of a choice.

Here are some notes:

A.J. Burnett has the fate of the New York Yankees in his enigmatic hands when he takes the hill tonight in the Bronx.

However, this time he may accomplish what he sets out to do.

Burnett is not your ordinary pitcher. He possesses above average pitches for everything he throws, especially his fastball-curveball combination. Scouts would genuinely tell you that Burnett has the best curve in the majors, which is a testament to his raw ability.