Series Preview: Rangers at Yankees

The good news for the Rangers is that their two biggest competitors for the wild card spot, Boston and Tampa Bay, still have games to play against baseball’s best team, the New York Yankees. The Red Sox will head to Yankee Stadium on the final weekend in September for a three-game series, and the Rays have four games in New York and three in Tampa left on their Yankee ledger.

The bad news is that those games don’t come for a while, and the Yankees might cool off by then. Texas, however, has the misfortune of facing the Bronx Bombers in the midst of one of the hottest stretches any team has enjoyed this year. New York is 27-9 since the All-Star break. Not only do they own MLB’s home best record, but they’ve taken baseball’s best overall record from former manager Joe Torre as well. Their big offseason acquisitions are paying off, with C.C. Sabathia leading the majors in wins and Mark Teixeira making his case for an MVP candidacy. And they’ve got a pretty good shortstop, too.

So life is good in the Empire, while the Rangers are, at the moment, on the outside looking in. That’s why the upcoming series at Yankee Stadium should mean more to the road team. Because it has to.

New Yankee Stadium has quickly developed a reputation as a hitter’s park, but it may not be any more of a bandbox than the park a few hundred miles northeast. Besides, the Rangers may not need to mash homers to keep themselves in the series. So what’s the secret to scoring on the Yankees? Get two outs.

New York will start the series by putting Joba Chamberlain on the mound for the first time in nine days. The Yankees gave the 23-year-old some extra time off in hopes that it would help curb his control problems after Chamberlain walked 15 batters in 16.0 innings over his last three starts. Chamberlain has had trouble with the Rangers too, never making it through the 5th inning and posting a 7.11 ERA and 2.13 WHIP in three career starts. He’s also struggled to adjust to his new home ballpark. His home ERA is 4.73 and he’s walked 40 batters in 66.2 innings.

Game two will pit the Rangers against veteran lefty Andy Pettitte, who struggled in his only start against the Rangers this year. Pettitte allowed seven hits, six walks, and four runs in five innings at Yankee Stadium in June, but he’s been dominant in the season’s second half. His 2.82 ERA since the All-Star break is actually inflated by his last start, where he allowed four earned runs after the Yankees took a 12-1 lead.

Thursday’s finale will match A.J. Burnett up with Texas for the third time this season, after he posted a 2.08 ERA and 15 strikeouts in his first two starts. But there are a few other interesting story lines surrounding Burnett this time around. He’s coming off his worst start of the season, a five inning, nine run debacle in Boston that left him talking to himself. And after the game, reports surfaced about a possible rift between Burnett and catcher Jorge Posada. Yankees manager Joe Girardi has since said the story was overblown, so don’t expect to see the pair separated for game three.