Davidoff: Biggest mystery in Bronx: Why was A.J. still in?

From Yankee Classic to Twilight Zone to a Bronx horror show. There have been many memorable October nights at Yankee Stadium, and for their fans, this American League Championship Series Game 4 will go down as one of the worst.

Yet for all of the odd and wacky elements that this game featured - an overturned home run, deja vu moments for both the Jeffrey Maier and Steve Bartman incidents and a devastating injury to Mark Teixeira - some very logical questions lingered Tuesday night:

What in the name of Tony Tarasco was A.J. Burnett still doing in the game when he served up the winning home run to Bengie Mollina?

The venerable Molina, whose family has been tormenting New York baseball fans for what feels like generations, ripped a three-run, sixth-inning homer off Burnett, who immediately captured the feelings of all Yankees fans by putting his hands on his head in disbelief. With their 10-3 loss to Texas, the Yankees face a 3-1 deficit and can be eliminated Wednesday in the Bronx.

"I believe in this team," Girardi said afterward. "We have bounced back many times this year."

It still wouldn't shock me if the Yankees won three straight to advance to the World Series. But they're in this position partly because of Girardi's questionable decision-making.

So many of us anticipated a ghastly performance from Burnett, who took the mound for the first time since Oct. 2, so imagine our surprise when, as the game became official in the middle of the fifth, Burnett and the Yankees held a 3-2 lead. The righthander gave the home team precisely what it needed: A game effort. A chance for his offense to settle in and put up some runs.

But Burnett had thrown 81 pitches at that point, and his fastball had tailed off from 95-96 mph in the first inning to the 92-93 range. It made sense to send him back out for the sixth, with a quick hook.

"Well, he was still throwing the ball good," Girardi said. "You know, if you take A.J. out there and you give up a couple of runs, people say, 'Why did you take A.J. out?' That's the nature of this business when you're a manager."

Vladimir Guerrero started the sixth with a line-drive single to rightfield. Girardi stayed put. Nelson Cruz hit into a force play at third, retiring Guerrero at second, and Ian Kinsler flied out to centerfield.

That brought up David Murphy, who devours righthanded pitching. So Girardi ordered an intentional walk, a decision that a) put the lead run on base and b) seemed to unnerve Burnett, as he nearly threw a wild pitch on ball three.

Should the Yankees have pitched to Murphy? Lefty specialist Boone Logan had allowed three hits to Murphy in four at-bats. A small sample size. At the least, if Girardi felt compelled to walk Murphy, he should've brought in a fresh arm - Joba Chamberlain was warming up - for Molina, who slammed Burnett's first pitch inside the leftfield foul pole.

"Murphy has swung the bat in the past pretty good off [Burnett]," Girardi said, "and then we walked him and we liked the matchup with Molina. And it didn't work out."

Burnett said the order to intentionally walk Murphy surprised him, but didn't throw him off. "Bottom line is, it's Skip's decision," Burnett said. "If I make that pitch to Molina, [that doesn't matter]."

With that, all of the goodwill dissipated. The amazement at "Good A.J." showing up. The shrugging over the umpires correctly overturning Lance Berkman's second-inning "foul home run."

The laughter about the fan who (legally) reached to snatch Robinson Cano's second-inning homer away from Texas rightfielder Nelson Cruz, evoking memories of Maier, and about the spectator on the third-base side who tried to catch Josh Hamilton's fifth-inning foul, preventing Brett Gardner from making an attempt and evoking memories of Bartman.

The Yankees are in deep trouble now. Their good news is that they have their starting pitching lined up as they want, with CC Sabathia going Wednesday and Phil Hughes and Andy Pettitte in Games 6 and 7, if necessary.

Their bad news is that they have given little indication that they even deserve to top the Rangers in this series. And that Teixeira is done for the postseason with his Grade 2 right hamstring strain.

It turned out that Girardi made the right call in going with Burnett. The manager just got greedy. Unless Sabathia and the offense deliver Wednesday, Girardi will get more time than he ever expected to contemplate the nature of the business.