Davidoff: Yankees still have Rangers' number

ARLINGTON, Texas

I don't want to say the Yankees set back the cause of Dallas/Fort Worth baseball by about 20 years Friday night. But I'm pretty sure that as the top of the eighth inning just kept going and going, Cowboys coach Wade Phillips released this statement: "At least when we blow a lead, we do it with fewer commercial breaks."

Yes, this is what these Yankees do: They crush dreams. They ruin visions. They devastate fan bases.

They bail out faltering teammates when the need arises. So even on a night when CC Sabathia brought virtually nothing to the party, the Yankees lingered and persisted until they found themselves improbable 6-5 victors over the Rangers in American League Championship Series Game 1.

"It's a great win for our club," Joe Girardi said. " . . . It's a huge win."

"You still have to get 27 outs," Alex Rodriguez said. " . . . It was a good comeback."

By erasing a 5-0 deficit at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, by overcoming a horrid performance by their ace en route to a 1-0 lead in games, the Yankees had to plant seeds of doubt in a Texas team that still, in its 39-year history, has never won a home playoff game. That has a history of falling apart against these Yankees in October, even if only one player on this Texas club knows of that heartbreak firsthand.

That one player, veteran reliever Darren Oliver (a 1996 Ranger), helped light the Yankees' fuse by walking the only two batters he faced, Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira, in what turned out to be a five-run eighth inning for the visitors.

In all, Texas manager Ron Washington ran through five pitchers in the eighth, searching desperately for someone who could stop the onslaught of the game's best offense.

"We'll go to sleep tonight and come back tomorrow and fight just as hard as we did today," Washington said. "Hopefully, we'll get different results."

Maybe it will be that simple. Perhaps Texas Game 2 starter Colby Lewis will pitch well, and his bullpen will pick him up, and we'll return to the Bronx tied 1-1 with Cliff Lee ready to go for Texas in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium.

But goodness, these Yankees can just rip out opponents' hearts. Their lineup does so much well, and they showcased that in the eighth after being dominated by Texas starter C.J. Wilson for the first seven frames.

It began with Brett Gardner legging out an infield single to first base, took flight with Derek Jeter's run-scoring double to leftfield and became a bona fide situation as Oliver issued free passes to Swisher and Teixeira to load the bases.

When Alex Rodriguez smoked the first pitch he saw from Darren O'Day through third baseman Michael Young and into leftfield, driving in Jeter and Swisher, you knew the Yankees weren't trapped in 2005 or 2006 or any such thing. Add on singles from Robinson Cano (off Clay Rapada) and Marcus Thames (off Derek Holland), and the Yankees had their first lead of the series.

The Yankees looked so dead in the water early on, the biggest discussion in their universe figured to be what to do about Sabathia moving forward. Joe Girardi lifted him after four innings and 93 pitches, and the manager did well by doing so. The Yankees now at least have the option of bringing back Sabathia on three days' rest to start Game 4, bypassing or delaying scheduled starter A.J. Burnett.

Yet that presents a slippery slope. If Sabathia pitches on short rest and wins, what do you do about Game 5? Do you start Hughes on three days' rest? And then Pettitte similarly in Game 6, and Sabathia making a second start on short rest in Game 7?

Do you insert Burnett in one of those places if the momentum starts to turn so that the Yankees feel like they can concede a game? Such a wavering approach won't quite do wonders for Burnett's diminishing confidence.

"I'm worried about Game 2," Girardi said, closing off all questions on the subject. He said, "No, not necessarily" when asked if his early hook of Sabathia factored in such possibilities.

That discussion will re-emerge if Hughes and the Yankees can't defeat Lewis and the Rangers in Saturday's Game 2, with Lee waiting to start Game 3 in the Bronx.

Right now, however, other questions hang as more important. And they all surround the home team.