Tuesday night the Texas Rangers trailed the Yankees 3-2 in the sixth inning of Game 4 of the A.L.C.S. The mercurial and enigmatic A.J. Burnett was within one out of his first quality start in months when the Rangers unveiled their secret weapon, Benjie Molina.
The senior member of the famed "Catching Molinas" strode to the plate and immediately deposited a badly-aimed Burnett fastball into the left field stands for a three-run homer. 5-3, Rangers, and 50,000 New Yorkers silenced and stunned. As Curt Schilling once said, to be able to do that is a great feeling. Speaking of great feelings, that homer sparked a 10-3 Texas victory which gave them a 3-1 series lead.
With Game 5 this afternoon in the reproduction Yankee Stadium the Rangers had a chance to continue their momentum and close out the series. Unfortunately, their manager appears to be a somewhat unobservant man, and he obviously possesses little intuition. With a chance to clinch the series and a lefthander on the mound for the Yankees he left Molina on the bench and started his other catcher.
Is anyone surprised that New York won to stay alive and send the series back to Arlington?
One can only hope that mistake isn't repeated on Friday night!
(Even when the Sox aren't it it, there's always a reason to watch postseason baseball. And there's usually a Molina involved...)
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