ALCS Game 4 Preview: Hoping & Praying

Pitching Matchup: Burnett (0-0) vs. Hunter (0-1)

Starting Lineups:

NY: Jeter- SS, C-Grand- CF, Teix- 1B, A-Rod- 3B, Cano- 2B, Swish- RF, Berkman- DH, Gardner- LF, Cervelli- C

TX: Andrus- SS, Young- 3B, Hamilton- CF, Vlad- DH, Cruz- RF, Kinsler- 2B, Murphy- LF, Molina- C, Moreland- 1B

3 Things To Watch For:

1)  Whether or Not The Lineup Will Wake Up Tonight

At this point there's no need to tally up the numbers again, we all know the Yankee offense has been pathetic except for the 8th inning of Game 1.  Tonight's starter for Texas, Tommy Hunter, presents the perfect remedy to cure a slumping bunch of sluggers.  He's a righty, which allows Teix and Swish to turn around to their power sides, he pitches to contact (only a 5.8% swinging strike rate and only 4.78K/9), and he pitches to a lot of power (1.48HR/9).  The long and short of it is, there are runs out there for the taking tonight.  The question is, can the Yankees shake off last night's ass plowing at the hands of Cliff Lee and start swinging the bats better?

2) A.J.'s Everything

His demeanor on the mound, his facial expressions, his body language, how quickly he works on the mound, his fastball location, his curveball command, how often he shakes off the catcher, how he works out of the stretch, how many times he throws over to first when a runner gets on.  Everything is important to watch with him tonight because he's been terrible all year and he hasn't pitched real game innings in a long time.  Joe is taking a big risk throwing his worst starter in a quasi-must-win game tonight, so every detail about A.J. is going to be that much more glaring.  It shouldn't be too hard to see if he's on early, but the real test will come when he puts runners on, which he will.  Can he finally sack up and get out of an inning or will it turn into another one of those strikeout, groundout, walk, single, walk, hit batters, double, single, double meltdowns that we're all used to seeing?

3) Joe's Patience

Like I said, Joe is taking a big risk going to his worst starting pitcher tonight down in the series when he could use his best starting pitcher who happens to have a great track record on short rest.  Joe knows this.  And he also knows how awful A.J. was this season.  With the game and a 2-game series deficit on the line, how much leeway is Joe going to give A.J.?  Given A.J.'s performance this year, Joe should rightfully yank him at the first sign of him falling apart, but since he announced him as the Game 4 starter before the series and stuck with that all the way through, I'm concerned that he will give A.J. more of a chance to get out of trouble than he rightfully should.  For Joe's sake, and for A.J.'s, he better not wait too long to get him out if things start to go south.  

Player To Watch: A.J. Burnett

Not a big surprise here.  The latest in a long line of bad Brian Cashman pitcher signings is on the hill with a chance to redeem himself somewhat for a disastrous regular season and potentially swing the momentum back in the Yankees' favor by evening the series with their ace coming up in Game 5.  We've all seen Good A.J. and Bad A.J. enough to know the telltale signs of which one we're dealing with, so we shouldn't have to wait long to know if all of our prayers for Good A.J. have been answered.  Joe has stood by him since announcing he was going to get a start in this series and even went as far as to cater to A.J.'s fragile psyche and weaken his lineup by putting Cervelli in at catcher instead of Jorge, so A.J. has no excuses tonight.

I hate to be pessimistic, but given what he's done in the majority of his big moments as a Yankee, I have very little faith in A.J. tonight.  I want to see the Yankees win and I want to see A.J. pitch well, but all I'm hoping for is for him to not fuck up bad enough that the Yanks are completely out of the game.  Anything beyond that I would consider a miracle.