Joe Girardi

In the hours since the Yankees allowed a golden opportunity to secure the American League pennant slip away—fans, media, and unnecessarily loud Korean War veterans at Dunkin Donuts are attempting to assign blame for the 7-6 loss to the Angels.

Some are saying that Joe Girardi acted alone in this assassination of the Yankees' World Series hopes on Thursday, the opinion being that the second-year manager made a series of dubious decisions that doomed New York.

Alex Rodriguez connected on his fifth home run of the postseason and CC Sabathia dominated the Los Angeles Angels on short rest as the Yankees won 10-1 to move one win away from a trip to the World Series. 

A-Rod tied a postseason record with his eighth consecutive game with at least one RBI, and Sabathia handcuffed the Angels through eight innings of one-run ball to take a 3-1 series lead.

During the 11th inning on Monday, seconds after Dave Robertson had registered the second out of what seemed to be an uneventful half inning, FOX cameras cut to Joe Girardi.

The Yankees manager looked discombobulated...even frantic. He took three quick steps toward his matchup binder sitting on the dugout bench, hurriedly flipped through the first few pages, and then he quickly turned around and shot up the dugout steps to pull Robertson from the game.

That was the precise moment when I knew for sure that Girardi was in over his head.

Heavy rain was expected in the forecast for Saturday night. Most didn't even think Game Two would be played and expected it to be moved to Sunday at 4 p.m.

But Joe Girardi and Mike Scioscia opted to have Game Two be played on the scheduled night and it was a good thing, because baseball all around the world got a classic of a playoff game.

The Yankees had A.J. Burnett on the mound, making only his second career playoff start, while the Angels countered with Joe Saunders, who hadn't pitched in two weeks and was making his first start of the 2009 playoffs.

Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte, and Mariano Rivera are the last remnants of the Yankee dynasty from the 1990s and 2000. These few players are no strangers to big series, like the American League Championship Series. But tomorrow night, these Yankees are going to have to lead their teammates into unfamiliar territory.

The first road game for the Yankees in the 2009 Playoffs was taking on the red-hot Minnesota Twins.

After three games of dominating pitching and late-inning clutch hitting, the Yankees disposed of Minnesota in a series sweep and moved on in the playoffs.

Starting on Friday, the Yankees will take on the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series.

The Angels are no strangers to the Yankees in the playoffs, and quite frankly, have been a pain in the Yankees' rear-ends in recent time.

Among the 134 pitchers Derek Jeter has faced at least 20 times in his Hall of Fame career, he has the lowest batting average against Scott Kazmir (.111) and Jered Weaver (.118).

That's not a good sign.

What is a good sign is the way the Yankees beat the Angels the last two times they played them on Sept. 22 and 23 in Anaheim—previously a graveyard for New York victories.

The Halos ousted the Bombers from the playoffs in 2002 and 2005, but this year, the two teams split the 10 games they played and were first and second in the Majors in runs scored.

One of the best sidelines to the upcoming New York Yankee vs. Los Angeles Angels American League Championship is that each team will go against one of their former players. Mark Teixeira was traded for by the Angels last season, hoping that his acquisition will lead them to the World Series.

It goes without saying that the better team won this series.

The Yankees hit better with runners in scoring position over the three-game set; their three starters combined for 19 innings, a paltry four runs and fourteen hits allowed with  and twenty-one strikeouts. The defense saved three crucial runs in close games—including Teixeira's two outstanding defensive plays with the bases loaded in the 11th inning of Game Two.

But among all the missed opportunities that caused the Minnesota Twins' ouster, I'd like to take a moment to mention some of the things they did well.