Mark Teixeira

The Rangers hired Ron Washington as their manager in 2007. They wanted a manager who would be the anti-Buck Showalter. They felt Washington's light approach would get guys to play at a high level after being worn down by Showalter's micromanagement.

Washington did not start out well in his first year as the Rangers manager. His team got off to a rough start, and he did not get along with Mark Teixeira.

Tonight is the start of the American League Championship Series between the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers.  This game is being played at the Ballpark in Arlington and first pitch is scheduled for 8:07 PM EST.

The pitching match-up for tonight's game is between C.C. Sabathia and C.J. Wilson, both of whom had good regular season numbers.  Texas needs to take at least one of Sabathia starts to have a chance. Tonight will be their first opportunity to do so.

After storming out to a 2-0 lead in their ALDS clash with the Tampa Bay Rays, it quickly appeared as if the Texas Rangers had taken firm control of the series and were inevitably headed to their first American League Championship Series appearance in franchise history.

I've been pretty hard on Mark Teixeira this year.

This can happen when a star slugger of your favorite team also happens to be the No. 1 pick in your big-money fantasy baseball league. It's kind of like doubling down in black jack—payoff is double the pleasure, but losing hurts twice as bad as winning feels good.

Many of us remember the game-winning, walk-off home run that Mark Teixeira launched in Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS against the Twins.

Many more of us are having trouble forgetting the rest of the 2009 playoffs, where Teixeira was practically a no-show. He had just a .180 batting average with a .593 OPS last postseason. He capped it off with a pathetic .136 hitting performance in the World Series that left many Yankee fans thankful for Alex Rodriguez and the clutch performances of Hideki Matsui.

Last night’s win over the Twins was exciting, but attention must immediately turn toward tonight’s matchup of Andy Pettitte against former Yankees disabled list mainstay Carl Pavano.

Here are some notes:

On a night where ace CC Sabathia did not have his best stuff, The New York Yankees still managed to squeeze out a victory at Target Stadium in game 1 of The ALDS. CC Sabathia was not himself, but managed to get out of jams and kept The Yankees in the ball game.

In the first playoff game at brand-new Target Field in Minnesota, the Yankees' quest for a repeat of a World Series Championship began successfully Wednesday night against the Twins with a 6-4 win.

The Yankees sent ace CC Sabathia to square off against Twins' ace Francisco Liriano in Game 1 of the ALDS.

For almost three years now, I have had to listen to Braves fans complain over and over again about Mark Teixeira and what his trade in 2007 did to Atlanta’s future. When one looks at what Atlanta gave up to acquire Tex for two half seasons of non-playoff baseball, it’s kind of hard not to be upset if you are a Braves fan.

The Yankees have seemingly been stuck in the mud as of late. Despite remaining one of the best teams in all of Major League Baseball, they have unarguably had a rough September.

Following tonight's loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees have compiled a 10-12 record this September. Hand in hand with that 10-12 record are year-worst performances in pitching and hitting.