Texas Rangers

While Cliff Lee of the Texas Rangers continues his somewhat surprising march toward baseball immortality, each of his subsequent dominant postseason starts helps him climb higher and higher toward the pinnacle of baseball's Mount Olympus.

Already, after only parts of two seasons performing on baseball's grandest stage, Lee has earned himself the right to be mentioned alongside legends of the game like Sandy Koufax, Whitey Ford and Bob Gibson, pitchers who excelled when the stakes were the highest.

It almost seemed that it was over before it started. The Texas Rangers' homecoming to an Arlington stadium full of their rowdy fans and a Colby Lewis gem finally put an end to the Yankees' hopes of defending their World Series title.

Unlike Game 5 back in New York, the Yankees didn't have their ace C.C. Sabathia on the mound. Instead, they were relying on a young and relatively inexperience Phil Hughes who had already taken the Game 2 loss when he gave up seven earned runs in only four innings of work.

The hit television show "Glee" has dominated Fox for the past year, but this October Cliff Lee, or "Clee," as one site likes to call him, looks to take over Fox. 

The Rangers' ballpark is quiet, at least for now.

Workers have slowly started to trickle in, the local radio station is doing their broadcast from the home plate entrance, the ALCS banners have been hung for fans to see as they start to file in, and the anticipation has begun.

This Friday night is far different from any other Friday night in Rangers' history, because it's on this Friday night that the Texas Rangers, and their fans, will be able to celebrate a franchise first.

An American League Championship.

The Texas Rangers lost their first ever game when attempting to clinch a pennant. On an overcast day at Yankee Stadium, it was the Yankees who fought off elimination, bringing out the bats against C.J. Wilson. This game went the Yankees' way, the same way it had gone the Rangers' way over the last three games.

It's not as if the Rangers couldn't hit CC Sabathia—they just couldn't come through in the clutch, and after some home runs by New York, it was a 7-2 defeat for Texas in Game 5 of the ALCS.

Don't Mess With Texas!  

The New York Yankees have learned that very well over the past few days. The Texas Rangers went from being a forgotten entity of the AL to now just one game away from representing it in the World Series.  

They have proved that they are the AL's best team, and did so in underdog fashion. This would be the first time in team history that they would be going to the World Series.  

So now Texas looks to take out the defending champions and book their ticket to the 2010 World Series.  

When the 2010 MLB Playoffs began, almost everyone who watches or cares for baseball penciled the New York Yankees in as a probable World Series participant. A great deal of folks also had the Yankees winning it all,...again. Ah,...the Texas Rangers say "Not so Fast," and are exposing the Yankees for what they are, OLD.

The Texas Rangers have dominated the New York Yankees in this series. They have outscored them 30-11, outhit .307 to .198, and the Yankees are only hitting .154 with runners in scoring position. Aside from the top half of the eighth inning in Game 1, the Rangers have dominated the Yankees in every way. C.J. Wilson dominated Yankee ace CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee dominated Andy Pettitte and Colby Lewis dominated Phil Hughes.

It's fitting that in what became "The Year of the Pitcher," we would see fantastic post-season pitching up to this point of the playoffs.  Were you really that surprised that Roy Halladay fired a no-hitter in his first post-season appearance?  If not, you couldn't have been that surprised that Tim Lincecum threw a two-hit shutout, striking out 14 in his first post-season start.

The New York Yankees are all but out of their ALCS match-up with the Texas Rangers. 

With the exception of just a few innings, they have been dominated throughout and should have been swept.  Their dramatic comeback in Game 1 is the only reason that they're still in this series.  Now they will need more of that comeback magic to survive.

Many factors have gone into the Rangers' dominance in this series. Lots of ideas have been kicked around, but one that never gets mentioned is the fact that the Rangers are better than the almighty Yankees.