The Yankees are on the verge of their 2010 season ending.
After winning Game One, the Yankees dropped Games Two, Three and Four and fell behind the Texas Rangers 3-1 in the American League Championship Series.
The Yankees also lost Mark Teixeira for the remainder of the 2010 postseason with a strained hamstring, which is a crucial loss to the Yankees offense and defense.
So on Wednesday afternoon, the season rested on the shoulders of ace CC Sabathia, who coming into Game Five had not been pitching like an ace the Yankees needed.
The Rangers were countering with a lefty of their own in C.J. Wilson, who had the Yankees off balanced and almost defeated in Game One.
Wilson was not nearly as effective as he was in that game.
In the bottom of the second, with Alex Rodriguez on second and Lance Berkman on first with one out, Jorge Posada hit an RBI single to score A-Rod and the Yankees were up 1-0.
Next up was Curtis Granderson, continuing his strong postseason play by hitting a two-run single to right and the Yankees were now up 3-0.
The Yankees were far from done in the next inning.
Leading off the bottom of the third, Nick Swisher hit a solo home run to left and the Yankees took a 4-0 lead.
Following Swisher, Robinson Cano hit his own solo home run to right and now the Yankees were up 5-0.
Sabathia was cruising along at least until the top of the fifth when Matt Treanor hit a solo home run to get the Rangers on the scoreboard at 5-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, with the bases loaded, Berkman hit a sacrifice fly to center, which scored Swisher and the Yankees took a 6-1 lead.
In the top of the sixth, Sabathia started to run into trouble. After Vladimir Guerrero struck out, David Murphy, Ian Kinsler and Jeff Francoeur all singled to load the bases for Treanor.
Treanor grounded out to third, which scored Murphy and the score was now 6-2. Mitch Moreland struck out to end the Texas threat in the sixth inning.
In the top of the seventh, Kerry Wood relieved Sabathia and Elvis Andrus attempted to get the Rangers offense ignited by getting an infield single, then got to second on a wild pitch by Wood.
After Michael Young struck out, Wood picked off Andrus at second for the second out of the inning and killed a potential rally by getting Josh Hamilton to strike out.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Yankees got some insurance with a solo home run by Granderson, making it a 7-2 Yankees lead.
In the top of the ninth, Mariano Rivera came in a non-save situation, but got Francoeur to ground out and Treanor to fly out for the first two outs. Moreland singled to keep the game alive, but Andrus fouled out to first to end the game and the Yankees took Game Five 7-2.
Sabathia got the win for the Yankees, pitching six innings, allowed 11 hits, two runs, walked none and struck out seven. It wasn't his best performance, but he was gritty, showed a lot of toughness out on the mound, and when the Yankees were staring elimination in the face, got the Yankees to live to play another day, which is exactly why they are paying him the $162 million dollar contract.
Wilson took the loss, going just five innings, allowed six hits, six runs, walked four and only struck out two. Wilson didn't have great command and got smacked around in his second time around against the Yankees.
The Yankees showed they have some fight left in them and weren't going to let the Rangers beat them in three straight in their own building to end their own season. With Teixeira now out of the lineup, Granderson, Cano and Swisher carried the offense today and will have to continue to do so if they want to keep winning.
Now trailing 3-2, the Yankees will travel back to Arlington to play the Rangers in Game Six of the ALCS. Phil Hughes will get a shot at redemption and look to keep the Yankees season alive when he squares off against Colby Lewis, who pitched well back in Game Two.
For now, the Yankees aren't done just yet. They still have some fight left.
Five down, six to go until number 28 for Yankees Universe.
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