An 0-2 hole is daunting. Last night’s loss was devastating. People need to remember, though, that it takes 3 wins to end a series. If people are down, they should look to 3 numbers for hope.
*52-29
That was the Yankees’ home record this year. New York returns home for Games 3 and 4. Cleveland is off to a great start, but those games were at Jacobs Field. That crowd took them to another place. Most of those players have never faced a crowd like they will see on Sunday night. It is one thing for a young team to play well in front of a raucous crowd cheering for it. It is quite another for the same young team to not get rattled by a hostile environment. Cleveland also had a pair of Cy Young candidates take the hill for those games. Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd are not C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. They are very hittable, and the Yanks have a great track record of success against both.
*21-29
That was the Yankees’ record at one point this season. This team was written off and left for dead by a number of pundits. This club thrived on that adversity and played its best ball when it had to. The Yankees have had their backs against the wall before, and they could not have responded better. Why would they play any differently in the same situation once again?
*7-2
That was the score in the 8th inning on September 14 in Fenway Park. The Yankees scored 6 before making an out in that inning to register an 8-7 win. If anybody doubted this team’s mettle after their comeback during this season, that game should have erased it. I wrote after that game, ”This was more than just a win. It was a sign that this team can realistically win a championship this season. The Yankees can carry this with them for the rest of the year. They can call on this experience when things look bleak in October. If they can overcome a 5 run deficit off a pair of the game’s best relievers without recording an out, they will have confidence in any situation.” Over the past few years, we have seen Yankees teams fold like an accordion when faced with tough spots in October. The 2007 version looks different.
People may say that this situation is different from the situation in 2001, when New York overcame an 0-2 hole in the ALDS against Oakland. The Yankees do not have the same championship core that they did back then, but the situation being different is not entirely a negative. This time the Yanks are going home, not across the country. The losses came on the road, not at home. Jake Westbrook and Paul Byrd are not Barry Zito and Cory Lidle, at the time arguably the best 3 and 4 starters in the game. The Yankees need a single good performance. If they take the game on Sunday, the pressure shifts to Cleveland. This Indians team has never been in a situation like this before. They could easily start to doubt themselves in front of a hostile crowd. If the Yankees can ride their home crowd to Game 5, anything can happen. New York will likely have Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte on the mound for the final pair of games in this series. Those are the two most reliable starters on the roster. The point is that things may look bad now, but all is not lost.
