Major League Baseball

BRIEFS

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:13 p.m. ET

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Hamilton shows off plate patience

Josh Hamilton said last week that he needs to be more patient if playoff opponents aren't going to throw him a strike.

That patience was on display in Game 2, as Hamilton walked four times (two intentional). On two of those occasions, he followed up the walk with a stolen base to give the Rangers another runner in scoring position.

"I've gotten better at it," said Hamilton, who struck out in the sixth in his lone official at-bat. "I probably could have had five walks but, man, you just want to hit when you're out there. It's hard to control the reins every once in a while."

The four walks for Hamilton matched a postseason record, which has been done 14 times, most recently by Philadelphia's Chase Utley in Game 2 of the 2008 NLCS.

Anthony Andro

Rangers run on Yanks at historic pace

Josh Hamilton and Elvis Andrus each had two stolen bases. The four swiped bags are the most given up by the Yankees in a postseason game. They gave up three steals in the final game of the 1995 ALDS at Seattle.

Keith Campbell

Lewis still big in Japan

Hideki Okuda is a 47-year-old baseball writer who sat on the back row of the main press box at Rangers Ballpark.

He works for Sports Nippon, a national newspaper located in Tokyo.

"Colby Lewis was a No. 1 starter for the Hiroshima Carp, so he is good news for us," said Okuda, "especially now that all Japanese major league players are gone.

Okuda's work is read throughout Japan. Fans on both sides of the globe know the story of how Saturday's Game 2 winner, Lewis, resurrected his career in the Far East.

In two seasons with the Carp, Lewis was 26-17 with a 2.82 ERA. He walked 46 and struck out 369 in more than 350 innings.

"Carp fans," said Okuda, "wanted to see him stay."

Ray Buck

Game 1 reaches one-fifth of area homes

More than one in five homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area tuned into Friday night's opening game of the Rangers-Yankees series on the cable television station TBS.

The game averaged a 21.9 rating, which means 21. 9 percent of all homes in the market tuned in. That translates into 568,217 homes.

The game scored a 13.9 rating in the New York, the nation's largest market, which has almost three times as many homes as No. 5 DFW. A smidge more than 1 million homes watched the game in New York.

For the record, the Rangers-Yankees ALDS series in 1996 averaged a 24.9 rating and it has been downhill since. The 1998 Rangers-Yankees series averaged a 20.5. The 1999 series averaged a 16.0.

The Rangers averaged a 10.5 rating for their five-game ALDS series against the Rays.

Barry Horn

Rangers, Yankees like to take their time

When the Yankees and the Rangers have met this season, they've spent a considerable amount of time at the ballpark. The average length of the nine games the teams have played has been three hours, 28 minutes. This year, they have been on the field together 1,876 minutes. Only their first encounter this season was completed in less than two hours. Their longest game - a five-hour, 12-minute affair on Sept. 20 - lasted 13 innings and ended with a game-winning home run by Nelson Cruz.

Date Result Time Apr. 16 New York 5, Texas 1 1:58 Apr. 17 New York 7, Texas 3 3:05 Apr. 18 New York 5, Texas 2 2:52 Aug. 10 Texas 4, New York 3 3:38 Aug. 11 New York 7, Texas 6 3:45 Sept. 10 Texas 6, New York 5 5:12 Sept. 11 Texas 7, New York 6 4:16 Sept. 12 Texas 4, New York 1 2:40 Oct. 15 New York 6, Texas 5 3:50 Oct. 16 Texas 7, New York 2 3:52 Rainer Sabin

In ALCS, second time's been the charm

Since the best-of-7 format was adopted in 1985, the team that won Game 2 of the ALCS advanced to the World Series 18 times out of 24 series. That includes nine of the last 11 series.

Brad Townsend

Cano has crushed Rangers pitching

Through two ALCS games, second baseman Robinson Cano has been the most effective Yankee hitter. Cano hit a home run and a double off starter Colby Lewis. On Friday, he put the Yankees on the scoreboard with his solo homer off C.J. Wilson in the sixth inning. He's batting .556 through two games. "You try to make pitches to that kid, you make one mistake on that kid, and he hurts you," manager Ron Washington said of Cano before Saturday's game.

Keith Campbell

Another early attack leads to record output

This marked the third straight playoff game in which Texas scored at least one first-inning run. The Rangers' seven runs on Saturday was a franchise-high for their 17 postseason outings.

The previous high was six runs in Game 1 of the 1996 ALDS against New York, as well as Game 2 of this year's ALDS against Tampa Bay. Texas' 12 hits on Saturday also was a franchise postseason record, eclipsing the 11 in Game 5 of this year's ALDS.

Brad Townsend

Hunter ready to relieve, if needed

When the Yankees tried to mount a rally in the sixth inning, the Rangers went to left-hander Clay Rapada in relief of Colby Lewis. Right-hander Tommy Hunter, scheduled to start Game 4 on Tuesday, was also warming up.

"They told me to get up," he said. "They said get ready. I don't know what the situation would have been but I'm sure it would have been a right-hander and I'm sure a couple of curveballs would have been needed. I was ready to go, but Clay got out of it."

Rapada struck out Marcus Thames to end the sixth. Hunter made one relief appearance for the Rangers this year, pitching 2/3 of an inning Sept. 28.

Anthony Andro

Special guests

Dallas Mavericks Dirk Nowitzki and J.J. Barea watched the Rangers victory Saturday, as did four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux, the brother of Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux.

Greg Maddux, who works with the Chicago Cubs, was not available to pitch.

"He came to root on the Rangers," Mike Maddux said. "He brought his son in. They flew in and my wife picked them up. They came here and now they're being driven to the airport."

Anthony Andro

Girardi reminder: We still have Andy Pettitte

Yankees manager Joe Girardi fielded several questions about having to face the Rangers' Cliff Lee in Game 3.

Lee was 2-0 against the Yankees in last year's World Series and was 2-0 in three starts against them this regular season.

"We've seen Cliff Lee very good and at times we have scored runs off of Cliff Lee," Girardi said. "The guy that's getting lost in this is Andy Pettitte, and he's pretty good."

Pettitte has a major league-record 19 postseason victories in a record 41 starts.

Brad Townsend

Ex-starter Oliver knows Wilson's pain

As a reliever and as a starter with the Rangers, Darren Oliver has both been a victim of and a contributor to a bullpen collapse against the Yankees in the postseason. In Game 3 of the 1996 ALDS, he lasted the first eight innings and yielded one run before handing the ball to Mike Henneman with no outs and two runners on base in the ninth. Henneman allowed both to score and the Rangers lost, 3-2.

Flash forward to Friday, when Oliver replaced starter C.J. Wilson in the eighth inning. He issued two consecutive walks, kick-starting a five-run rally that helped the Yankees defeat the Rangers, 6-5. It was a cruel twist of fate for Oliver, who did achieve a measure of redemption Saturday, when he faced three hitters and recorded two outs without yielding a hit or run.

Rainer Sabin

Briefly

The ALCS is even at 1-1 for the 20th time in 41 series. In the previous 19, the team that won Game 3 went on to win the series 14 times. {ellipsis} The Rangers' seven-game home playoff losing streak was tied for the fourth-longest in Major League history. {ellipsis} Derek Jeter played in his 48th career LCS game Saturday, tying him with Manny Ramirez for the most in LCS history.

Keith Campbell

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