Yankees at Angels-ALCS Game 4

The Yankees remain two wins from the World Series after losing a heartbreaker in 11 innings yesterday. They will be trying to put a stranglehold on the series tonight with their ace on the mound against Scott Kazmir who has had 8 days of rest. This is a weird one:All seven of the Angels postseason wins over the Yankees (three in the 2002 ALDS, three in the 2005 ALDS and one so far this year) have been of the come-from-behind variety. Here are the pregame notes and lineups via Sam Borden and Chad Jennings of the Journal News. The Yankees will look to work the count and hit Kazmir when he is in a bad count or at least get his pitch count high and get him out of there in the 5th or 6th inning. Joe Girardi said Sabathia is good for 110-115 pitches even on 3 days rest. CC Sabathia threw 114 pitches in his Game 1 start and is pitching tonight on three days rest. Sabathia didn’t pitch on short rest this year, but did it in his final four starts last year for the Brewers and went 2-1 with a 0.83 ERA before getting roughed up in his one playoff start for Milwaukee. Joe Girardi says the short rest won’t give him a quick hook with Sabathia. “As far as the pitch count, I would have no problem letting him go 110, 115 if that’s what it took,” Girardi said. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, there have been 85 instances since 1995 in which a team has started a pitcher on short rest in the playoffs. In those games, the starters have gone 20-34, throwing 458 1/3 innings and compiling a 4.65 ERA. Alex Rodriguez hit his fourth homer of the postseason in Game 3, and he’s got a career-high nine RBI. In his previous 39 career playoff games before this year, he had a combined seven home runs and 17 RBI. Mark Teixeira has been struggling at the plate, taking a .120 batting average into today’s game. Could facing Kazmir be what gets him going? Texieira is 7-for-11 with four doubles in his career against the lefty. Howie Kendrick continued to torment the Yankees yesterday, finishing a double shy of the cycle and hitting an 11th inning single off Alfredo Aceves that led to him scoring the winning run. History would indicate tonight might be more of the same: Kendrick is 8-for-12 lifetime off Sabathia. Yankees Lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Posada(C) Matsui(DH) Cano(2B) Swisher(RF) Cabrera(CF) Angels Lineup: Figgins(3B) Abreu(RF) Hunter(CF) Guerrero(DH) Rivera(LF) Kendrick(2B) Morales(1B) Napoli(C) Aybar(SS) Joe Girardi and Mike Scioscia both basically laughed off the Mariano Rivera controversy. If you haven't heard there is a video from a Angels blog claiming he is throwing a spitter but it appears to be doctored that he spit near the ball but not on the ball. If you know anything about the spitter it doesn't do what Mariano throws so its a dumb created story.