Whew!

What a relief, as the Yankees escaped last night with a 2-0 series lead over the Twins. I think Joe Girardi made a couple of questionable managerial decisions in the game (waiting too long to bring in Rivera, and letting Damaso Marte anywhere near the mound in the playoffs), but those were masked by the dramatic, clutch homers by Rodriguez in the 9th and Teixeira in the 11th.

A sweep sure would be nice. It would remind me of the kind of confidence I had in this team in the late 90s when they'd match up with Texas in the first round and I'd say, "Yeah, they'll take care of these chumps, no problem." In first rounds since, they've either had to sweat it out (Oakland 2001, Minnesota 2004), or were outright upset by a lesser team (Anaheim 2002, Anaheim 2005, Detroit 2006, Cleveland 2007).

Of course, the Angels concern me bigtime, as the Yanks can't seem to beat them even when they are the better team, and the Angels are leading Boston 2-0.

So maybe this newfound Yankee playoff confidence will be short-lived. But, that's what makes playoff baseball so exciting - as Czabe says, it's more random than a game of plinko.