Playoff Pulse: The Look of Invincibility

Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.

Looking Forward ...

FanHouse's Jay Mariotti proclaimed last week that the Yankees would not be beat. He probably didn't mean every game, though. Yet here we are. The Yankees are 5-0. Not even the 1998 Yankees -- winners of 125 games that year -- started out the playoffs that well.

No one is suggesting that New York will literally run the table, but perhaps the most amazing thing about this run in October is that the Yankees haven't been at their absolute sharpest.

They've gotten clutch home runs from Alex Rodriguez at every conceivable turn and outstanding starting pitching. But the entire offense hasn't fired on all cylinders yet, and the Angels and Twins -- their two opponents so far this postseason -- have made mistake after mistake after mistake.

So, yeah, they could play a little better -- a frightening prospect considering they are 57-22 (.721 winning percentage) since the All-Star break.

In Their Own Words
"I think if I let my hair grow out, I think I would have grays everywhere." -- Torii Hunter on the Angels' -- ahem -- distressing losses to the Yankees in the first two games of the ALCS.
By the Numbers
.200 The Angels' average with runners in scoring position in Game 2. They went 3-for-15 as a team and left 16 runners on base, so yeah, you might say they had their chances. -- Ed Price
More From FanHouse
Price: Hairston Unlikely Hero Olson: Agony and Ecstasy Piliere: Scouting Notes

Looking Back ...

Another October day, another umpiring controversy. There was one call that was clearly blown -- Derek Jeter grounded into a double play in the fifth inning that he appeared to beat out easily -- but it was the call that was technically correct that caused the biggest firestorm.

In the 10th inning, the Angels were stripped of an apparent double play because second base umpire Jerry Layne ruled that shortstop Erick Aybar didn't touch the bag before completing the relay to first.

Replays showed clearly that Layne made the correct call, but umpires often give defenders the benefit of the doubt anyway. It's an old baseball tradition known as the neighborhood play.

It's hard to criticize Layne for making the correct call -- especially since Aybar pushed the limits of the neighborhood play and the FOX announcing team of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver said that their production crew looked at every play at second and the neighborhood play wasn't called once on Saturday night.

Still, it was another controversial moment for the men in blue in a month that has been filled with far too many of them.

Scout's Eye View ...

The key to the night might have been the Angels' inability to land a knockout blow on a struggling A.J. Burnett in the fifth inning. If you examine him closely in that inning, pretty much all the things that could go wrong in his delivery did. Not only did his command suffer, but so did his velocity and the bite on his breaking ball. Normally at 94-96 mph, he was pitching around 91-92 at some points in the trouble innings.

Looking more closely at his delivery, it was clear in several slow-motion replays what was going wrong. Continuing to open up his front shoulder early as he tends to do when he's going badly, Burnett was suddenly pulling off of his release point, causing the ball to run to his arm side. This is what caused the decrease in velocity and also the loss of command. It also made it far more difficult for him to get on top of his big breaking ball.

-- Frankie Piliere (Full Scouting Notebook)

Sunday's Tale of the Tape ...

Dodgers (Hiroki Kuroda) at Phillies (Cliff Lee), 8:07 PM ET: Kuroda has only been in the States for two seasons, so he's had limited experience against the Phillies, but the experience he has had has been positive. Current Philadelphia hitters have a .120 average against the right-hander, though Ryan Howard has the most at-bats against him with eight. Kuroda also picked up the only win for the Dodgers in last year's NLCS against the Phillies. Like Kuroda, Lee doesn't have much experience against the team he'll be facing Sunday night. He's had more varied success against the Dodgers, but the left-hander should watch out for Manny Ramirez, who is 6-for-14 with two home runs and three doubles.