ALCS Game 4: Yankees One Game From World Series; Dominate Angels 10-1

Sure, CC dominated and A-Rod homered and the Yankees cruised to within one game of the pennant, but all anyone is talking about is the atrocious umpiring from Game 4. There were three blatantly blown calls, the most glaring of which was McClelland’s botched ruling at third base.

We covered it last night, but briefly what occurred: Cano was on second, Posada on third with one out. There was a comebacker to the Angels pitcher Darren Oliver, who threw home to engage Posada in a rundown. Posada overran third attempting to get back to the base, and Cano stopped several feet short of third realizing him and Posada cannot occupy the same base. Angels catcher Mike Napoli tagged them both out while they were both clearly not touching the bag, as you can see above. Only problem: McClelland, for some reason, ruled Cano safe and only Posada out.

Halos Heaven is a bitter crowd tonight; not really happy with several calls that went against their club, including the double tag play at third base. They sum it up nicely here:

Meanwhile Pinstripe Alley celebrated all the goodness of CC Sabathia and A-Rod.

Anaheim, CA (Sports Network) - CC Sabathia threw eight masterful innings on short rest and Alex Rodriguez homered for a third straight game as the New York Yankees moved within a victory of a return to the World Series with a 10-1 blowout of the Angels.

Melky Cabrera had three hits and knocked in four runs, and Johnny Damon belted a two-run homer for the Yankees, who hold a commanding 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series. The Yankees are on the verge of their first trip to the Fall Classic since 2003 when they lost in six games to the Florida Marlins.

Since the inception of the Wild Card in 1995, starting pitchers have worked on short rest -- three days or less -- 85 times in the postseason and are a combined 20-34 with a 4.65 earned run average.

Sabathia pitched on three days rest in last year’s NLDS for Milwaukee, but was rocked by Philadelphia for five runs in just 3 2/3 innings. That outing, though, followed up three September starts he made on short rest that saw him go 2-1 with an 0.83 ERA.