The pitching of Colby Lewis and the hitting of Vladimir Guerrero and Nelson Cruz powered the Texas Rangers to a 6-1 ALCS triumph over the New York Yankees — sending the Arlington Nine to their first-ever world series. Lewis was nearly flawless in eight innings of work, giving up just three hits in eight innings, while striking out seven. A Vlad Guerrero double and Nelson Cruz home run accounted for five of the six Rangers’ runs. Josh Hamilton, who went 7 for 20 in the series, won the ALCS MVP award. Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter summed up the problems the Empire had in defeating the Rangers: “They overall played better,” he said. “They pitched better, they hit better, they just outplayed us. That’s just the bottom line. They were a lot better than us these six games.” The Rangers’ clinching win was emblamatic of the Yankees’ problems: the New Yorkers were shut down by Rangers’ pitching, going 8 for 53 with runners in scoring position in the six game series.

The Rangers, built for the post season by G.M. Jon Daniels, are much like the patched together San Francisco Giants — picked to contend in the A.L. West, Daniels traded for and signed a mix of down-and-out pitchers (Lewis came from Japan) and on-their-last-legs hitters (Guerrero was cut loose from the Angels). But the key to the Rangers success was the mid-season trade for fireballer Cliff Lee, who arrived from Seattle in a trade for four Rangers minor leaguers, including uber prospect Justin Smoak. The recriminations have already started in New York, with Yankee G.M. Brian Cashman taking the blame for his failure to land Lee, whom New York writers cite as the one obstacle that stood between the Yankees and their 28th world championship. Texas will start Lee on Wednesday against the winner of the Philadelphia-San Francisco series.

Can The Giants Beat Roy Oswalt? One of the more memorable games of the Nationals’ 2010 campaign took place back in May in Houston — when the Nationals faced-off against the Astros during an early season road trip. While the Nationals were playing well, there were signs the team was beginning to struggle: the Anacostia Nine had just dropped two of three to the Friars, after dropping two of three in San Francisco. Nationals’ hitters were desperate to get their bats going. Ironically, it was Roy Oswalt who gave them the opportunity. In one of the more lopsided wins of their disappointing season, the Nats plated 14 runs against the ‘Stros, while lighting up Oswalt, who was ejected in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn were the heroes, accounting for eight RBIs in the victory. But the key to the triumph was Oswalt’s in-game implosion, the result of a tight strike zone. The lesson seems obvious: to beat Oswalt you have to get to him early — which will be a challenge for the light hitting San Francisco line-up.

Texas lefty Cliff Lee should know: Washington is a great place to settle down and raise your kids, a wonderful city filled with monuments and parks and good restaurants. As for the high cost of living, the Lerners should be able to take care of that. While free agency is still a long ways off, on Monday night in New York, Cliff Lee showed why he’s not only the premier free agent pitcher for 2011, but the best southpaw in baseball. In eight innings of work, Lee gave up just two hits, struck out 13 and held the Yankees scoreless over eight innings in hurling the Texas Rangers into a 2-1 game lead in the ALCS. “Awesome,” Texas outfielder Nelson Cruz said. “It’s unbelievable … he’s pitching at the highest level possible.” Lee threw 122 pitches, 82 of them for strikes, in taming the Yankee line-up. This was no fluke — Lee struck out Derek Jeter three times and Mark Teixeira twice and was so dominating that Rangers’ hitters were almost a sidelight. Still, the Rangers accounted for eight runs in routing the Empire, as Josh Hamilton (2-5, two RBIs) and Michael Young (3-5, .400 in the post season) showed why they’re among the most dangerous hitters in baseball. “This is one of those games you try to forget about as soon as possible,” Yankee captain Jeter said after the Texas win.

When he was introduced to the media as the new Yankees’ wunderkind, Mickey Mantle was asked whether he had a favorite Yankee as a boy playing ball back in Oklahoma. Flashing his lopsided grin, he nodded. He sure did, he said. The Yankee he admired most was “Stan Musial.” The Yankee brass scrambled to correct “The Mick,” who sat smiling, entertained by it all. What Mickey meant to say, Yankee G.M. George Weiss told the media, was that his favorite Yankee was Joe DiMaggio. Mickey happily complied and so it was: from that day forward, Mickey’s favorite Yankee was “the Yankee Clipper.” The Mantle-Musial anecdote (related with relish in Jane Leavy’s new bio of the Yankee great), might tell us all we need to know about Mantle and his grip on his own myth. Mantle was much more a savvy player of the New York media and much less the guileless country bumpkin than we might otherwise think. Thus: Mantle bathed in the sunlight of his role as “Mr. Yankee” while rolling his eyes at all the gabbing about his place in history — he just wanted to play baseball.

It’s not that Mantle didn’t love the Yankees and their history (he did — and diligently studied the lives of the Yankee greats), it’s that if Mantle had not played in New York he would have still be Mickey Mantle: with a prodigious home run swing (536 in all), a breathtaking OBP (.421 for his career), and an eye for driving in runs (1509 in 18 seasons). Which is simply to acknowledge that while Mantle’s place in baseball lore is underlined by all the attention he received in the Big Apple, his place in baseball is not a function of where he lived, but how he played. Which is why fans my age (that generation who actually saw Mantle play the game), tend to overlook the “other Mantle” that has gotten so much attention since his death — the drinking, brawling, promiscuous Mantle who was great but, because of how he lived, could have been so much greater.

We don’t care.

There is an idea abroad that the story of “the real Mickey Mantle” — the player who spent his post-game hours boozing and sleeping with women to whom he wasn’t married — has somehow diminished his greatness. That, when we millions of his admirers learned the real story behind “the boy with the lopsided grin,” we recoiled in disbelief and began to rethink our admiration for his feats. Really? Even as a kid, I could have told you that a handsome boy from Oklahoma with a bat in his hand probably lived life as fully off the field as he played it on the field. And that rather than being a man with a halo, The Mick was probably a man with a drink in his hand. So while the strength of Jane Leavy’s new book on Mantle is that it explores this point, its weakness is that Leavy is shocked when she discovers that one of baseball’s greatest players was a gin-drinking womanizer. It makes me want to scream: “don’t you get it?” The fact that Mantle was who he was doesn’t detract from his myth, it is his myth. So please . . . forget who you think Mickey Mantle might have been. If you want to find out who Mickey Mantle really was, do what every fan does — take a look at his numbers.

If the Washington Nationals were to play 162 games against the Atlanta Braves they might have a shot at a division title. The Nats dominance of the Tomahawks continued on Sunday, as Livan Hernandez (aided by a clutch single in the 7th from rookie shortstop Ian Desmond), won the second game of a three game tilt against the Braves — and notched their tenth win in 18 tries against the Atlanta Nine. The Braves must think they’re snake bit: the Nationals have dominated the Braves in 2010, the only team they seem to play well against. Hernandez was his normal masterful self in throwing six innings of two run baseball — though he left the game tied. His ERA now stands at a respectable 3.73 for the season, as he solidified his 2010 legacy as the best starter on a shaky Nats’ staff. Desmond’s hit in the seventh was the difference, scoring Willie Harris and Danny Espinosa.

Past A Diving Scutaro: The Red Sox-Yankees match-up in New York last night was a classic example of late season drama, as well as a kind of petri dish for what ails The Nation. The game seemed well in hand for Boston until the ninth, the result of an unusually strong start from the normally shaky Daisuke Matsuzaka, who gave the Bosox eight innings of four hit ball. This was not only Dice-K’s best season outing, it might well have been the best performance of his career. True: the former Saitama Seibu Lions star (btw: the Lions were saved from bankruptcy by Boston bucks shelled out for a look-see at Dice-K) had help from the otherwise brilliant Mariano Rivera in the top of the 9th. The normally shut-the-door closer collapsed against a patient Boston line-up, who victimized the Yanks with dink and dunk singles and four steals. The Red Sox plated two runs and went into the last half-frame with a 3-2 lead. When the wind whipped up and it began to rain, Yankees fans streamed from the park — the game was over, finished, lost.

Drum roll: In ambled Jonathan Papelbon to shut down the Yankees line-up in the ninth. It’s not like the Steinbrenners were shaking in their boots: you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows and you don’t need a scouting report to tell you to sit on Johnny’s splitter. Which is precisely what the batsmen for The Empire did, vengefully dinking and dunking the closer’s right-down-Broadway fastballs and happily banking his not-even-close free passes . . . and knotting the game at 3. Here was Papelbon’s no account (I-wish-my-splitter-actually-worked) line: single (Swisher), single (Teixeira), steal (Nunez), walk (Rodriguez) and single — Robinson Cano. With the game actually on the line, Papelbon threw like Dick Raditz, inducing a Posada strike out and Berkman fly. Too late.

When the Red Sox went quietly in the 10th, the game’s result seemed fated. “Francoma” had seen enough of Papelbon, and brought in Hideki Okajima (the pride of Kyoto) to face the Yanks in the 10th — inducing metaphorical teeth gnashing in the rain-soaked northeast. But the Red Sox made it interesting: after Curtis Granderson reached on a single, Brett Gardner bunted him over — and was safe at first. Granderson then took third on a throwing error steal (never mind, that’s five steals in just 1.5 innings!) and Okijima intentionally walked Jeter, loading the bases. It was a wise move. Marcus Thames grounded into a fielder’s choice, with Granderson thrown out at the plate. While the bases were still loaded, Okijima was sitting pretty. The Yanks were through the heart of their line-up, the game was still tied, and Hadeki was staring in at . . . ah . . . ah . . . Juan Miranda. You know — the .222 minor league prospect no-bat lots-of-speed Juan Miranda. So, with Gardner, Jeter and Thames dancing off the bases, what did Okajima do with Miranda?

He walked him.

(below: Juan Miranda mobbed by teammates after his walk-off walk)

Nationals fans got a glimpse of the team’s future double play combination on Friday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, as Danny Espinosa got the starting nod at second base. After spending most of three years in the minors (with stints in Vermont, Potomac, Harrisburg and Syracuse), Espinosa cashed in on his early-September call up by launching his first home run (in the top of the third inning) into the right field seats at PNC Park and turning a seamless double play at a position that he will play well into the future. The Desmond-Espinosa combo is likely to be the opening day up-the-middle defense for the Nats in 2011. Espinosa’s exposure at second base was the only piece of good news for the Nats on Friday night, however, as the Pirates beat up on steady starter Livan Hernandez, touching up the right hander for eight earned runs in just 4.1 innings. Hernandez was philosophical about his outing: “It’s not happening sometimes,” he said. “When it’s not your day, it’s not your day.”

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: We had plenty of responses from readers on our posting on Albert Pujols and Lou Gehrig, including complaints that we are “N.L.-centric” and that we purposely left out “the one guy who puts Albert to shame.” The reader went on a screed, saying that “Alex Rodriguez has better numbers, plays for a better team, has more awards and plays a more difficult position” than Pujols. “Pujols is a very, very good player,” the reader said. “But he’s no Alex Rodriguez.” So we checked the numbers. Rodriguez has 604 home runs in 17 seasons (Pujols has 401 in ten), has a career BA of .303 (Pujols is at .332), has a career OBP of .387 (Pujols is at .425) and has won three MVPs — the same number as Pujols. Albert doesn’t play for the Empire, but he’s played in two World Series, while Rodriguez has played in one. Pujols lags behind Albert in games played (of course), but all that this means is that Pujols (who’s played in 1530) has about 700 games (Rodriguez has played in 2278) to catch the pride of the Gothams in career home runs — and at this rate (of about 33 per year) he will. By our reckoning (and at the current rate), when Pujols has played in 2200 games, he will have hit just over 610 homers. The reader is right: Alex Rodriguez is a great player. In fact, he’s the second best player in baseball today.

If it weren’t so obviously cruel, we’d take this space to re-baptize the Baltimore Birds the “Showalters” — in the belief that the Orioles of the last twenty years would soon reflect the go-get-’em attitude of their new manager. But even Showalter (a veteran of turnarounds in Arizona, New York and Texas), is willing to admit that it will take more than a new manager to turn around the ailing Orioles: it will take good starting pitching, a revamped bullpen, eight fielders who know their business (and can swing a bat) — and a change in attitude that has been sorely lacking in Baltimore for the last two decades. It will take, as Showalter says, little “golden nuggets” that Showalter will sift out of the detritus that has become Baltimore’s soiled nest. “There isn’t anything too complicated about this,” Showalter said at his introductory news conference. Well, he oughta know.

Showalter comes with a reputation for being a “the ultimate baseball perfectionist” with “a militaristic attention to detail.” Not surprisingly, he’s made some enemies. In his first managing job in New York, Showalter did things his way, to the great irritation of owner George Steinbrenner. Worse yet, back in 1995 — when Steinbrenner put enormous pressure on Showalter to win, he did: but not enough for George. Then too, Showalter was getting more attention than “the Boss,” a line that Yankee managers knew they should never cross. And so it was that eventually Showalter resigned — after refusing Steinbrenner’s orders to dismiss two of his coaches. But Buck he didn’t go quietly. In the wake of his resignation, Showalter called Steinbrenner “Fidel” and said that sitting next to him on a team charter was “the worst flight I ever had.” The quotes ended up in the New York Times. Steinbrenner was enraged, though not because Showalter compared him to Castro (he probably liked that), but because he’d gotten the last word. Steinbrenner didn’t know the half of it. When “the boss” died earlier this summer, Showalter praised him, called him a friend, and then paid a compliment — to himself: “I was one of the managers he never fired. I resigned because he wanted to get rid of my coaches. He knew where people’s buttons were, and mine were loyalty to my coaches.” Rest In Peace, George.

The Steinbrenner-Showalter saga is certainly known to Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos (whom Birdland fans blame for the demise of their “once proud franchise”), so it might be considered a testament to Angelos that he would hire Showalter anyway. But Showalter’s enemy’s list (“He never even smelled a jock in the big leagues,” current Pale Hose manager Ozzie Guillen once said. “Mr. Baseball never even got a hit in Triple-A. I was a better player than him, I have more money than him and I’m better looking than him”), is complemented by more than a handful of detractors who claim that “the smartest man in the room” is overrated. These detractors point out that while Showalter is given credit for turning around the last place Arizona Diamondbacks, the real credit (they say), should actually go to D-Backs owner Jerry Colangelo. Colangelo signed Randy Johnson, Todd Stottlemyre and Steve Finley to lead the team into 1999 — and into first place in the N.L. West. But this isn’t damning with faint praise, it’s faint damning with just the right praise: Showalter knew his team wasn’t going to win with Andy Benes, Alan Embree and Devon White and he made that clear to Colangelo in the off-season. The lesson is now clear; not only will Bucky get the last word, he’ll insist that you spend some money. There are worse things.

So all of this is good news, right? Well, not exactly. While Showalter was the choice of Orioles’ owner Peter Angelos, it’s not a secret that team president Andy MacPhail preferred the lower key Eric Wedge. MacPhail might have had a point — one of the reasons that former Texas Rangers’ owner Tom Hicks had problems with Showalter is because of constant complaints that Buck kept the Rangers’ clubhouse in turmoil. As soon as Showalter’s hiring was announced, the inimitable Camden Chat ran a long piece by Rangers’ blogger Adam Morse (of Lone Star Ball), who commented that “Rangers players never knew exactly where they stood with Showalter, and that he preferred it that way . . . he either wanted guys on edge, or just simply wasn’t comfortable communicating directly with the players.” MacPhail wasn’t the only one questioning Angelos’ choice. Just this morning, Orioles icon Rick Dempsey took on both Angelos and Showalter, calling the hiring “the biggest mistake made here in a long time, and I’m not talking just today, I mean over the years.” Roughly translated, what Dempsey means to say is that Angelos should have hired a manager from within. Showalter is an “outsider” — he doesn’t understand Baltimore.

So there they are, the legion of critics who think that Buck Showalter is not the second coming: George Steinbrenner, Tom Hicks, Rick Dempsey and a huge crowd of Baltimore naysayers and former players who think that a manager with “a militaristic attention to detail” and a huge ego will be bad for the Birds. As opposed to? Well, as opposed to Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove, Phil Regan, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo and Dave Trembley, men who presumably had no egos and could care less about details — and who led the Baltimore Orioles to precisely two postseason appearances in 27 years. These naysayers ought to listen to Orioles’ commentator Drew Forrester, one of a legion of sports gabbers that we (we here at CFG) never pay attention to. Except in this case: “This is the Orioles,” Forrester writes. “And we have about 4 players who can play. And maybe two pitchers. And a couple of other live arms that need some tutoring. Of the 25 guys on the roster right now, I can think of six I’d take on my team. I hope Showalter comes in, stomps his feet and demands better players from Angelos and MacPhail. I hope he’s a prick to deal with in the Warehouse and I hope he threatens to fight people if the roster isn’t improved and quality free agents aren’t pursued.”

Yeah, that’s right. So while Showalter has a controversial background and knows how to make enemies, he also has a history of winning. Which is hell of a lot more than you can say for either Peter Angelos or Andy MacPhail.

Backed by a ten hit and seven run attack, Livan Hernandez pitched his second complete game of the season, as the Washington Nationals notched a split of their four game series in Cincinnati. The Nats 7-1 victory compensated, at least in part, for the paucity of hits and runs the team suffered in both Miami and Cincinnati over the last seven games. Adam Dunn and Roger Bernadina homered for the Nats, as Nyjer Morgan and Willie Harris finally seemed poised to break out of their respective slumps. But the story on Thursday was the work of Hernandez, who picked up five strikeouts while holding the Reds to just seven hits. Hernandez was masterful: he threw 102 pitches, 79 of them for strikes. The complete game gave the Nats’ bullpen a needed rest, as the team now heads into Milwaukee for a three game set against the suddenly average Brew Crew.

Those Are The Details, Now For The Headlines: Ralph Houk, who died on Wednesday, was once one of the giants of the game. It’s not that Houk was that good a player — he appeared in only 91 games over eight seasons, but he managed the New York Yankees in 1961, when Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris made home run headlines. Houk steered the Yankees through some of their most successful campaigns. Under Houk’s leadership the Yankees won 109, 94 and 104 games — taking two world series (against the Red in ’61 and the Giants in ’62). He went on to manage the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox before becoming a vice president of the Minnesota Twins. He was renowned for his temper, though former Yankees’ testify that he knew how to handle a team. He had enormous influence on future managers Bobby Cox and Tommy Lasorda. “I remember what a tough guy he was,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said upon hearing of his death. But Houk was also a student of the game, showing up hours before the first pitch to study line-ups and statistics.

Houk’s tough guy demeanor was well earned. He had a fearsome temper and was called “the Major,” an affectionate term that also accurately described his wartime experiences. Houk was a minor league catcher in the South Atlantic League when World War Two began. He put down his mitt and was mustered into the army as a private in February of 1942. He was picked for officers’ candidate school at Fort Knox and was deployed to Europe with the 9th Armored Division. Houk was a better soldier than baseball player: he landed at Omaha Beach, served during the Battle of the Bulge and was one of the first American soldiers to cross the Remagen Bridge into Germany. “I sent him on three missions in April of 1945 and one day he returned with nine prisoners of war,” a senior American officer later recalled.  “His reports invariably had an undetermined number of enemy killed.” Houk earned a Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart during the war. To the last day of his life he kept the helmut he had worn as a young lieutenant when he landed on Omaha Beach. It had a bullet hole in it. He died in Florida at the age of 90.