Mike Celizic

An unfamiliar thought jumped out of nowhere during Game 2 of the ALDS while New York was bumbling its way out of a 2-0 lead and allowing the Angels to tie the series: “Can it be that the Angels are not only smarter, but tougher than the Yankees?”

It’s clear that the Angels are more fiery than the men in pinstripes. But that doesn’t take a lot. The Yankees, like their manager, try to keep their emotions under control, hiding their competitive drive under a façade of professional confidence and pride. Los Angeles, on the other hand, reflects their own manager, Mike Scioscia, who can show more emotion in ten minutes than Torre shows in a year.

But being fiery doesn’t mean much when you come up against a team that’s smarter and tougher than you are. And that’s where the Yankees like to think they have their advantage — OK, there and in their payroll and all-star roster. They’ll give you the public displays of emotion and simply outsmart and out-tough you.

That’s been their style, but it’s not working, because the Angels are just as tough as they are and, so far, a whole lot smarter.

It could be that the pressure of knowing their own flaws is getting to the Yankees. It wasn’t hard to play smart and be tough during their title run. That was because in addition to Mariano Rivera at the back of the bullpen, they had middle relief and set-up men who could hold a lead.

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If their starter got roughed up early, Ramiro Mendoza could give them anywhere from one to five innings of superb relief, giving the high-octane Yankee offense a chance to catch up. If they needed an inning, Jeff Nelson was once very useful. They had situational guys like Graeme Lloyd, who could get a lefty out, and Mike Stanton, who was also death to lefties and pretty effective against righties, too.

The Yankees don’t have that anymore, and they know it. Tanyon Sturtze was the bridge in the first half of the season, but he’s shot. Alan Embree is no help. Scott Proctor is a prayer. Al Leiter is a memory. If you’re a Yankee, and you see any of them come into the game, you know you’re in trouble.

And when you know you’re in trouble, you start doing dumb things. We saw it in both Games 1 and 2. The first game, the Yankees survived. But the second they didn’t, and the reason that happened is because of errors both mental and physical from Joe Torre on down.

Robinson Cano has struggled in the field. A-Rod chipped in with an enormous error in Game 2 in the field, and compounded it on the base paths late in the game by trying to take second against Benjie Molina on a 1-2 pitch. The Angels figured Rodriguez would steal, and, having three balls to work with, called a pitchout and A-Rod killed a rally before it could start.

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Torre, who has been blistered for overusing Tom Gordon and Rivera, his only two reliable relievers, seems determined not do so in the playoffs. So, when Chien Ming Wang started to tire in the seventh inning of a tie game, instead of bringing in Gordon and holding the score where it was, Torre went to the collection of dead arms in his pen. The result was three runs and a tied series.