DETROIT — A.J. Burnett’s approach to tonight’s Game 4 of the ALDS won’t change after the Yankees were defeated 5-4 in Game 3 last night.
“It’s going to be important no matter what,” he said before the Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the series.
Now, the Yankees’ season rests on Burnett’s right arm, and as squeamish as that may make fans, he wasn’t showing any concern.
Burnett referenced Game 2 of the 2009 World Series — a game in which there’s no question he was superb. With the Yankees having lost Game 1 to the Phillies, Burnett fired seven innings of one-run ball, evening the series.
Burnett said the other day his ALDS Game 4 start tonight will not be “any bigger than” that game. But that World Series game stands as Burnett’s greatest moment in pinstripes — at least until tonight, when he will have zero margin for error with the season on the line.
Not the best position for a pitcher whose Yankees career has gone mostly downhill since that World Series triumph.
“Some guys relish the opportunity to change the script,” manager Joe Girardi said. “I feel good about what A.J. is going to do for us [tonight].”
Tonight’s start will be a defining moment for the $82 million righty, whose script has been a horror show — at least to Yankees fans. Asked whether he was motivated to prove wrong the fans who are concerned about him starting, Burnett scoffed.
“I’ve been proving people wrong my whole career, it seems like,” he said. “People are entitled to their opinion. Obviously I give them reasons here and there to doubt. The bottom line is I have confidence in myself. . . . I’m not going to go out and try to prove anything. I’m going to go out and try to win a ballgame.”
Burnett has given people reasons to doubt much more often than “here and there.” He pitched in 33 games this year and posted a 5.15 ERA, second-worst in Yankees history for pitchers allowed to make at least 30 starts. Who has the worst ERA in Yankee history for pitchers with at least 30 starts? Burnett last year, at 5.26.
“I had good games, bad games during the season,” Burnett said. “You can say the same thing about the postseason, but you can’t count me out. I’m going to bring everything I’ve got. And just let A.J. loose out there.”
In his career at Comerica Park, he has a 7.17 ERA in four starts. But this year against Detroit, he made two starts, allowing just five earned runs in 12 innings.
Burnett said he plans to watch film of his two Tigers starts — and, of course, that World Series win.
— Additional reporting by
George A. King III