Power Supply Looks to Be Unlimited

Rodriguez, Teixeira Combine to Make Yankees' Offense Most Potent in Baseball

MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 10 -- By now, half the pitchers in baseball have the same horror story, because the Yankees do it to almost everybody.

They rip the best pitches from the best pitchers. (Johan Santana gave up a career-worst nine earned runs against the Yanks this year.) They single-handedly crush ERAs. (For Baltimore reliever Chris Ray, five appearances against the Yankees added up to 2 2/3 innings and 11 earned runs.) They dominate ninth innings, in which they had a team-wide .323 average this year, and in which they won 15 times in the final at-bat.

Sooner or later, the Yankees get to everybody, and they do it with offense. New York, which can sweep the Minnesota Twins by winning Sunday's Game 3, became baseball's best team this season while depending on a muscular, and improved, lineup. Twenty-three times this year the Yankees scored 10 or more runs. They hit 20 more homers (244 total) than any other team in the majors. They led the sport in on-base percentage, slugging percentage, walks and runs.

Since entering the postseason, they've continued to give pitchers fits. Through two games, they've hit four homers, including Friday's twinned highlights. Facing Minnesota closer Joe Nathan in the ninth, Alex Rodriguez smeared a game-tying two-run homer to right-center. Two innings later, Mark Teixeira ended the game with a walk-off line drive homer just down the left field line.

"We got what we needed when we needed it," Manager Joe Girardi said. "You know, we do have different ways that we can score. But those guys in the middle of the lineup came [through]. Those are two guys that it's hard to navigate around."

Girardi's lineup goes much deeper than two, of course. This season, seven Yankees had 22 or more homers, and one who didn't, Derek Jeter, merely finished with a .334 average. They benefit not only from depth, but from variety. New York's lineup on Friday night started righty-lefty-switch-righty-lefty -- balanced as an anagram.

Though plenty of the marquee names were in place last year, the Yankees weren't quite the same force in 2008, when they averaged 4.9 runs per game. (They averaged 5.6 runs per game this year.) General Manager Brian Cashman made it a point last offseason to upgrade the lineup, and he did so mainly by acquiring one player: Teixeira, also pursued by the Washington Nationals, who eventually signed an eight-year, $180 million deal.

With Teixeira batting third and Rodriguez batting fourth, the Yankees have one of the most imposing combos in baseball. Teixeira sees better pitches because Rodriguez hits behind him. Rodriguez's has more RBI opportunities because Teixeira gets on base ahead of him.

"We've had a great relationship all year," Teixeira said. "We've had a lot of fun playing together. I've played with some great three and four hitters being a part of some great combos; myself and Chipper Jones, myself and Michael Young in Texas, Vladimir Guerrero last year in Anaheim. And Alex, he's fun to hit with. Getting on base in front of him, I'm going to get a lot of pitches to hit, and he has a chance to drive me in a lot. We seem to work well together."

Teixeira and Rodriguez share a history. They played together in 2003, with the Texas Rangers, when Rodriguez was 27 and Teixeira was a 23-year-old rookie. This time around, Teixeira has influenced Rodriguez. When Rodriguez returned to the team in early May after missing a month because of hip surgery, the pair went out to lunch together and, according to Rodriguez, "talked about a lot of good things."

"I think we make a good combination," Rodriguez said. "Obviously he's a switch hitter which is obviously very powerful in the middle of the lineup, and I'm righty. I think we make a good team. I think we help each other out."