Here's what the Yankees three and four hitters had to say... First from
Tex:
“Last year, everyone expected us to win,” Mark Teixeira said. “When we won, it was amazing. It was a clear path, I guess you could say. We had home-field advantage the whole way. This is going to be a little tougher for us. So it’ll be a challenge.”
Asked if he believed the Yankees were truly underdogs, Teixeira smiled and said: “Yeah, why not? I think it’s fun. I think we’ll enjoy that role.”
And now for
A-Rod:
Well, you know, I said it down the stretch in September, all the teams that are in the postseason are very capable of winning a world championship. We have tremendous parity in our game today, more so than I have seen in my 15 or 16 years being at the Major League level. So that's great for our game overall. At some point every team in the American League has had their struggles and challenges and have had to deal with major injuries. But that's a good thing. I mean, for us to be David in this situation I think is great.
The Yankees are always going to be somewhat favorites because we're the Yankees and that comes with the territory. It is something that we embrace and we like. But they want to call us underdogs, we'll take that role.
Are the Yankees the underdogs? Well, according to
Vegas they're not, at least not until they face the Phillies in the World Series. Either way, I see no problem with the Yanks taking that attitude into the playoffs.
