Today is October 17 and a year ago, the Yankees were beating the Angels in 13 innings on Jerry Hairston’s dash to the plate. That gave them a 2-0 lead heading into three games in Anaheim, meaning the Yankees had five games to win two.

Now because of the events of Game Two, the Yankees face a five-game series with the Rangers and whoever wins three games first will be the AL Champion.

Many wondered how the Rangers would respond to blowing a five-run lead in Game One. The answer was pretty clear when they laid a 7-2 beating on the Yankees yesterday.

In their first trip to Yankee Stadium since mid-April, the Rangers worked out first as by taking a loose session of fielding, throwing and batting practice to go along with a drill of pitcher’s fielding practice.

Maybe it is because they have Cliff Lee going in Game Three and may face the unpredictable A.J. Burnett in Game Four, which appears to still be the case since CC Sabathia’s scheduled bullpen session did in fact occur.

Lee is 6-0 in the postseason pitching for the Phillies and Rangers. The Yankees saw Lee twice in the World Series and won the game started by A.J. Burnett after facing Lee.

As for the Yankees, while the chatter has been and will increase about Lee, they have a pretty good guy on the mound in Game Three.

That would be Andy Pettitte, who has made 41 postseason starts and won 19 of them. He is unbeaten in his last nine postseason starts (5-0 with a 2.88 ERA, spanning 56 1/3 innings). The only others who had longer streaks in postseason play were Roger Clemens (12 starts from 2001-04) and Orel Hershiser (10 from 1985-1995).

It is almost as Pettitte’s start has become an afterthought to all the superlatives surrounding Lee’s postseason presence and that’s probably fine with the Yankees, especially Pettitte.

"I guess I can say I’m used to that," Pettitte said. “It’s always maybe the other guy that’s going to get that. That’s totally fine with me. I’m not a guy who likes a lot of attention. I’m kind of uncomfortable with a lot of attention."

As for other Yankees, Derek Jeter and Joe Girardi remain extremely confident in Pettitte and who wouldn’t with that type of experience.

"Besides just having good stuff, Andy Pettitte knows how to pitch," Girardi said. "He’s been through it so many times, does not become rattled and knows how to prepare for this type of game. Experience is an important thing when it comes to this time of year because you don’t expect Andy to get too hyped up."

"He’s got a great approach," Jeter added. "He sticks with his plan. He knows what has made him successful. He doesn’t deviate from his plan. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself. It doesn’t mean he’s going to be successful but you know he’s not going to be flustered too much on the mound. Pretty much every situation you can think of he’s been in."

The chatter, typing and tweeting is increasing about the Yankee starting pitching problems and until the Yankees prove otherwise by pitching better than what Sabathia and Phil Hughes showed, they will continue being prominent.

Some past Yankee teams have shown to overcome that, even the 1998 team when it was down 2-1 in the ALCS and then Orlando Hernandez pitched a gem in Game Four.

As for Lee a lot of things make him so good. One that stands out at least in Pettitte’s estimation is the cutter, the same thing that makes Mariano Rivera so good.

Lee threw that pitch a career high 19.8 percent of the time, up from the 12.4 percent in 2009.

In three starts against the Yankees, the cut fastball was thrown the following amount of times:

June 29 – Seattle at New York – 34 cutters, 27 strikes

August 10 – New York at Texas – 20 cutters, 15 strikes

September 12 – New York at Texas – 33 cutters, 19 strikes.

"What is separating him from any other pitcher right now is really his cutter – how late it is," Pettitte said. "People will whatever (he doesn’t have dominating stuff). That cutter has to be pretty dominating. It has to be moving extremely well for guys to have such a hard time handling it. I think at this stage right now – that’s what’s separating him from everyone else is to be able to cut that ball like he’s doing to both sides of the plate.

"It has to be moving extremely late for guys not to be able to get their barrel on it the way they’re not doing."

Finally, there has been some chatter in various areas of the AM dial about the rosin on Lee’s hat. Some might think it is a method of giving him an unfair advantage but Girardi does not agree and neither does Lee.

"It’s rosin," Lee said. "I go to the rosin bag quite a lot. I touch my hate in the same place over and over and it just accumulates."

So in a little more than 24 hours as the Yankees conclude batting practice with their special drill, expect a lot a good playoff matchup between Lee and Pettitte.