Wednesday afternoon’s 7-2 victory to push the best of seven series to a sixth game almost healed the wounds caused by Game 5’s debacle. Unlucky enough to have been there on Tuesday, I can tell you it took me until 2 o’clock the following afternoon before I finally stopped strategizing ways to sneak into the clubhouse, approach Joe Girardi in tip-toe samurai style and rip out his 40-years-too-late orthodontics.

Starting Game 5 with a lead was the peroxide to my “boo-boo.”

Game 5 aside, Tuesday night’s coaching decisions left plenty to be desired. Girardi’s ability to forget what it was like to play the game and get lost in his binder of numbers like the late-to-rise stoner minutes before his final calculus exam, is nauseating. Don’t intentionally walk Murphy with 2 outs and Molina on-deck anymore…please: think about the bunt play like the catcher you used to be and stop charging A-Rod when there is a clear play at third: And for the LOVE OF GOD enough with the Robertson for Boone Logan, righty-lefty switch. It’s not working, none of it is, so please, please stop. And if you give up again before the game is over and put in Sergio Mitre to get rocked because you don’t think you can get runs on the board in the bottom of the 9^th, I swear I’ll start following soccer.

As you can see the pain from Game 4 still lingers a bit, but the only true cure would be winning this series and completing one of, if not the, best come-back series victories in Yankee history. Just how possible is it that the Yankees travel to Texas and take both games including Game 7 off Lee? Let’s take a look.

The first key to staging this comeback is to not think about Game 7 and Cliff Lee until you’ve won Game 6. Don’t want to find yourself sloshed at a bar talking to a tourist from Dallas about why Cliff Lee can’t possibly beat the Yankees AGAIN in the playoffs before they’ve managed to stop Colby Lewis (Who?) from beating them twice in the same series. If Colby Lewis figures out a way to beat the Yankees twice in one series then the Yankee don’t belong in the World Series anyway. So first things first, beat Lewis.

Someone other than Cano and Granderson (I know his ALCS numbers are low but he had a great Game 5 and a fantastic ALDS) has to start hitting in big spots. I’m looking at you A-Rod. So far this post-season Rodriguez is as underwhelming as the sweater your aunt gave you for Christmas last year. He needs to get the big hit and stop being comfortable with taking the walk and leaving it up to Cano. You’re still in the Bronx A-Rod, last year’s eye-popping playoff performance won’t overshadow this year’s poor one. I’d really like to see him hit a couple long balls in Texas and would really appreciate seeing him not start 0-2 in every at-bat.

But it’s not just one guy; it’s all of them. The reason they won game 5 was because everyone hit. Just like everyone hit in the 8^th inning of Game 1. They need to hit with runners on, which is something that has been plaguing them all series, even the game’s they’ve won. The Yankees are a combined 8 for 50 with runners in scoring position in this series: 8 for 50! You can’t hit like that if you want to beat teams when it matters. The Bronx Bombers need to start living up to their nickname and beat Colby Lewis by stringing together hits when they have runners on base.

On the other side of the ball Phil Hughes needs to clean up his mechanics and stop being so predictable. He doesn’t have the fastball of a 1995 Randy Johnson so he should probably stop pitching like he does. He can be incredibly crafty with his breaking pitches and can use his change-up to make his fastball look like it’s as fast as he dreams about. He needs to pitch deep in the game and prevent Girardi from stepping into the spotlight with all of his bullpen match-up switches. Hughes can win this game; it’s just a matter of pitching with confidence and not just throwing the ball as hard as he can. If he does that Josh Hamilton will make him pay, probably more than once.

Teixeira is out for the playoffs. His defense in irreplaceable and the best way for Berkman to try and fill in for Tex on defense is to hit the ball a mile. There isn’t a chance Berkman can imitate Tex at first but he can hit better than Tex did. Of course all it would take to hit better than Teixeira in the ALCS is a single, but Berkman is going to need to hit more than a single if the Yankees expect to pull this thing off. Quick note to the rest of the Yankee infield: make better throws to first base, Berkman isn’t going to help you out as much as Tex did.

The Yankees haven’t really come back to win a series since going down 2-0 to the Braves in 1996 World Series. It’s about time the Yankees did it again. If the Yankees get to game 7, I like their odds. But they have to win Game 6 first.