A manager spends a season building up trust particularly with his best players. He will show faith during a slump, endure a bad week with the big picture in mind.
But there only is a small focus in the playoffs, when every day feels like a full season. When each game sways momentum. One day you win the ALCS opener in Houston, improve to 4-0 in this postseason, feel like a team riding a magic carpet. Blink twice and the Yankees are now down two games to one.
“You don’t make friends in the postseason,” Joe Torre told me Tuesday before ALCS Game 3.