ESPN highlights available here.

The Score: Tigers 5 – Yankees 3

The Gist: Miguel Cabrera got to Freddy Garcia early, crushing any potential mind games the Yankees’ starter could potentially play on the Tigers, lining a two-run homer down the rightfield corner. Cabrera finished with three hits and RBI. Victor Martinez and Don Kelly drove in the other two runs to give a cushion that wasn’t needed until the bottom of the ninth. The bulk of the day belonged to Max Scherzer who was brilliant, no-hitting the Yankees for six innings. I won’t go into Jose Valverde‘s appearance. If you were lucky enough to miss it, just know it was an inning fraught with panic and despair.

The Quote: “It’s going to be electric.” – Justin Verlander on the environment Monday night at Comerica Park for Game 3.

The Stat: 1 – The number of stolen bases by Cabrera, the only one in the game by either team.

Up Next:

Monday: Tigers vs. Yankees @ Comerica Park | 8:37 p.m. ET | On the air: TBS/AM 1270 and 97.1 FM

Justin Verlander (24-5, 2.40 ERA) vs. CC Sabathia (19-8 3.00 ERA)

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What can you say? In a game in which the Yankees found the right holes, plugged the right holes and the Tigers’ bats were filled with holes, even Doug Fister can’t save you … or keep you close, evidently.

For me, the balloon popped in the sixth when Magglio Ordonez hit a ball up the middle that would’ve been a hit had not Robinson Cano been covering the base on Austin Jackson‘s stolen-base attempt.

And, when Al Alburquerque gives up his first home run of the year, a grand slam to Cano, it’s not going to end well. (By the by, left-handed hitters batted .176 [12-for-68] against Alburquerque in the regular season.)

The Tigers offense showed a few flickers of life but not until the ninth inning. And the, not nearly enough.

So now it’s up to Max Scherzer to bring the Tigers home for Game 3 tied at one game apiece.

Here’s your boxscore.

Doug Fister against the Yankees:

Liftetime

1-2, 6.00 ERA, 3 G, 3 GS, 18.0 IP, 24 H, 12 R, 12 ER, 3 BB, 10 K

In 2011

0-1, 3.86 ERA, 1 G, 1 GS, 7.0 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Last Start/Loss: July 26, 2011 at New York, 4-1

Last win: Aug. 16, 2009 at Seattle, 10-3

–

Yankees head-to-head against Doug Fister

Here are some random bits for your pre-game enjoyment and consideration:

• Ken Rosenthal likes the Tigers’ chances against the Yankees. Watch his video series preview.

• In case you missed it yesterday, Christina Kahrl put together a solid article featuring American League playoff managers. Here’s a Jim Leyland-related nugget:
  

  Leyland makes his impact through who plays, and when. He’s built productive platoons in the past, and his third-base combo of Wilson Betemit and Brandon Inge or his mixing and matching in right field are just the latest examples. Leyland has long been an active practitioner when it comes to employing defensive replacements, particularly in the outfield corners and at second base, usually as a matter of getting Magglio Ordonez’s glove off the field late in-game, and bringing in Santiago’s leather at the keystone, with superutility players Ryan Raburn and Don Kelly moving around as needed. Multi-positional bit parts like this are another Leyland staple — remember John Wehner? — long before seven-man bullpens made them appear necessary for everyone’s roster. It’s the sort of space-saving that affords carrying third catcher Omir Santos.

  Discuss.

• The Tigers face Ivan Nova tonight and Jim Leyland says he wishes his club had faced the rookie righthander before the ALDS:
  

  Nova is … a complete unknown to the Tigers, who have never faced the righty before.

  “We’re a little concerned about that,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of not having faced Nova before.

  “We don’t know a whole lot, other than what we see on tape, what the scouts say… But really the hitters will have to get a little better feel for that when they get in the box. You can give guys reports. You never know how it’s going to play out.”

  After starting the season 4-4, Nova has reeled off 12 straight wins and has not lost since June 3.

  “We know he’s very good,” Leyland said. “I think he won 16 games, very impressive… I wish we were a little more familiar with him, but we’re not. That’s all part of it. We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get there.”

• Here’s one take we can’t argue with:
  

  Like no other sport, baseball demands that we wait to see what happens: through excessive stall tactics by pitchers and hitters, games that drag from the postdinner hour into the wee hours, interminable rain delays, seasons that equal the life span of leaves, pennant races that make false prophets of us all and playoff series that turn the smart data in the briefcases of the new-age managers and coaches into dust.

You could’ve sketched out a dozen or more scenarios for Game 1 in this ALDS but a suspended game after an inning and a half with the game tied at one?

That might have been in your second or third dozen scenarios.

In what seemed like an eternity, Twitter was blowing up during the rain delay with dire prognostications of how the game and the Tigers’ suddenly appeared doomed. The thing is, at that point we knew nothing.

Now we do. And despite the rainout and the Tigers having to pitch Doug Fister and Max Scherzer at Yankee Stadium, I still like the Tigers chances. So too does Jim Leyland:

“This is not a big deal,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. I don’t worry about stuff like that. I think when the manager makes a big deal about something like that, it affects the players. It is what it is. Good Lord, it rained. So what? It’s all about three. It’s all about three. Win three, lose three.”

The rumors of a day-night doubleheader (should Saturday’s game get washed out too) never seemed right to me. And I’m glad Major League Baseball eliminated that option right away.

Read the rest of this entry »

When the weather is bad in Detroit and most other Midwest and Northeast cities in April and early May, fans complain, as they should, about the crummy conditions at the ballpark. Bad weather in October is much more bearable because, hey, it’s the postseason and it’s supposed to be cold. Besides, not every team gets the pleasure of playing in the fall. So we deal with it.

The folks at The Weather Channel posted a story titled “A Fantasy World Series Pairing … Weather-Wise” and of all the possible World Series scenarios, a Tigers-Phillies matchup ranks as the worst:

Philadelphia’s Weather Basics:
Average Highs, Oct. 19-27: 63-66 degrees
Average Lows, Oct. 19-27: 45-47 degrees
Earliest Measurable Snowfall: Oct. 10, 1979 (2.1 inches)

Detroit’s Weather Basics:
Average Highs, Oct. 19-27: 57-60 degrees
Average Lows, Oct. 19-27: 40-42 degrees
Earliest Measurable Snowfall: Oct. 12, 2006

(snip)

Spending an October night in either of these stadiums has the potential to turn ugly. In the 2008 World Series between the Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays, rain delays held up Games 3 and 5 in Philadelphia, the rain delay in Game 5 actually lasting two days. A storm system came through the area and forced a Monday night game to be postponed until Wednesday, when the Phillies finally won the championship-clinching game.

Detroit is also no stranger to nasty World Series weather. In their 2006 series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Tigers hosted Games 1 and 2, which had first-pitch highs of 56 and 44 degrees, respectively. When the series shifted to St. Louis for Games 3-5, the temperature for any of those three games never made it above 53 degrees, and Game 3 had a first-pitch temperature of 43 degrees.

All of it true. Game four of the 2006 ALCS the 4 o’clock-ish game-time temperature was 45 degrees or so. By the time Magglio Ordonez launched his pennant-clinching homer, it was in the high 30s.

Didn’t matter. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Same goes for this year. Snow or no snow, if I can get a ticket to the World Series in Detroit, I’m there.

In 1984, the Tigers made the no-brainer decision to leave southpaw reliever Sid Monge off the playoff roster. Monge had an undistinguished half seaon with the Tigers after being picked up off waivers from the Padres — 1-0, 4.25 ERA in 19 games.

He didn’t pitch enough in the regular season and, left hander or no, he wasn’t going to appear in the ALCS or World Series. And God knows we didn’t want him to.

This morning we learned that another seemingly no-brainerish decision — to leave Brad Penny off the ALDS roster — was, in fact, not made. What the …? Jim Leyland hasn’t, and likely won’t, offer much to the media to chew on in the way of rationale for this decision.

Here’s the most obvious question: In what scenario, a Game 4 start, long relief, middle relief, would any Tigers fan feel comfortable seeing Penny on the mound? Speaking for myself: None.

Jason Beck reports on his blog:

Both Rick Porcello and Brad Penny are on the roster. One of them is expected to start Game 4 is necessary (sic). The other will work out of the bullpen.

Would I feel better seeing David Pauley? It depends. If it’s relief, absolutely. And would I feel more confident in Porcello starting Game 4? Ditto. (But if there’s a rainout between tonight and Game 4, are we still to believe that Justin Verlander won’t make that start?)

And what about Ryan Perry? Can the Tigers afford his baffling inconsistency in the postseason?

So what we’ve got are four pitchers — the three P’s: Penny, Porcello, Perry, and Max Scherzer — on the ALDS roster that make us wonder if the good version or bad version will show up.

I have no problem with the position-player decisions, even backup catcher Omir Santos. There’s no way Leyland is going to lose a playoff game — or series — by having to put Brandon Inge or Don Kelly behind the plate. No chance. I think Santos makes sense.

But the real news here is Penny. I’m afraid that if we see him in this series we’re going to long for Sid Monge.

Dave Schoenfield weighs in on both A.L. Division Series rosters on the SweetSpot blog.