NEW YORK — The Detroit Tigers have been miscast as a one-man team, a
collection of role players riding one pitcher's right arm all the way
to October. They are so much more than that, and on the day their
season hung in the balance, facing the pinstriped might of the New
York Yankees, they consigned Justin Verlander to the dugout and proved
what they really are: a threat to win the whole bloody thing.
These Tigers by no means dominated the Yankees or proved themselves the better team in the American League Division Series. They just survived. Thursday night, on the strength of performances from players all over their roster, the Tigers dispatched the Yankees with
These Tigers by no means dominated the Yankees or proved themselves the better team in the American League Division Series. They just survived. Thursday night, on the strength of performances from players all over their roster, the Tigers dispatched the Yankees with
a
3-2 victory in the winner-take-all Game 5. The Yankees' season ended
before 50,960, the largest crowd to ever watch a game at the new Yankee
Stadium.
All of them were moved, at some point, the edge of
their seat during a taut, tense and thrilling game. The Yankees left
the bases loaded down a run in the seventh inning, and in the eighth
Derek Jeter smoked a two-out fly
ball
to the warning track that Jeffrey Maier may have snagged if he was
sitting in the same seat he bought 15 years ago. In the ninth, high-wire
closer Jose Valverde faced the menacing heart of the Yankees' order
– Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez – to save his
51st game in 51 tries.
The Yankees outscored the Tigers 28-17
over the five-game series, and even in the waning moments of the
series the Tigers seemed ready to hand it over to the Yankees. But the
Tigers prepared to fly to Arlington, Texas late Thursday for the
American League Championship Series, which begins Saturday. The
Yankees packed their lockers and wondered what could have gone
differently. The Yankees used six relief pitchers, including ace CC Sabathia for 1 1/3 innings, two days
after
he threw 106 pitches, after rookie starter Ivan Nova exited the game
after two innings with tightness in his right forearm. Manager Joe
Girardi shuttled pitchers in and out of the game like as if managing
under Little League rules dictating everyone gets a chance to play.
The
strategy may have looked something like panic, but it mostly worked.
After Nova allowed two homers in his first seven pitches, the Tigers
managed only one more run, an RBI single in the fifth inning by Victor
Martinez off Sabathia that proved to be the winning run. Tigers starter Doug Fister allowed only one run – a Robinson Cano missile to the upper deck in the fifth inning – as he danced in and out of jams for five innings. Fister allowed five hits and two walks, and he stranded six base runners. The Yankees loaded the bases in the
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