October 14, 2012
A day after C.C Sabathia pitched a gem to finish off the Orioles in the Division Series, game one of the ALCS was nothing short of a typical Yankees playoff game. Playing their third extra-inning game in four nights, it all ended in the 12th inning when the Detroit Tigers tacked on the go-ahead runs to win it over the Yankees 6-4. This spoiled a miraculous Yankees comeback in the 9th inning when Raul Ibanez once again came through big in the clutch sending a 2-run homerun to tie the game at 4. What made this game more of a heartbreaking loss was when the Derek Jeter left the game for good after he suffered a broken ankle injury in that 12th inning diving to stop a ground ball up the middle. The Yankees Captain might have seen his last action for the remainder of the playoffs. Jeter will certainly join Closer Mariano Rivera cheering their team on from the sidelines.
Game 1 was scoreless for the first 5 innings as Yankees Andy Pettitte faced off against Tigers Doug Fister. Doug Fister has had success against the Yankees especially in the postseason last year as he won game 5 in the division series against the Yankees. It was a pitcher's duel but in the top of the 6th, the Detroit Tigers would be the first to draw blood as they put up 2 runs with Prince Fielder and Delmon Young with RBI singles. Andy Pettitte would leave after 6.2 innings with 5 strikeouts. In the top of the 8th, Delmon Young would homer to left field off of reliever Derek Lowe giving the Tigers a 3-0 advantage and a RBI single by Avisail Garcia would have the Tigers leading 4-0. Doug Fister on the other hand doing what he does in the postseason completely shut the Yankees out with 6.1 innings pitched and surrendered no runs. The Yankee offense was a complete disappointment as they had the bases loaded in three different innings and were unable to push across a run. The Yankees offense once again not coming through with runners on base at a critical time of year.
That is when the bottom of the 9th inning came around and Tiger's Manager Jim Leyland decided to go to his closer Jose Valverde in a non-save situation. Russell Martin would lead off the bottom of the 9th with a single. With 1 Out, Ichiro Suzuki would send a 2-Run homerun to right field to finally put the Yankees on the board. Then after a walk to Mark Teixeira, Raul Ibanez would come to the plate and for the third time in just a week and a half, Ibanez would deliver. A huge 2-Run homerun would come off of Raul's bat into the right-field seats tying the game at 4 and posing a huge Yankee comeback. We go to extra-innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, the Yankees would threaten and put themselves 90 feet away from scoring the winning run. With Brett Gardner at third and 2 Outs, Derek Jeter would pop a short fly to right to end the inning. Top of the 12th, and things went astray for the Yankees. David Phelps would issue a lead-off walk to Miguel Cabrera and would break a string of 15 consecutive innings pitched by Yankee relievers while not surrendering a walk. With Prince Fielder grounding out and moving Cabrera over to second, Delmon Young would come to the plate. With Cabrera at second, Delmon Young would send a line drive fly ball to right field and just out of the reach of a leaping Nick Swisher. The ball would roll all the way to the wall scoring Cabrera and giving Detroit a 5-4 lead. The next play, Johnny Peralta would ground one near up the middle and Derek Jeter would make a diving stop for it, unfortunately for the worst, Jeter's injured ankle would go along with it. Jeter left the game with a broken left ankle and perhaps will be done for a while. The Tigers would tack on another run and come away with this one at the end. Drew Smyly came in for Detroit for the win in the bottom of the 12th inning. The Yankees continue to struggle with scoring runs and Alex Rodriguez would add on two more strikeouts with an 0-3 night.
The Yankees host game 2 this afternoon in the Bronx. Huroki Kuroda would oppose Detroit's Anibal Sanchez on the mound. The Yankees look to take a game at home before going off to Detroit.
B.C Sports
Brian C
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