Late Yankees Rally Falls Short In Game 2, Tigers Even Series 1-1

The ALDS matchup between the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers has already been a bit odd, thanks to the rain on Friday that threw off the schedule. On Sunday, the rain returned, and nearly cost the Tigers a shot at the win after Alex Avila slipped on the on-deck circle in the ninth inning, just as the Yankees were mounting their comeback. What could’ve been a dear mistake ended up being a footnote, though, as the Tigers evened the series with a 5-3 Game 2 win.

Below are a few of the highlights from Sunday’s live-blog.

But, of course, we don’t consider only that information. ERA aside, Scherzer is a very good pitcher, and he proved that Sunday afternoon as the Tigers beat the Yankees 5-3 to even the series and take home-field advantage.

Garcia settled in, too. Very little happened for a long time. The score was 2-0 after one and 2-0 after five. Scherzer escaped a small jam in the fifth, but it was a jam of his own making, and through those first five innings, he actually held the Yankees hitless.

Judging from our TV pictures, it looks like most of the fans who left their seats during a seventh-inning downpour just kept on heading home, with their club trailing 4-0.

And without more than a smattering of fans in the stands, will anyone believe it if the Yankees do come back?

They’re a third of the way there.

That brought Jim Leyland out of the Detroit dugout, and he replaced Scherzer with eighth-inning man Joaquin Benoit. The eighth-inning man in the seventh inning? It’s almost as if Leyland sensed that this was a critical moment.

Sensible moves, both.

Logan struck out the next two batters to end the inning, but the Tigers successfully turned a 2-0 lead into a 4-0 lead, and the Yankees are running out of time to get going. They might consider getting a hit, first.

But the fact of the matter is that, four innings in, the Yankees are still searching for their first hit. They looked to have Scherzer on the ropes in the first when he walked two straight guys and fell behind a third 3-and-0, but since then he’s been outstanding, retiring ten in a row.

In this ballpark, the score can change in the blink of an eye, but the Tigers have to be feeling pretty good about where they stand at the moment.

Well, it looks like both starting pitchers have put their struggles behind them. Here’s the event sequence since the start of the second inning:

Anyway. Top four, now. With pitchers like Garcia and Scherzer, the score could change in a hurry, but there are presently no indications that someone’s about to light up the scoreboard.

Does Scherzer have poor control, generally? Not really. He walked 56 hitters this season in 195 innings.

Leyland hasn’t complained, but the rain probably hurt him more than Joe Girardi.

With all apologies to Alex Avila, the Detroit Tigers employ one great hitter: Miguel Cabrera. But wait, we’re getting ahead of our story ...

Austin Jackson led off Game 2 and struck out, which wasn’t a huge surprise considering Jackson struck out 181 times during the regular season.

Young’s showed some power since joining the Tigers at the trade deadline, but his OBP with Detroit is only .298 and his slugging percentage is lower than Peralta’s.

Hey, maybe Leyland knows something we don’t know (in fact, he almost certainly does). But it’s hard to imagine a worse No. 3 hitter, on a good team anyway, than Delmon Young.

But Girardi hasn’t been optimizing his lineup all season, so why start now? The Yankees did finish second in the American League in scoring and third in road scoring, so somebody’s doing something right. And with all those switch-hitters, it won’t be easy for Jim Leyland to play the match-up game with his relievers if Scherzer gets knocked out before the seventh inning. Which he probably will.

Neither pitcher is truly capable of shutting down each of these lineups. Don’t be surprised if this is a slugfest.

Pitchers

Yankees: Freddy Garcia (12-8, 3.62 ERA)

Tigers: Max Scherze (15-9, 4.43 ERA)