Tigers Oust Yankees In Five, Advance To ALCS

Nobody else has a chance, they said.

Except in late September, somehow the Red Sox fell off the Christmas list. And now in early August, the Yankees are gone, too. You can spend all the money you like, but there are some things you just can’t buy, among them love and the American League flag. Shoot, this year you couldn’t even buy a trip to the Championship Series.

If the ball goes even six inches farther, it goes over Granderson’s glove and at least three runs score. Yes, “at least”, because with Granderson’s dive, and the deep dimensions of Comerica Park, and Kelly’s above-average speed, he could have had an inside-the-park grand slam.

And to think, Yankee fans feared A.J. Burnett appearing in this series. They should have known that someone would step up to help. Tuesday night was Curtis Granderson’s night to shine.

The game picked up Saturday with the Yankees coming to bat in the bottom of the second, and the score 1-1. Against Nova and the New York bullpen, the Tigers would not add to their total until garbage time in the ninth. Against Doug Fister and the Detroit bullpen, the Yankees would.

Nova protected the one-run lead in the top of the sixth, and then in the bottom half, the door was blown open. It very nearly was not. The Yankees had two outs and two runners in scoring position, and Fister had an 0-and-2 count on Brett Gardner. But Gardner grounded the next pitch into right-center for a two-run single that provided critical insurance.

ser·en·dip·i·ty   /ˌsɛrənˈdɪpɪti/ noun

1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.

2. good fortune; luck

(via dictionary.com)

Then serendipity went and bit me in the ass.

The downside here for the Tigers is that Saturday’s Game 1 lineup will face a righty even though it was put together to face a lefty. The Yankees get it worse, though, because all of a sudden, Sabathia will start only one game, where he was originally likely to get two if the series advanced beyond three games. That’s a big, big blow.

So that’s the way things are for now. We’ll see whether rain causes further complications on Saturday. Which it very well might.

So, it’s raining in New York. It’s raining a lot.

CC Sabathia just barely made it through the top of the second, and finished with a flourish as he racked up his fourth strikeout already. At that point -- 9:06 Eastern Daylight Time -- the umpires stopped the game and summoned the grounds crew with the tarpaulin.

The Yankees wouldn’t score again and stranded runners on the corners, but they did even things at 1-1, and forced Verlander to throw 25 pitches. He walked two guys and isn’t yet in a rhythm.

Sabathia, on the other hand, might be in a rhythm. In the top of the second, he needed 12 pitches to retire three bats, with two by strikeout. Sabathia’s up to four strikeouts through seven batters.

Delmon Young hit 12 home runs this season: four with the Twins, then eight with the Tigers after joining the club in the middle of August.

Of those 12 home runs, exactly zero were hit to the opposite field. Delmon Young is a pull-hitter, and so he hits his home runs over the left-field fence. Not the center-field fence. The left-field fence. This year, anyway.

But it’s funny what happens when you look a little deeper. Let’s concentrate on peripherals, and two statistics - FIP, and xFIP. How do Verlander and Sabathia come out?

FIP: