Tigers win 6-4 in 12 innings, Jeter hurt

Here’s how the SB Nation blog Pinstriped Bible reacted to the loss:

Of course, the biggest loss wasn’t showcased on the scoreboard, but on the field when Jeter left the game via help from the team’s athletic trainer and manager Joe Girardi. After the game, the Yankees announced he will not play for the rest of the season. The news was not taken well by New York fans.

He stayed down, and when the trainer and manager Joe Girardi helped him off the field, he put absolutely no weight on his left leg.

Jeter had been struggling with a foot injury after fouling a ball off his right foot earlier in the playoffs. Girardi said in the post-game press conference that the normal recovery time for this kind of ankle injury is at least three months but it did not appear to be “career-threatening.”

Less than an hour after Raul Ibañez gave the hometown crowd a serious case of the warm fuzzies, everything turned awful for the New York Yankees.

Miguel Cabrera took a leadoff walk in the top of the 12th, and he moved to second on a Prince Fielder ground out. Delmon Young -- already 2-for-5 with two RBIs coming into the at-bat -- rapped his third hit of the night, a line-drive double under the glove of Nick Swisher to score Cabrera from second.

Jose Valverde sure knows how to keep a good party going. The former Tigers closer (just a guess) left the field ignominiously in the ninth, but at least he left with the game tied. Which means extra innings. All the extra innings.

In the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees had a good scoring chance when Curtis Granderson drew a one-out walk. Pinch-runner Brett Gardner stole second, putting the winning run in scoring position. Russell Martin flew out to center, though, and Derek Jeter popped out.

The sound of a thousand writers scrapping a thousand recaps all at the same time ...

He couldn’t ... nah, there’s no way ...

In the top half of the ninth, Jackson hit a leadoff double. More boos rained down from the crowd.

The game is Valverde-proof for now. Not that he’s a bad pitcher. Just interesting!

-- Grant

That brought up ...

...

Boy, that got out of hand in a hurry. Well, almost.

Pettitte passed Cabrera on purpose, because Cabrera’s the best right-handed hitter in the league and Fielder’s a left-handed hitter.

Did Yankee fans cost their team a base in the top of the sixth inning?

Austin Jackson led off the sixth and drove a hot grounder just inside first base and down the line ...

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the second inning, two things happened:

But not in that order.

Following the un-Fister first for Fister, things got back to normal. There was a quick pop-up from Nick Swisher, and Curtis Granderson struck out. Two quick outs, and everything was as it should be for the Tigers’ right-hander.

Then there was two-out magic, such as it is for the 2012 Yankees in the playoffs. Russell Martin lined a single, and Derek Jeter fisted a Fister fastball the fell in front of the fielder for a bloop hit. Ichiro followed with a grounder to short that he beat out in true Ichiro fashion, and that loaded the bases for ...

Andy Pettitte threw 12 pitches in the first inning, nine for strikes. He busted right-handers in with cutters, kept his breaking pitches low in the zone, and teased with change-ups away. I’ve had that paragraph saved in a text file for eight years, and all I have to do is change the number of pitches. What do I do with the time I save? Well, what don’t I do?

But if Pettitte followed the successful-Pettitte template, Doug Fister went way off-script. The control maven started the game with a four-pitch walk to Derek Jeter, and after getting Ichiro and Robinson Cano to fly out, Fister walked Mark Teixeira and Raul Ibanez.

UPDATE: I’m here at Yankee Stadium and 15 minutes into this game and there are at least five sections almost entirely empty. And unlike Friday when it was much the same, the fans don’t have traffic and bad start time as an excuse. So what’s the deal? Tickets are low as $30 on stub hub ... Pete Abe is right, the old ballpark wouldn’t be empty. Here’s a shot during the anthem, and the section behind the foul pole is entirely barren.

-Amy K. Nelson

An MLB spokesperson just announced that Hiroki Kuroda will be in the interview room at 4:30 as the Yankees Game 2 starter in the ALCS. So there you have it.

That means Kuroda be pitching on three days’ rest, which is interesting since the team had actually been stretching him out and because he’s never started on short rest in his big league career.

I’m here at Yankee Stadium and if anyone is coming here tonight, wear extra clothes. It’s cold. As in, really cold. Don’t have an exact temperature but it’s supposed to be in the 40s tonight.

Here is the schedule of pregame events today, in case you were wondering how these things are organized:

Last year, the Tigers won the American League Central with 95 wins and a +76 run differential; this year they won the Central with 88 wins and a +56 run differential.

This year, the Yankees won the American League East with 95 wins and a +136 run differential.