Detroit Tigers edge past New York Yankees 6-4 in Game 1 of ALCS – MLB Update
Detroit Tigers edged past the New York Yankees 6-4 at Yankee Stadium in New York, NY on Saturday, October 13 in the opening game of their seven match American League Championship Series.
Jim Leyland and company made a dream start to their ALCS in the Bronx as they held their nerves under pressure to prevail in the opener. Tigers’ pitching rotation dominated the Yankees right from the start of the contest.
Starting pitcher Doug Fister produced a magical performance as he gave up just six hits in six plus scoreless innings to dent Yankees’ confidence levels. Striking-out batters at regular intervals, he created all sorts of problems for New York’s batters.
Relief pitcher Phil Coke, Joaquin Benoit, Octavio Dotel and Drew Smyly combined to concede just two hits in five innings as the Tigers reached home safely.
"They did a great job of making a comeback. I think we did an even better job of staying strong and fighting," Smyly said.
After both teams wasted several scoring opportunities in first five innings of the game, Tigers’ slugger Prince Fielder broke the deadlock with an RBI single to centre. Delmon Young had an excellent game with the bat as he added an RBI single to right in
the sixth to double Detroit’s lead to 2-0.
Young and Avisail Garcia hit back-to-back home-runs in the eighth to help the Tigers establish complete control over the contest but the game wasn’t over yet.
Ichiro Suzuki showed just what he is capable of as he smacked a two run home-run against Tigers’ reliever Jose Valverde to put Yankees on the board. The inform hitter, Raul Ibanez homered to right in the bottom of the ninth to force the game into the extra
inning.
"We are going to put our heads together and we'll talk with him," Leyland said of Valverde, who apparently pitched with injury. "We will talk with the staff and try to figure out if there is something going on that maybe is being camouflaged. ... And everything
will be cleared up for everybody by the time I come in here before the game tomorrow."
Fittingly, it was Young who helped the Tigers escape with an RBI double to deep right in the 12th.
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