Detroit Tigers’ pitching rotation too good for New York Yankees – MLB Update
Without a shadow of a doubt, Detroit Tigers’ have the best pitching rotation in the playoffs. The Tigers have some big names in their pitching line-up and it is hard to see teams scoring runs regularly against their rotation.
Four of Tigers’ starts have gone 30 innings between runs allowed and 40 runs between earned runs allowed. The streak goes back to Tigers’ fifth Game of American League Division Series when they shut-out the A’s to reach American League Championship Series.
Of course, ace Justin Verlander deserves a lot of credit for this impressive streak but nothing can be taken away from Anibal Sanchez, Doug Fister and Max Scherzer. The four starters have combined to accumulate a 0.89 earned run average in 56 plus innings. Striking-out 56 batters, Tigers’ pitching rotation has executed their game plan to perfection over the last few days.
Verlander absolutely dominated the Yankees’ batting line-up on Tuesday evening to help the Tigers take a commanding 3-0 lead. Allowing just one run in eight plus innings, Verlander ensured the Yankees were in a 0-3 hole only for the fourth time in post-season series’ history.
“You would think that, with the resumes these guys have and the type of play they put up during the course of seasons, that you would have a pretty set lineup,” said the Yankees’ manager with an astonished shake of his head. “With a set lineup, there’s really not a lot of discussion or a lot of thought process.”
“What has happened has happened,” said Girardi. “We have to find a way to score runs. We have our ace on the mound (Wednesday). Win a game tomorrow and then see what happens.”
For the Yankees, it’s the same old story. After the batting line-up failed miserably in the first two games, Manager Joe Girardi decided to make some changes. Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez were excluded from the batting line-up for Game 3 but it did not have any effect on the result.
It will be interesting to see if ace C.C. Sabathia can out-duel Max Scherzer on Thursday evening to keep Yankees’ hopes alive.
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