Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees 2012 ALCS review – Part 1
After beating the Oakland Athletics 3-2 in the American League Division Series, the Detroit Tigers flew to New York to face the Yankees in the best of seven game American League Championship Series.
Tigers dominated the Yankees in almost every aspect in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. The pitching rotation, in particular, played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash. Starter Doug Fister displayed some high quality throwing skills to help Tigers
dictate the terms. Fister gave up six hits in six plus shut-out inning to dent Yankees’ confidence levels.
"It is kind of a flashback to when Mo didn't get up," Girardi said. "Oh, boy, if he is not getting up, something's wrong. We have seen what he played through in the last month and a half, and the pain he has been in, and how he found a way to get (through)
it. So it brought back a flashback for me."
Striking-out batters at regular intervals, he created all sorts of problems for the Yankees’ batting line-up. His counterpart from New York, veteran Andy Pettitte gave up seven hits and two runs in six plus innings. Relief pitcher Derek Lowe and David Phelps
also struggled to control the flow of runs. Phelps gave up three hits and two runs in the 12th as the Tigers secured a memorable win to start ALCS on a winning note.
Slugger Prince Fielder singled to centre in the sixth inning to break the deadlock and put Tigers on the board. Delmon Young showed the stuff he is capable of as he smacked a solo home-run to left in the eighth. Avisail Garcia earned an RBI singled to centre
in the eighth to extend Tigers’ lead to 4-0.
"If we are going to be good enough, we have to be able to take a punch, and we took a big punch," Leyland said. "We took a right cross in the ninth inning but we survived it."
Leading the score 4-0 in the ninth, it seemed the Tigers will hold on to their lead comfortably to wrap up a deserving victory but the Yankees had other ideas. Ichiro Suzuki, who was acquired from the Seattle Mariners, belted a two run home-run against Tigers’
closer Jose Valverde to add spice to the proceedings.
Raul Ibanez’s two run home-run in the ninth forced the game into the extra inning but the night belonged to the Tigers who showed nerves of steel under pressure to prevail in series opener. Young delivered the tie breaking double to deep right and Andy Dirks
reached on an infield single in the 12th to give their side a much needed victory.
Tigers continued the good work in Game 2 of the series as well. Starter Anibal Sanchez had a memorable time on the mound as he gave up just three hits in seven scoreless innings to lay the foundation of an impressive 3-0 Tigers’ victory.
Relief pitcher Phil Coke kept Yankees on the defensive as he tossed up two shut-out innings. Yankees’ starter Hiroki Kuroda allowed five hits and three runs while striking-out 11 batters but he was unfortunate to end up on the losing side. Delmon Young,
Garcia and Miguel Cabrera drove in vital runs for the Tigers in a low scoring game.
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Continued in Part 2
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