Jim Leyland and company prepared for their next challenge – MLB Detroit Tigers News
As the Tigers come home to Detroit for two games of American League Championship Series, ace Justin Verlander is scheduled to start the next game. Tigers won 50 games at Comerica Park during the regular season and it will be interesting to see if they can
continue their impressive winning streak to finish off the New York Yankees.
Yankees’ Manager Joe Girardi will be aware of Tigers’ strengths at Comerica Park. Detroit’s pitching rotation is what separates them from other Major League Baseball teams. In Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Anibal Sanchez, Drew Smyly and Doug Fister, they
have some of the finest pitching talent in their rotation.
Yankees struggled to score runs against the Tigers in first two games of the series. Only Raul Ibanez managed to show some resistance which Tigers overcame very comfortably to take a 2-0 series lead. Girardi and his men could expect a similar result if their
offensive struggles continued in the upcoming games.
“Everybody has good confidence but the Yankees are a good team. You can’t sleep with them. They fight you all the time,” said reliever Jose Valverde.
“Can’t take anything for granted. Got to keep pushing, got to keep grinding and take advantage of the situation,” said outfielder Quintin Berry. “But we keep playing like this, I don’t know if anybody’ll get us.”
Sanchez and Fister pitched with great control and accuracy at Yankee Stadium as they combined to pitch 14 shut-out innings against Yankees’ strong batting line-up.
“It feels great. Those two have been arguably our best pitchers throughout the whole season,” said catcher Alex Avila.
“We’re feeling really good about going home 2-0. Hopefully, we can play very good and close it out,” said Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera.
Even though the Tigers prevailed in Game 1 and Game 2, there is a lot of room for improvement for them in the hitting department. Triple Crown Award winner, Miguel Cabrera has not shown his best stuff so far in the post-season.
Leyland and General Manager Dave Dombrowski will be expecting the Tigers’ offence to take on more responsibility to take some pressure off the pitching rotation.
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