New York Yankees fall to Detroit Tigers 4-6 in Game 1 of ALCS – MLB Update
New York Yankees made a forgettable start to their best of seven match American League Championship Series as they fell to the Detroit Tigers 4-6 at Yankee Stadium in New York, NY on Saturday, October 13 during the series opener.
Yankees’ batting line-up looked clueless against the might of the Tigers’ pitching rotation. Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher all failed to live up to expectations.
Starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda had a decent outing as he gave up five hits and three runs in seven plus innings to keep Yankees in the hunt. Striking-out a post-season high 11 batters, he showed the stuff he is capable but the Yankees were unable to put enough runs on the board.
"We just have to have guys step up," Mark Teixeira said. "It's been the theme all year. If one team is used to having guys step in to take someone's place, it's us. We've had to deal with it all year."
After Delmon Young and Avisail Garcia belted consecutive home runs to give Tigers a handsome 4-0 lead, All Star Ichiro Suzuki made his presence felt with a two run home-run to right. Raul Ibanez continued to impress the skipper Joe Girardi as he homered to right in the bottom of the ninth to force the game into an extra inning.
"It's a very difficult moment for all of us," said Raul Ibanez of Derek Jeter’s injury. "It's obvious what he means to our team."
"The way to honor Derek, more than anything else, is to get the job done in his absence," general manager Brian Cashman said. "That's what everybody in here intends to do, and that's what they'll focus on -- just like when we lost everybody else."
Having gained the momentum, Yankees would have backed themselves to claim the victory but Tigers had other ideas. David Phelps gave up the tie breaking single to Delmon Young in the 12th as the Tigers managed to avoid an embarrassing defeat in the Bronx.
Tigers’ relief pitcher Jose Valverde took a beating, allowing four runs in the ninth. However, the Tigers were fortunate as they found a new hero in Delmon Young, who showed nerves of steel under pressure to take his side to a famous victory.
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