CANO RIDES THE SUPERNOVA

The Yankees lead the ALDS 1-0. I liked typing that.
(Photo: Getty)
"Nova's doing great." That's my 9 year old. Sometimes the most simple statement speaks volumes. He's right. Ivan Nova was terrific tonight. He looked like a seasoned veteran who's been pitching in the playoffs for 10 years. He had total control, for the most part and trusted his fielders to take care of business behind him. Tonight, pitching and hitting was balanced perfectly. The Yankees looked good... damn good.Nova ran into some trouble in the 5th, you could tell, alittle wild, balls in the dirt were making Martin work a bit behind the plate and with 2 men on and a solid hit to Granderson, it looked for sure like Alex Avila was going to score from second. Not so fast, a throw to Derek Jeter and then a throw to Russell Martin and they pegged him at the plate. Martin held onto it, unbelievable. Tie game 1-1 after the 5th. I know the play was a normal type of play, clearly you try and nail the runner at home, but the play just reminded me of the Jeter Flip. Not the same impact of it, but just the smoothness of Jeter, always there, always instinctive and always in the big play. I was impressed. Again... Kudos to Martin for holding onto that ball. That play alone was the turning point of the game for the Yankees. Momentum started there.The Robinson Cano double started the offense and to be honest, it looked like a homer to me. It was a tough call. I am not privy to the rule book, I didn't know that if the ball bounced back into the field, it wasn't a homer. Who the hell knows. I just assumed it was a home run, but I'll take the double. 2-1 Yankees in the 5th.

The top of the 6th for Nova was great; A double play executed by Robinson Cano and then a diving catch to right field by Nick Swisher and you could see the momentum shifting the Yankees way. By the time the bottom of the inning, Mark Teixeira doubled, Jorge Posada walked and Brett Gardner knocked them both in.At that point it was 4-1 Yankees. The best part was after Derek Jeter hit a single, the Stadium was chanting MVP - MVP - MVP when Curtis Granderson came to the plate. With surround sound, I felt like I was there. Once Granderson walked, the bases were loaded and when Cano cranked a Grand Slam, the crowd went wild and I swear to God, I did the sign of the cross. I'm not sure I've ever done that before, but I realized at that moment...these are my New York Yankees...dominant.



The Yankees continued to just hit the ball hard. Robinson Cano cranked another double past Austin Jackson in the bottom of the 8th. Not sure what was more impressive, Cano having 6 RBIs at that point or Derek Jeter scoring from 1st. Great job!
Luis Ayala game in in the 9th, he gave up 2 runs that were Nova runs and at 9-3 with the bases loaded, Mariano Rivera came in and the Sandman closed it out. Beautiful.

Final Score: Yankees 9 - Tigers 3. The Yankees are up 1-0 in this ALDS Division Series.

Tomorrow, Freddy Garcia will face Max Scherzer. Garcia has the post season experience. Hopefully momentum will continue tomorrow after an outstanding performance by Ivan Nova. Bravo kid.

Also, according to Ken Rosenthal, it's confirmed, CC Sabathia will in fact pitch Game 3.

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2011 ALDS YANKEES VS. TIGERS GAME 1 PREVIEW

Mother Nature has been a pain to the Yankees all season long. With the postponement of yesterday's Game 1 due to rain--the Yankees 22nd game this season affected by rain by the way, the Yankees and Tigers will go at it again. The game will resume tonight at 8:37 PM Eastern Time with the Yankees batting in the home half of the second inning and the game tied at 1-1.

The starters for Game 1 were originally CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander. But now that Mother Nature is playing a role, both starters won't pitch again until Game 3 in Detroit on Monday. So, Ivan Nova (16-4, 3.70 ERA) will oppose Doug Fister (11-13, 2.83 ERA) later tonight.Ivan Nova doesn't have much experience against the Tigers. He didn't pitch against Detroit at all this season, and has only pitched against them once in his career, which in fact was his first career major league appearance. He pitched in relief on May 13, 2010 in Detroit against the Tigers while going 2 innings, allowing two hits, no walks or runs with one strikeout. The only two hitters in the Tigers' starting lineup that have a hit against Nova are Delmon Young and Magglio Ordonez who are a combined 2 for 4. Wilson Betemit has one hit in one AB against Nova, while Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Austin Jackson are all 0 for 1 against Nova. Obviously, those are all extremely small sample sizes against Nova, so you can't make any conclusions.
(Photo: Getty)
Doug Fister, on the other hand, has faced the Yanks in a bigger sample size compared to Nova against the Tigers. Fister has faced the Yankees three times in his career going 1-2 with a 6.00 ERA while allowing 24 hits in 18 innings pitched. He faced the Yankees once this season while he was still with the Seattle Mariners. He went 7 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and five strikeouts on July 26 at Yankee Stadium. There are some hitters in the Yankees lineup who have had good success against him in his career. Derek Jeter has gone 4 for 10 with two RBIs against Fister. Mark Teixeira has gone 3 for 9 with a homer and four RBIs.

Also, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher have each hit a homer against Fister while combining for 3 hits in 10 AB's with three RBI. As a team the Yankees are hitting .302 in 63 AB's against the Tiger right-hander.

Although the weather forecast doesn't look to promising, (it's actually worse than it was last night) hopefully we can get this one in. The Yankees and Tigers have lost their travel day on Sunday because of last night's rain out and another rain out tonight may force them to lose their Wednesday travel day--if necessary--to New York for a possible Game 5. This game will be a big test for both Nova and Fister as the two are making their first career playoff appearances. Hopefully Nova and the Yanks can come out on top.

Go Yankees!!!

--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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