It’s one win down and one win to go. The Yankees won their first must win game on Wednesday in Detroit behind AJ Burnett, some spectacular defense by Curtis Granderson, and hot bats up and down the lineup to the tune of a 10-1 final. But tonight is another night, and another must win game for the Yankees. But, it's the same for the Tigers who had their chance to close it out at home. Almost everyone counted AJ Burnett out and thought he'd pitch poorly, while Rick Porcello would pitch well. We all know what happened, thankfully. But it's time to move onto the next game. It's a winner take all (Or at least advance to the ALCS.) It’s Game 5 in the Bronx tonight...where’s your big mouth now Valverde?
Ivan Nova will make his second appearance in the series (his first came in relief because of the crappy weather). He went 6.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out five. Yesterday Nova said he won't be nervous. Read that story HERE.
I'm not sure I buy that, he's pitching the most important game of his life in Yankee Stadium, but I like his thinking. 
Doug Fister will make his second appearance in this ALDS. Like Ivan Nova, Fister also pitched the resumption of Game 1. He pitched well for awhile, but ran into serious trouble in the sixth inning. He allowed six runs in the sixth, with three of those runs scoring on Robinson Cano's grand slam served up by Tiger reliever Al Alburquerque, who hadn't allowed a homer all season up to that point. Anyway, Doug Fister finished with a line of 4.2 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits while striking out six.
Let's face it, although Game 4 was a huge win, it won't mean jack if the Yankees don't win tonight. I hate to burst that bubble, but that's the reality of it. As Alex Rodriguez said in Entourage “We’re trying to win a ring around here.” It’s true.
And anything short of that would be a failure. That's just how it is in New York, and the next step to accomplish that goal is to win tonight. Like Game 4, tonight's Game 5 will be a team effort by the pitching staff, the offense, and the defense and no one is rooting hard tonight than Bleeding Yankee Blue… and that’s just not us, it’s all of us, true Yankee fans!!!
Let's Go Yankees!!!
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!!!
(Photo: Getty)
Hector Noesi squared off against James Shields for the Rays in this one. Noesi was on a pitch count as he was starting just his second game of the season. He went 2 innings while allowing five hits and three runs on 59 pitches. He allowed all three of his runs in the third inning, so it seemed like he ran out of gas. 
We very well may have seen Noesi for the final time this season as he finishes the year with a 2-2 record with a 4.47 ERA in 30 games while pitching in quite a variety of roles. It's his rookie season, and we give him kudos for pitching in a number of important games for the Yanks this season. Phil Hughes also made an appearance in relief. He went an 1.2 while allowing two walks on a hit and a strikeout. Andrew Brackman made his second career appearance as he recorded the final two outs in the 8th.
The offense for the Yankees pretty much came from one source, and that was Robinson Cano. Cano went 2 for 4 with a solo homer and and RBI single in the first and third innings, respectively. The rest of the team combined to go 4 for 27 (.148 AVG), which includes Jorge Posada's 0 for 4 in what may have been his last start at first base this season. Although he went 0-for he made a couple of nice plays at first.
I'm not upset with this loss whatsoever. The Red Sox lost, again, so they're now 6-19 during the month of September, which means the Rays and Red Sox are tied in the Wild Card race with identical 89-71 records. Boston's collapse has been very fun to watch all month long and it'd be awesome if they can complete it. Bartolo Colon (8-9, 4.02 ERA) goes for the Yanks against Jeremy Hellickson (13-10, 2.90 ERA) for the Rays on Tuesday.
What a day in the Bronx. Heading into last night's game, we knew if the Yankees swept their doubleheader against the Rays, and if the Red Sox lost their game against the Orioles, the Yankees would be American League East Champs. Well, guess what Ladies and Gentleman, they did, along with the help of the Orioles. CC Sabathia got back on track, the offense got some timely hits--especially from Jorge--and some clutch work out of the bullpen helped secure the AL East, their 17th AL East title in franchise history.
Casey here at Bleeding Yankee Blue is obsessed with Jorge and while it didn't always work out his way, I know he's smiling right now. In a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 8th inning, Jorge Posada pinch hit for Jesus Montero with the bases loaded and two out. And boy, did he come up clutch! He lined a sharp single to right to bring home two for the eventual game winner. What a moment for a guy who has been through a whole ton of crap all season long.
CC Sabathia matched up against possibly the front runner for AL Rookie of the Year in Jeremy Hellickson. CC went 7.1 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits, two walks, with six strikeouts. But, he left the game with the bases loaded in a 2-2 tie, so odds are CC will not get his 20th win this season since he may have to make an abbreviated start in the coming days to align him up for Game One of the ALDS. 
David Robertson once again came on and got out of a bases loaded jam. Houdini... unbelievable. It took him one pitch to induce a double play off the bat of Ben Zobrist. Robertson throws one pitch and gets the win while Sabathia throws 127 pitches and doesn't get the win. As John Sterling would say, "That's just baseball, Suzyn." Hellickson pitched well in this one too for Tampa as he went 7 innings, allowing just two hits, while walking four and punching out three.
(Photo:Getty)
(Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Getty)
Tonight was another one of those annoying low scoring, deep into extra innings games. It seems like the Yankees have had a ton of them this season while losing just about all of them. This time it was against the Seattle Mariners. The pitching on both sides was fantastic, but the M's were a little better last night as the Yanks failed to sweep the Mariners in Seattle, something they've yet to accomplish since 1999. 2 times last night the Yankees were close to possibly winning this game. Once by Curtis Granderson in the ninth who was robbed by a leaping Ichiro and once by Mark Teixeira who was robbed of possibly a double or by Michael Saunders in the 11th. But...it wasn't their night.
It was a 2-1 final in 12 innings in this one. Mike Carp scored the first run for the M's in fourth on an Ivan Nova wild pitch. Nick Swisher chased Jason Vargas, who pitched a great game, with a solo shot in the seventh. And finally, in the 12th inning, Luis Rodriguez, yes Luis Rodriguez, hit a walk off solo bomb off Cory Wade to lead off the 12th. By the way, Luis Rodriguez has nine career home runs in 400 career games.
Obviously the Yankees offense was pretty much non-existent. As a team they went 4 for 38 (.105 average). They also went 0 for 4 as a team with RISP, and they left six man on base. It's just one of those games, nothing you can do about it. It was the last West Coast game of the season, so maybe they really wanted to get out of Seattle.
