El Bronx, NY - And again the rain came, but stopped before the game began at 8:30 P.M. According to the weather report, rain would have made its reappearance around 11 P.M. some 2 ½ hours after the start of the game and the fact that this was the continuation of the prior evening’s suspended game, it would have seemed as it had started earlier – well, meaning a typical 7:05 start and in this way if the game was played at a good pace it could beat the possible return of the rain. No such thing was necessary as Yankees trounced the Tigers 9-3 on the strength of Nova’s good pitching and Robinson Cano’s 6 RBI night by the time 11:15 came around.
More than thinking of beating the rain, the Tigers and Yanks were thinking of beating each other. And while it was not the marquee matchup of the 1 ½ innings pitched by Justin Verlander and C.C. Sabathia, the games “relievers,” or the Game 2 starters pressed into action by the weather, were two pitchers that could have made it a pitcher’s duel. Only that one would falter and the other would prevail.
And thus it was that the rain did not return to disrupt the game, but instead the Yankees offense disrupted the string of season victories Detroit’s righthander Doug bought to the post season. Consider that since the start of August, the 27-year-old right-hander led the AL in ERA at 1.79, ranked second in wins with eight and led everybody with an amazing 11.40 strikeout-to-walk ratio, had him qualify as the Tigers’ second Ace. But not tonight. In 4.2 innings he gave up 7 hits and 6 runs while his 6 strike outs to just two walks had Jim Leyland say, “Actually I thought Fister pitched really well. I thought Fister made one bad pitch all night.” He was referring to a sixth inning 2 RBI single to right-center field by Brett Gardner. At that point it increased the Yankees lead to 4-1.
The 6 inning went on to produce 4 more runs with Robinson Cano’s grand-slam homerun of RHP reliever Al Albuquerque. Later Leyland was questioned on bringing a right-hander to face Cano. “Left-handers are hitting .177 off Alburquerque,” said Leyland. But the Tiger skipper knew that in Cano it could have gone either way. “Cano is .320 of left-handers, .295 off righties.” The manager knew his pitcher had struck out Cano earlier in the year only that this time it did not work.
Cano had two doubles. His first broke the 1-1 tie inherited by the “replacement pitchers” in the bottom of the 5th.” His second double plated the Yankees 9th run in the bottom of the 8th.
Ivan Nova got into trouble in the 9th as he gave up an infield single to Delmon Young after one out. Miguel Cabrera walked on a 3-2 count and Victor Martinez’s single to right loaded the bases. Luis Ayala, bought in by skipper Giraldi, got a force out that produces the Tiger’s second run. The third run came in on another single by second baseman Ryan Raburn.
Mariano gets the final out of the night after Jhonny Peralta singles of Ayala loading the bases. Mariano then struck out Wilson Betemit to end the game.
Cano tied the Yankee postseason franchise record with 6 RBI and becoming the 4th Yankee to do so. His grand –slam was his first and 7th career postseason homerun. Ivan Nova’s victory became the first for Yankee rookie since Orlando Hernandez did it in 1998’s ALCS vs. Cleveland.
Game 2 will take place on a late Sunday afternoon before the two teams travel to Detroit where they will play on Monday and Tuesday before having a Wednesday break and play in New York on Thursday if needed, something that holds true for game 4 as well with all things considered.
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