Batter after batter, they went down like chopped vines. A harmless popout. A dribbler to second base. Justin Verlander would machete through the Yankees, sit down for 20 minutes, come back and do it again. A fly to left. A pop foul. A strikeout. A lawn mower doesn’t flatten things this easily. I know his talent is deceivingly large, but honestly, given the lackluster New York batting, it sometimes looked like Verlander’s biggest challenge Tuesday night was staying warm.
Or awake.
Zeroing in. The Tigers went to bed Tuesday night one victory away from the World Series – thanks to Verlander and yes, an amazing relief pitching moment from Phil Coke – and the way this team is pitching, it may get a whole lot of nights to contemplate that appearance.
“Pitching is contagious, just like hitting is,” Verlander said after the 2-1 victory in Game 3 that ended with Coke striking out the smoking-hot Raul Ibanez with two on in the top of the ninth. “You see somebody go out there and have a great game, you want to go out there and one-up that guy.”
Well, nobody one-ups Verlander. But maybe that’s what motivated Coke in his memorable strikeout to end the game and put the Tigers up, 3-0, in this American League Championship Series.
Can’t we just keep going? Can’t we just keep playing the Yankees for another week or so, call it the Fall Classic, all go home happy? I don’t want to say the Tigers are in a groove, but this kind of baseball run is truly rare, like steering a canoe oarless through the rapids. There is stardust coming off the fingertips of the Tigers’ pitchers. You take away the ninth inning in Game 1 of this ALCS (or as Henny Youngman would put it, “Take that inning – please!”) and the Tigers have pitched 38 straight innings and surrendered one run. You don’t do that in the regular season against the worst team in baseball. The Tigers have done it against two playoff teams – the Athletics and the Yankees.
And Verlander? Well. He is growing beyond description, like a sculptor who creates his own statue and then polishes it every five nights to an even brighter shine. Inning after inning he came off the mound Tuesday night, exhaling hard, his stubble in full shade around the slightly jutting jaw – and he didn’t even have his best. If last year only the rainy weather could dampen Verlander’s excellence, this year he even has gained dominance over that. In three playoff nights, he has pitched 241/3 innings, struck out 25 batters, given up two earned runs, and won all three games.
He is now set up to pitch a Game 7 of this series if needed, or, more likely, a Game 1 sometime next week on the biggest stage of all.
How’s that sounding?
Zeroing in.
A tense ending
Remember, Tuesday night was supposed to be the START of the star pitching for Detroit. This series opened in the middle of the rotation. Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez handled Games 1 and 2 in New York, but you’d never have known we were waiting for anything better.
Until Verlander got out there. He was silly good Tuesday. The Tigers kept leaving men on base – they stranded 10 in eight innings – which in the playoffs is like dangling a body close to an alligator’s jaws. But with Verlander pitching this way, “danger” doesn’t seem as dangerous.
The fact is, Verlander was rarely tested Tuesday. He was perfect into the fourth inning, when Ichiro Suzuki smacked a one-out single. He then retired the next eight batters before surrendering another single to Ichiro, a leadoff hit in the top of the seventh.
That left Verlander staring at the Nos.3, 4 and 5 hitters for the Yankees – each of them the potential tying run. What did he do? He got Mark Teixeira to fly out, reared back and struck out Robinson Cano on a 98-m.p.h. fastball, and drew a two-strike ground out on Ibanez.
When he came out for the ninth inning, the sellout crowd at Comerica Park roared. And why not? Manager Jim Leyland’s biggest dream was to have Verlander as his starter and his closer Tuesday night.
He almost got it.
Verlander hung a curveball to Eduardo Nunez, who put it just over the leftfield fence. That cut the lead in half, and sent Tigers fans scrambling through their memory banks for all the runners stranded that could have made a difference. Leyland walked to the mound. He asked Verlander if he could get one more batter.
“Absolutely,” the ace said.
He did. And then Leyland came and took the ball away.
“Normally, you don’t take out Secretariat in the last furlough,” Leyland joked afterward.
But Verlander had thrown 132 pitches. Coke came on in relief. And, yes, he allowed two baserunners. But for closers, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And Coke will now and forever be remembered in Detroit for the 3-2 curveball that got Ibanez to bite, sent the Tigers racing out to the field, and sent the Yankees back to the hotel wondering what it is about Detroit.
“It may have been the best curveball he threw all year,” Leyland said.
Have a Coke and smile.
Taking care of things
We should say something about the Tigers’ offense. At least the part that that sent runners across the plate. Once again, the stinging damage was done by Delmon Young, who must wear an “I Hate New York” T-shirt under his uniform.
Hey, Yankees fans, don’t ask us. We didn’t know Young would do this any more than you did. The quixotic Tigers slugger who is generally too quick with his swing and too slow with his defense, somehow treats the Yankees the way a stick treats a piñata.
In Game 1 he had three hits and three RBIs, including a home run. In Game 2, he knocked in another run. And there he was again Tuesday night in Game 3, fourth inning, against Phil Hughes, who had been handling the Tigers pretty easily.
Young sent a hanging breaking ball screaming over the leftfield railing. Gone. Home run.
A few minutes later, Hughes was leaving the game with a stiff back.
Miguel Cabrera would add the winning RBI in the fifth, and while it was not exactly a slugfest, the point is to have at least one run more than the other guys.
Mission accomplished.
You know what you really have to like about the Tigers? They are not letting up. They did not succumb to winning the opener then relaxing and losing Game 2 on the road. They did not fall victim to returning to Detroit and assuming home field would take care of itself. They have been playing at a steady but sincere clip, concentrating, a steady push of the gas pedal. And you know how they say if you have the pitching, you can do anything in the postseason.
Guess who has the pitching?
“Every game in the postseason is a must-win,” Verlander said. “You’ve got to keep the momentum on your side. Hopefully, we can go out there tomorrow and shut this thing down.”
Check out the Tigers’ pitching lines. The odds look pretty good.
Zeroing in.
Contact Mitch Albom: 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Catch “The Mitch Albom Show” 5-7 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760). Follow him on Twitter @mitchalbom. To read his recent columns, go to www.freep.com/mitch.
Batter after batter, they went down like chopped vines. A harmless popout. A dribbler to second base. Justin Verlander would machete through the Yankees, sit down for 20 minutes, come back and do it again. A fly to left. A pop foul. A strikeout. A lawn mower doesn’t flatten things this easily. I know his talent is deceivingly large, but honestly, given the lackluster New York batting, it sometimes looked like Verlander’s biggest challenge Tuesday night was staying warm.
Or awake.
Zeroing in. The Tigers went to bed Tuesday night one victory away from the World Series – thanks to Verlander and yes, an amazing relief pitching moment from Phil Coke – and the way this team is pitching, it may get a whole lot of nights to contemplate that appearance.
“Pitching is contagious, just like hitting is,” Verlander said after the 2-1 victory in Game 3 that ended with Coke striking out the smoking-hot Raul Ibanez with two on in the top of the ninth. “You see somebody go out there and have a great game, you want to go out there and one-up that guy.”
Well, nobody one-ups Verlander. But maybe that’s what motivated Coke in his memorable strikeout to end the game and put the Tigers up, 3-0, in this American League Championship Series.
Can’t we just keep going? Can’t we just keep playing the Yankees for another week or so, call it the Fall Classic, all go home happy? I don’t want to say the Tigers are in a groove, but this kind of baseball run is truly rare, like steering a canoe oarless through the rapids. There is stardust coming off the fingertips of the Tigers’ pitchers. You take away the ninth inning in Game 1 of this ALCS (or as Henny Youngman would put it, “Take that inning – please!”) and the Tigers have pitched 38 straight innings and surrendered one run. You don’t do that in the regular season against the worst team in baseball. The Tigers have done it against two playoff teams – the Athletics and the Yankees.
And Verlander? Well. He is growing beyond description, like a sculptor who creates his own statue and then polishes it every five nights to an even brighter shine. Inning after inning he came off the mound Tuesday night, exhaling hard, his stubble in full shade around the slightly jutting jaw – and he didn’t even have his best. If last year only the rainy weather could dampen Verlander’s excellence, this year he even has gained dominance over that. In three playoff nights, he has pitched 241/3 innings, struck out 25 batters, given up two earned runs, and won all three games.
He is now set up to pitch a Game 7 of this series if needed, or, more likely, a Game 1 sometime next week on the biggest stage of all.
How’s that sounding?
Zeroing in.
A tense ending
Remember, Tuesday night was supposed to be the START of the star pitching for Detroit. This series opened in the middle of the rotation. Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez handled Games 1 and 2 in New York, but you’d never have known we were waiting for anything better.
Until Verlander got out there. He was silly good Tuesday. The Tigers kept leaving men on base – they stranded 10 in eight innings – which in the playoffs is like dangling a body close to an alligator’s jaws. But with Verlander pitching this way, “danger” doesn’t seem as dangerous.
The fact is, Verlander was rarely tested Tuesday. He was perfect into the fourth inning, when Ichiro Suzuki smacked a one-out single. He then retired the next eight batters before surrendering another single to Ichiro, a leadoff hit in the top of the seventh.
That left Verlander staring at the Nos.3, 4 and 5 hitters for the Yankees – each of them the potential tying run. What did he do? He got Mark Teixeira to fly out, reared back and struck out Robinson Cano on a 98-m.p.h. fastball, and drew a two-strike ground out on Ibanez.
When he came out for the ninth inning, the sellout crowd at Comerica Park roared. And why not? Manager Jim Leyland’s biggest dream was to have Verlander as his starter and his closer Tuesday night.
He almost got it.
Verlander hung a curveball to Eduardo Nunez, who put it just over the leftfield fence. That cut the lead in half, and sent Tigers fans scrambling through their memory banks for all the runners stranded that could have made a difference. Leyland walked to the mound. He asked Verlander if he could get one more batter.
“Absolutely,” the ace said.
He did. And then Leyland came and took the ball away.
“Normally, you don’t take out Secretariat in the last furlough,” Leyland joked afterward.
But Verlander had thrown 132 pitches. Coke came on in relief. And, yes, he allowed two baserunners. But for closers, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. And Coke will now and forever be remembered in Detroit for the 3-2 curveball that got Ibanez to bite, sent the Tigers racing out to the field, and sent the Yankees back to the hotel wondering what it is about Detroit.
“It may have been the best curveball he threw all year,” Leyland said.
Have a Coke and smile.
Taking care of things
We should say something about the Tigers’ offense. At least the part that that sent runners across the plate. Once again, the stinging damage was done by Delmon Young, who must wear an “I Hate New York” T-shirt under his uniform.
Hey, Yankees fans, don’t ask us. We didn’t know Young would do this any more than you did. The quixotic Tigers slugger who is generally too quick with his swing and too slow with his defense, somehow treats the Yankees the way a stick treats a piñata.
In Game 1 he had three hits and three RBIs, including a home run. In Game 2, he knocked in another run. And there he was again Tuesday night in Game 3, fourth inning, against Phil Hughes, who had been handling the Tigers pretty easily.
Young sent a hanging breaking ball screaming over the leftfield railing. Gone. Home run.
A few minutes later, Hughes was leaving the game with a stiff back.
Miguel Cabrera would add the winning RBI in the fifth, and while it was not exactly a slugfest, the point is to have at least one run more than the other guys.
Mission accomplished.
You know what you really have to like about the Tigers? They are not letting up. They did not succumb to winning the opener then relaxing and losing Game 2 on the road. They did not fall victim to returning to Detroit and assuming home field would take care of itself. They have been playing at a steady but sincere clip, concentrating, a steady push of the gas pedal. And you know how they say if you have the pitching, you can do anything in the postseason.
Guess who has the pitching?
“Every game in the postseason is a must-win,” Verlander said. “You’ve got to keep the momentum on your side. Hopefully, we can go out there tomorrow and shut this thing down.”
Check out the Tigers’ pitching lines. The odds look pretty good.
Zeroing in.
Contact Mitch Albom: 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Catch “The Mitch Albom Show” 5-7 p.m. weekdays on WJR-AM (760). Follow him on Twitter @mitchalbom. To read his recent columns, go to www.freep.com/mitch.
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