NEW YORK – It can change quickly with the New York Yankees’ lineup, which Doug Fister discovered in Game 1 of the American League Division Series.
“Top to bottom, they’ve got a great lineup,” Fister said Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. “You’ve got to be on top of your game from one through nine and be ready to go.”
Fister, who took the loss in Game 1, starts Game 5 tonight at Yankee Stadium, opposed by Ivan Nova.
Just three months ago, one (Nova) had been demoted to the minor leagues and the other (Fister) was languishing in Seattle with a 3-12 record for the last-place Mariners.
At stake now is a spot opposite Texas in the AL Championship Series.
The Tigers, as well as Fister, thought the 6-foot-8 right-hander threw better than his final line indicated in the 9-3 Game 1 loss. Fister allowed six runs and seven hits in 42/3 innings.
But things started promisingly enough for Fister, who held the Yankees scoreless his first three innings before Robinson Cano’s run-scoring double in the fifth. He left with the bases loaded and Cano coming up in the sixth. Cano greeted reliever Al Alburquerque with a grand slam. “Obviously I didn’t execute a few things,” Fister said. “A good lineup makes you pay for it. That’s what they did the other night.”
Among them was Brett Gardner, who kept the two-out rally against Fister going in the sixth with a two-run single. Gardner, the No. 9 hitter, has had a good series overall: 5-for-13 with five RBI.
“You can’t take any of them for granted,” said Fister, who went 8-1 with a 1.79 ERA for the Tigers after being acquired July 30 from the Mariners. “You have to pitch all of them like they’re the No. 4 hitter.”
Acquired along with reliever David Pauley for four players, Fister had the poorest run support of any AL pitcher at 1.97 runs per game at the time of the trade.
“Yeah, I’m pitching with a different jersey on, but still approaching the game the same way,” the 27-year-old old said.
While the Yankees are trying to reach the AL championship for the third straight year, the Tigers want to get back for the first time since 2006, when they won the pennant but then lost in the World Series. Detroit has not lost consecutive games since Aug. 28-29.
New York has not won the final game of a series pushed to the maximum since rallying past the Boston Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS. Detroit hasn’t since beating St. Louis in Game 7 of the 1968 World Series.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland, while disappointed his team couldn’t wrap up the series Tuesday night at Comerica Park, nonetheless expressed, three separate times, his excitement for the charged environment he expects tonight.
“It’s a great scenario,” Leyland said. “It’s great for everybody. It’s great for the TV. It’s great for the nation to see it. Perfect. This is what baseball’s all about.”
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