A day to rest, a trip to New York, and the Detroit Tigers will face a familiar foe in the American League Championship Series.
The Tigers had less than 24 hours to savor their five-game victory over the Oakland Athletics before learning their opposition in the ALCS. Detroit will face the Yankees in a rematch of last year’s playoffs.
New York edged Baltimore, 3-1, on Friday night in the deciding Game 5 of the division series. The Tigers were set to fly hours later, with Game 1 at Yankee Stadium tonight and Doug Fister facing Andy Pettitte.
Detroit beat the Yankees in five games in the playoffs last year before losing in the ALCS to Texas.
“We don’t want to be satisfied,” general manager Dave Dombrowski said after Detroit eliminated Oakland with a 6-0 victory Thursday night. “Now we’re there. But we’ve been there before. Now we want that next step. We want eight more wins.”
The Tigers signed slugging first baseman Prince Fielder in the offseason in an effort to win their first World Series since 1984. Detroit took the AL Central for the second straight year, but its offense hasn’t necessarily lived up to expectations despite the presence of Fielder and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera.
Instead, it’s been the pitching – specifically from the starting rotation – that has lifted the Tigers lately. Justin Verlander allowed a home run by Coco Crisp to open the division series and calmly shut the A’s out after that, winning both his starts. For the series, Detroit starters went 2-1 with a 1.30 ERA against a strikeout-prone Oakland lineup.
Fister and the rest of Detroit’s entire postseason rotation is right-handed, bringing Alex Rodriguez’s role into immediate question for the Yankees.
A-Rod, 2-for-16 with nine strikeouts in the first four games of the ALDS, was left out of Joe Girardi’s Game 5 lineup against Orioles right-hander Jason Hammel, replaced at third base by left-handed-hitting Eric Chavez.
A-Rod did not play and watched the entire game from the bench. Chavez went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts as the Yankees advanced to the ALCS. With the Tigers having no left-handers in their rotation, it wouldn’t be shocking to see A-Rod sit again.
“Usually I say I am going to worry about one day at a time,” Girardi said when asked after Game 5 about A-Rod’s starting prospects for the ALCS “I’ll have a lineup for you tomorrow.”
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