Tonight had two phenomenal games in the American League Division Series. We had two one run games that were full of excitement and drama. No time for introductions, let's just get into it.
The matinee game today was Texas at Tampa. Colby Lewis started for the Rangers, and was actually perfect through the first three innings. In the bottom of the fourth though, Desmond Jennings homered to start the inning, followed by a B.J. Upton walk. I thought that the game might snowball on Lewis, but he bounced back to strikeout Evan Longoria, Matt Joyce, and Johnny Damon to get out of the inning. Lewis made it through six strong innings, only giving up the Jennings home run. David Price rebounded from two bad outings in a row, and didn't allow a run through the six innings. In the top of the seventh though, he gave up three hits, including a home run, which led to three of the four runs that the Rangers scored that inning. The Rays got the first two outs in the inning, but required three relief pitchers to get the final out. The Rays tried to come back, getting three hits in the bottom of the seventh, but they were all singles, and only led to one run, and a 4-2 score. In the next inning though, Desmond Jennings hit another home run to get the Rays back within one. Ron Washington mixed and matched with his bullpen, and only gave up one run through three innings, and took the game. The Rangers scored all of their runs in one inning, and their patient approach, and ability to hit for extra base power once again allowed them to score runs in bunches, and tonight one inning was enough. Colby Lewis is the Rangers' only right handed starter, and they needed him to come through, and he did. Matt Harrison and Jeremy Hellickson matchup in game four in Tampa tomorrow, and I expect that the Rays will have a patient approach, and be very aggressive on the bases. Harrison isn't a big strikeout pitcher, so I think that the Rays won't be afraid to go deep into counts. Harrison does generate a lot of ground balls though, so if they get on base, I expect them to run to try to stay out of the double play. Hellickson has had a very lucky year thus far, and I expect the Rangers to get to him early and have a big day offensively and end the series.
The nightcap was game three of the Yankees vs Tigers series. Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia both took the mound for their respective teams on short rest because of the rainout last Friday, although neither of them threw 30 pitches on Friday. Neither came out particularly strong, Verlander gave up two runs in the first inning, while Sabathia walked three in the first inning, but managed not to give up any runs. Sabathia never really got into a rhythm. His control came and went, and he was constantly letting people on base and didn't really have a strikeout pitch. His final line was 5.1 innings, with seven hits, six walks, three strikeouts and form runs with 106 pitches. Verlander came out in the second and from then through the sixth inning, was lights out. His fastball was overpowering, while his change up kept people off balance, and his breaking ball simply froze people all night long. He got the first two outs in the seventh, but then it got away from him, and he let three straight people on base, and two of them scored. He got out of the top of the seventh, but the score was tied at four. Delmon Young then came up in the bottom of the seventh and hit a home run off of Rafael Soriano on a cut fastball that was right down the middle of the plate. Verlander then came out for top of the eighth, and managed to get through it with only allowing a walk to Alex Rodriguez, but he was struggling with his command at this point in the game. Jose Valverde came in for the top of the ninth, and struggled to get through it. He walked two, but struck out Derek Jeter to end the game. Verlander was impressive, and even though he had thrown 120 pitches through eight, I wasn't convinced that we wouldn't see him in the ninth. The Yankees now must rely on A.J. Burnett in an elimination game, which is not a scenario that they want any part of. Burnett has the ability to be dominant in a way that I don't think that Porcello does though, so all hope isn't lost. If the Tigers get up though and have a save situation at the end of the game, Valverde might not be available. In that case, Leyland can either leave Jaoquin Benoit in the eight inning, and use Al Alburquerque in the ninth, or bump Benoit to the ninth and use Alburquerque in the ninth. If they clinch is tomorrow however, they will have a few off days, to they might just use Valverde anyways.
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