OST: Tigers/Yankees ALDS (Tigers win series 3-1)

[Glenn]

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES
N.Y. Yankees vs. Detroit

Game 1: Tuesday, Oct. 3
Detroit (Robertson 13-13) at New York (Wang 19-6), 8:19 p.m. (FOX)

Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 4
Detroit (Verlander 17-9) at New York (Mussina 15-7), 8:09 p.m. (ESPN)

Game 3: Friday, Oct. 6
New York (Johnson 17-11) at Detroit (Rogers 17-8), 8:09 p.m. (ESPN)

Game 4: Saturday, Oct. 7
New York at Detroit, if necessary

Game 5: Sunday, Oct. 8
Detroit at New York, if necessary

Robertson `ready to go' in Game 1 against Yankees

Monday, October 02, 2006
By Danny Knobler

DETROIT -- Nate Robertson sat in the Detroit Tigers clubhouse, as disappointed as the rest of his teammates over the way the regular season ended. But because the Tigers are now the American League's wild-card team, as a result of Sunday's 12-inning, 10-8 loss to Kansas City, the 29-year-old Robertson is now a Game 1 starter in the playoffs.

In the wake of Sunday's loss, manager Jim Leyland named Robertson to start Tuesday night's game at Yankee Stadium. Leyland said he'll use Robertson and Justin Verlander in the first two games of the best-of-5 series, with Kenny Rogers and Jeremy Bonderman starting Games 3 and 4 this weekend at Comerica Park.

"Every start's a big start to me,'' Robertson said. "I'll be ready to go.''

If there's a Game 5, it would be next Sunday in the Bronx, and Robertson would be on the mound again. His Game 1 opponent, and his Game 5 opponent as well, would be Yankee right-hander Chien-Ming Wang, the same pitcher who beat him 2-0 on Aug. 30.

Robertson's success against the Yankees that day -- he allowed two runs in seven innings -- was no doubt one reason Leyland picked Robertson, who had just a 13-13 record this year but was one of the Tigers' most consistent starters. The other reason is that Kenny Rogers, the Tigers' most experienced starter, is 0-5 with an 11.13 ERA in his last seven starts as a Yankee Stadium visitor.

In his 16 starts at Comerica Park this year, Rogers went 7-2 with a 3.15 ERA. Rogers was the losing pitcher on Sunday, in his first relief appearance in three years.

Leyland said using Rogers in relief didn't affect his playoff rotation, because he had planned to use Robertson and Verlander in New York, anyway. Had the Tigers won Sunday and played Oakland in the first round, Leyland probably would have had to rearrange his rotation, since he had talked of starting Rogers in Game 1 against the A's.

Leyland has one significant lineup decision for Game 1 Tuesday night, that of who to use as his designated hitter. Matt Stairs has been the Tigers' recent DH against right-handed pitchers, but Stairs was acquired from Texas in September and thus isn't eligible for the playoff roster.

Marcus Thames would likely be the choice if he's healthy, but Thames spent the weekend battling a severe flu bug. He said Sunday that he felt much better and hopes to be ready for Tuesday night.

"I had a good night's rest (Saturday),'' said Thames, who began his career with the Yankees. "I told them to get me the strongest medicine they could. Hopefully, I can get healthy enough to be able to contribute.''

Leyland announced his postseason roster after Sunday's game, and the only change from what was speculated last week is that Chris Shelton is off and Ramon Santiago is on.

Leyland called Shelton probable at the start of last week, but then Shelton struck out in all four of his at-bats.

With no Shelton, that means the only alternative to Sean Casey at first base is to either move Carlos Guillen from shortstop or Pudge Rodriguez from catcher.

vs.

[Glenn]

Leyland announced his postseason roster after Sunday's game, and the only change from what was speculated last week is that Chris Shelton is off and Ramon Santiago is on.

I missed this the first time I read this article.

Interesting.

[b-diddy]

shitty how things went down, but cant worry about that now.

we're the big show in the country, and i want to see us represent. as shitty as we've been, we get a couple of pitching gems, which we're more than capable of, and we can win this thing.

and it cant be just the starters. we'll get to pitch #100 in the 5th inning, so the bullpen is going to have to be dominant also. i hope we play copycat and work the pitchcount just like the yanks.

also, it looks like this was a horrible week of managing for leyland. i hope that doesnt affect him/us.

[Matt]

Screw the Yankees. how good can they be if they have this man working for them:

[Matt]

[Glenn]

I've been debating over the past few days whether or not it was better to draw the Yankees or the A's. The Yankees have the best bats, and the A's have the best rotation, IMO. With the lack of plate discipline that the Tigers have displayed this year, I actually think we're better off not facing those young stud pitchers that the A's have. I actually expect the A's rotation to really open some eyes in the playoffs, they could even carry them all the way (ala the Marlins young staff a few years ago).

There are a lot of pundits that feel that if you are going to face the Yankees, you want them in a 5 game series instead of a 7 game series, so there's a positive for Tiger fans. But we're going to have to outslug them, because you know they are going to put up some runs.

And then there is the theory that if you are going to win, you want to beat the best of the best, so if this Tiger team really wants to leave their mark, they've got the perfect opportunity right before them.

Finally, another reason to be pleased that we're playing the Yankees is that the games will be in prime time. If we had drawn the A's we'd be playing this afternoon, not nearly the prestige or the accessibility that this series with the Yankees will afford.

I expect some major runs to be scored in this series. I just wish Matt Stairs could play, because this might resemble softball more than baseball.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one that can't wait for the first pitch tonight.

I still can't believe the Tigers are in the MLB playoffs. Unreal.

[Glenn]

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playof...ith&id=2609834

Yankees pose matchup issues for Tigers

By Keith Law
Scouts Inc.

This is the matchup the Yankees wanted -- and the Tigers absolutely did not want. The Yankees line up extremely well against Detroit, which comes into the postseason with some major questions about its young starters. Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman have both limped to the finish line and look like they're exhausted, with both guys losing their command over the past few weeks.

The Yankees have long been vulnerable to scrappy teams that put the ball in play, but the Tigers are the antithesis of the '02 or '05 Angels; if the Yankees can produce offensively against the Tigers the way they did all year, they should take the series.

When the Tigers are up
• Don't blink or you'll miss them. The Tigers posted the worst OBP of any team to make the playoffs, and to make matters worse, they racked up the second-most strikeouts in the American League this year, led by leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson's AL-high 173. But Mike Mussina and Randy Johnson both struggle more against contact-hitting teams, so swinging early and often plays into their hands.

• Expect the Tigers to try to run on Jorge Posada, who has a long-standing reputation as one of the worst defensive catchers in the game (although he did have his best year since 1998 in throwing out runners).

• Watch for lots of offspeed pitches from the Yankee starters. The Tigers are an extreme fastball-hitting team, so the Yanks' general pitching plan will be to work more with offspeed pitches, using the fastball only to get ahead or to get a strike when needed.

When the Yankees are up
• The Tigers had reached the playoffs on the command of their starting pitchers, but Verlander and Bonderman both appear to be out of gas. That is music to the Yankee hitters' ears; the Yanks' top six hitters all make opposing pitchers work and wait for their pitches. Big innings early, particularly when those two pitchers start, are on the agenda.

• Keep an eye on Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield, both of whom have come back sooner than expected from injuries that could affect their swings.

• Jim Leyland will probably try to get Joel Zumaya involved in any close game, and he's the one guy on the Tiger staff who can shut down any lineup one time through, as long as he throws enough strikes. It'll be interesting to see how he fares against the patient Yankees' offense.

• With the possible exception of Jeter, the Yankees aren't likely to run much, given Pudge Rodriguez's arm and reputation and the fact that they should be able to score plenty of runs without resorting to too much little-ball.

Keys for the Tigers
• Nate Robertson may be the most important player on the Tigers' roster. The Yankees are still a good offensive team against left-handed starters, but nowhere near the juggernaut they are against righties. Kenny Rogers isn't that tough on left-handed hitters, so it falls to Robertson to steal a game for Detroit.

• It's almost impossible for a Tiger to change his stripes this late in a season, but if the Tigers' coaching staff can teach the hitters that there's no rule mandating a swing at the first pitch of each plate appearance, it would go a long way. Their lack of selectivity will deprive them of opportunities to beat up on the back end of the Yankees' pen, which has question marks across the board.

• Putting the ball in play is also critical; the Yankees' defense is one of the club's few clear weak points, but you can't take advantage of a mediocre defense if you don't make contact.

• Turning two. The Yankees create a lot of double-play opportunities, the result of putting men on base, hitting the ball hard, and having a lot of below-average runners in the middle of the lineup. The Tigers have a very good infield defense and two pitchers who try to get groundballs in Robertson and Rogers. Reducing the number of batters their pitchers have to retire would be an enormous boost, given how powerful the Yankees' lineup is.

Keys for the Yankees
• This series is the Yankees' for the taking. If they play their game -- working the count, getting guys on base in front of the mashers, and getting six or seven innings from their starters -- they'll win.

• That said, the most important thing for the Yankees is to limit their bullpen's exposure. No one in front of Mariano Rivera is within hollering distance of reliable, and they have a lot of guys who throw hard, flat fastballs, which are just what the Tigers like to eat. Getting those six or seven innings from their starters is key, and if someone offers eight, they should take it.

• Don't get cute. The Yankees are the big favorites here, so any divergence from what got them here, such as a sudden interest in manufacturing runs, reduces their chances of winning the series.

Prediction
The Tigers had plenty of chances to avoid this series, and they're going to regret losing two to Toronto and three to Kansas City in that final week. The current pitching lineup has Verlander, a rookie who's had a hard landing over the last few weeks, pitching in Yankee Stadium, with Jeremy Bonderman so shaky of late that he's relegated to game four. The Yankees are too strong, and while they may need four games to pull it off, I'm going with Yankees in three.

[Vinny]

Fuck all the haters. Nate's going to get nasty tonight and so is Kenny later this week. That's 2. If Verlander's rested enough, that's the series.

Write it down now, we will not bow down to the goddamned, motherfuckin' Yankees.

[Glenn]

Fuck all the haters. Nate's going to get nasty tonight and so is Kenny later this week. That's 2. If Verlander's rested enough, that's the series.

Write it down now, we will not bow down to the goddamned, motherfuckin' Yankees.

I was waiting for the "put it on the front page, the back page" part.

We need a split in NY at least, no doubt.

[Vinny]

Pudge fucking sucks. Maybe we shouldn't of sent the runners there, but he needed to get a piece of that.