Tigers vs Yankees: Detroit Ousts New York in a Game 5 for the Ages

Anytime the Yankees are ousted from the playoffs is a good day. When the Detroit Tigers do it—and they’ve done it twice now in the last five years—it’s as sweet as a pumpkin-glazed donut in October.

Toss in a bit of trivia—it was the first one-run elimination loss at home for the Yankees since the 1926 World Series against St. Louis—and you don’t mind the extra calories, because of which you have had to let out your belt a little bit.

Maybe if those vaunted Yankee hitters weren’t so quick to complain about the strike zone when taking too many strikes with the bat on their shoulders…but then, hey, they’re Yankees. They’re patient hitters, and the umpires are supposed to give them preferential calls. How dare they call that high strike.

Anyway, settling in for last night’s ALDS Game 5 between the pinstripes and the stripes, I was prepared for an epic struggle, a pitchers duel between Detroit’s Doug Fister and New York’s Ivan Nova. Fister was lights-out, better than Justin Verlander for the Tigers in the last eight weeks of the season, and he pitched well in the suspended Game 1 against the Yankees in a losing cause; while Nova gave Tigers hitters fits in that same game.

Even after Don Kelly and Delmon Young put the Tigers ahead in the first inning with back-to-back home runs, I suspected it would be a nail-biter (although I hoped it would be a laugher).

Nova went but two innings and was pulled with tightness in his forearm. Fister pitched well through five innings, but that’s not to say there weren’t some tense moments—escaping a bases loaded, one out jam in the fourth and serving up a solo home run to Robinson Cano in the fifth.

At this point, I considered turning off the sound, annoyed by the announcers, who seemed convinced it was just a matter of time before the Yankees put away the Tigers. Isn’t what’s happening on the field dramatic enough without them trying to build more? Was it me, or did they sound disappointed every time the Tigers killed a Yankees rally? Only at the end did they give any credit to the Tigers pitching staff.

Sabathia pitched for the Yankees in relief, surrendering a run when Victor Martinez singled in Detroit’s third run. All-in-all, Joe Girardi would use six pitchers.

After Max Scherzer retired all four batters he faced, Joaquin Benoit, with that perpetual grimace, walked Mark Teixeira with the bases loaded in the seventh to force home the Yankees' second run before fanning Nick Swisher; and he retired Derek Jeter in the eighth on a long out to the base of the wall in right field with a man on.

Jose Valverde came on to pitch the ninth. A perfect 49-0 in save situations during the regular season, I held my breath and crossed my fingers that he wouldn’t stumble here, with so much on the line.

Valverde rarely makes it look easy, hitting or walking a batter, pouring a little fuel on the fire of a rally before dousing it; but in this Game 5, he sent the Yankee hitters down in order—no easy task, considering he faced MVP candidate Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriquez.

And the celebration commenced.

Next up: Texas Rangers.