ALDS Notes - DET vs. NYY Game 2

Final Score: 4:3; Series Tied, 1:1

Rookie pitcher, Verlander had a solid outing against the "New Muder Row" Yankee lineup this afternoon. His 98-mph fastballs and moving change-up's were thrown for strikes. NYY hitters are famously known for their patience and pitch selection. His one mistake pitch to Damon was slammed into the upperdeck in right field for a 3-run HR. That was all the $200 million lineup scored against the probable Rookie of the Year winner.

Yankees missed many scoring opportunities with runners on base & in scoring positions. In total, 20 LOBs are resulted from untimely hitting. Mussina, their starter threw his knuckle-curves well with solid fastballs that took advantage of sometime impatient (or you can call it "being aggressive"). Marcus Thams, Detroit's DH went 3-3 against Moose and was the difference maker in the game.

Tigers relievers, Zumaya's 100+mph fastballs & Todd Jones' sneaky sliders were great. Not to overlook Jamie Walker's relief of starter, Verlander in any way. The relievers' effective pitching without giving up any runs was the key for DET to win the game with a one-run lead and to tie the series after 2 games on the road.

NOTES FROM THE GAME
Bottom of 1st: After Damon leading off the game with a single, Jeter who had a 5-5 game in Game 1 decided to be a "team player" and attempted to bunt. His bunt popped up, straight up for the catcher on the first pitch he saw. 1 out, runner stayed on 1st, on 1 pitch. Terrible judgement by any means. A guy who was in the hunt for a batting title decided to bunt and "sacrifice" himself in attempt to move the runner over. The thinking and decision-making have always been the hardest criticism of Jeter and a very fair one in his entire career thus far. Baseball Prospectus guys discussed this in numerous occasions in their publication. It's just unwise to give up an out when you are one of the top hitters in the league.

After Abreu was walked and loaded up 1st & 2nd, 4th hitter, Sheffield came up to the plate. The Tigers were playing him to pull (a common practice in AL for him), the 1st baseman, Casey was playing was off the 1st baseline behind the runner. Sheffield stroke out on a hard, moving fastball thrown by Verlander. He didn't get a chance to pull the ball.

The next batter, Giambi was walked to loaded up the bases. Rodríguez, NYY's regular-season RBI leader stroke out on 3 pitches. The pitch sequence were 101mph fastball middle & low and swung at and missed, 101mph fastball in and was fouled on the ground behind the plate, and 85mph hammering curve and looked at without a swing. Mr. March, the '05 AL MVP was 0-4 in this game. So expect the NY media to be all over him in tomorrow's newspapers & on radio shows.

At the bottom of the 2nd, runners on 1st & 2nd with 2 outs, Jeter came up to bat. After swinging the first pitch foul and a ball, Yankee captain grounded out to SS for a FC at 2nd. So much for CaptainClutch. By the way, Carlos Delgado of the New York Mets, who played his first playoff game last night went 4-5 with a HR and 2 RBIs (the HR was solo, he got his 2nd RBI from a single)to helped his team to win the game. People probably don't talk about Delgado's performance as much as Jeter's 5-5 game, but that's just part of the Yankee blinded bandwagon

On the top of the 4th, with 2 outs and speedy Guillén on 3rd base, Craig Monroe who lead Tiges with 28HR dropped down a squeeze bunt on the first pitch in trying to score a run. The idea was probably because 3B, Rodríguez was playing way back and if Monroe had dropped down a good bunt down the 3rd base line, he would have been sate on an infield hit. His bunt went right back to pitcher, Mussina for an easy out to first. Monroe should have been trying to drive in a run in that situation as a slugger who had 92RBI in the regular season, especially he hit a double in his first-at against Mussina. Tigers' "forcing-runs" strategy once again was at display and didn't work out so far in the series.

GAME TURNING POINT
Thames lead off the top of the 7th with a single. Inge at the plate, tried to out down a bunt to move the runner to 2nd with the game tied at 3. 1st pitched was a ball and the 2nd one was a pass-ball by catcher, Posada, runner on 1st moved to 2nd. Posada's pass-ball problem, which happened twice in the game would hurt his team sometime in key situations. The SS was holding the runner at 2nd and the 3B was playing on the edge of the grass on a "stay" play, expecting a tag play at 3rd. Inge laid down the bunt on the 3rd pitch and successfully moved the runner on 2nd to 3rd. 1 out, lead-off hitter, Granderson fouled 2 pitches after a 0-2 count and slapped a line drive to left for a triple and drove in the ahead run. Without the pass-ball, the runner would still have scored on the triple. The run was the game-winning run and one that was executed with a plan by the Tigers.

Tigers' decision to bunt with a runner on 1st with no outs shows their strategy to put pressue on the defense and pitcher to score a run or two in such situation. Playing against such high-scoring team like the Yankees is difficult. However, as a team that tries to score as many runs as possible, even it's only one or two runs at a time is the optimal plan. The only problem with the particular play in the game is that the batter up, Inge has power (27HRs, 29 2Bs, & .463SLG) and the on-deck hitter, Granderson is a free-swinger who strikes out regularly74Ks in 596ABs). Tigers showed that they had confidence in their relief pitching and understood the importance of trying to score runs with certainty when runners get on base.

If DET takes advantage of every on-base situation, either with bunts or hit&run's, they could force enough runs on the scoreboard. It may be difficult, or rather unlikely to keep up with the NYY's offense scoring. However, like Tigers exemplified today's game, they have a chance of winning a game at a time when they generate runs with sound strategies.