Detroit Tigers Sweep Yankees and Advance To World Series
19 Oct, 2012
DETROIT — The New York Yankees hadn’t been swept in a best-of-seven postseason series in 36 years, and the Detroit Tigers finished off the job in emphatic fashion Thursday afternoon.
Jhonny Peralta hit two of the Tigers’ four home runs to spark a 16-hit attack and a dominant Max Scherzer took a no-hitter into the sixth inning as Detroit routed the Yankees 8-1 in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series at Comerica Park.
“You know what the great part about this game and this series was?” Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder said. “Everybody had a hand in it. It was a team effort and we knew that’s what it was going to take to beat the Yankees.”
The Yankees had the best record in the AL during the regular season at 97-65 while Detroit had an 88-74 mark, the worst of the five postseason participants. Yet there was no doubt who the better team was in this series.
“I have the utmost respect for the Yankees,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “If someone would have told me we would sweep the Yankees in this series, I would have told them they were crazy. A little luck, some pretty good pitching and a couple of hits at the right time and sometimes you get on a roll that’s pretty good.”
The Tigers advance to the World Series for the first time since 2006 — when they also had a sweep in the ALCS, polishing off the Oakland Athletics — and will open next Wednesday on the road against the National League champions, either the St. Louis Cardinals or San Francisco Giants.
Tigers left fielder Delmon Young was named the series Most Valuable Player as he went 6-for-17 (.353) with two home runs and six RBI.
The Tigers became the fifth team to never trail in a postseason series. One of those teams was the 1963 Los Angeles Dodgers, who swept the Yankees in the World Series.
It was the worst October beating the Yankees had taken since the 1976 Cincinnati Reds downed them in four in a row in the World Series. The 1981 Kansas City Royals were the last team to sweep the Yankees in the postseason, taking the ALCS in three games in what was then a best-of-five affair.
The Yankees managed just six runs in the series and scored in only three of 39 innings.
“We didn’t swing the bats,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It wasn’t one guy, it wasn’t two guys, it was a bunch of guys and it’s hard to win when you don’t score runs.”
The Tigers battered Yankees ace CC Sabathia for six runs — five earned — and 11 hits in 3 2/3 innings. The big left-hander had been undefeated in his previous eight starts, going 4-0 with a 3.97 ERA.
It was Sabathia’s shortest start — not including those affected by injury or weather — since he lasted just 2 2/3 innings and gave up nine runs on Oct. 2, 2009 at Tampa Bay.
Scherzer, armed with a 6-0 lead, gave up his first hit when Eduardo Nunez hit a leadoff triple in the sixth then scored on Nick Swisher’s double. That was the only run the Yankees got as Scherzer allowed only one run and two hits while striking out 10 in his 5 2/3-inning outing.
Scherzer has gone 7-1 with 1.90 ERA in his last 10 starts at Comerica Park.
Tigers starting pitcher allowed two earned runs in 27 innings in the series for a 0.67 ERA.
Relievers Drew Smyly, Octavio Dotel and Phil Coke finished the two-hitter.
Delmon Young and rookie Avisail Garcia hit RBI singles in the first and third inning to stake the Tigers to a 2-0 lead then Detroit chased Sabathia during a four-run fourth that included two-run home runs by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, who hit a booming drive into the left-field stands, and Peralta.
The Tigers added two more home runs in the late innings as Austin Jackson connected off Derek Lowe in the seventh and Peralta took David Robertson deep in the eighth to push the lead to 8-1.
Andy Dirks was 3-for-4 and one of seven players in the Tigers’ lineup to finish with multiple hits. The 16 hits were a club record for a postseason game.
“It just seemed like one guy got a big hit then another and it just kept going down the line,” said Dirks, the left fielder. “You don’t expect to do that against CC Sabathia but we swung the bats great.”
“It was our day and our series,” Fielder said. “But we’ve still got a little more work left to do. We’ll celebrate this but our goal is to win it all.”
USA Today
Mentioned In This Post:
