Score and situation: The Detroit Tigers took advantage of a flagging New York Yankees offense and a late blown call to record a 3-0 win in Game 2 of the ALCS on Sunday. The victory gives them a two games to none lead in the series as it shifts to Detroit for the middle three games.
Leading lads: Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez pitched just the way the Tigers wanted him to when they acquired him in a midseason trade from Miami. The righthander threw seven scoreless innings, striking out seven while allowing three hits and three walks to the Yankees lineup. New York starter Hiroki Kuroda pitched even better by carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning, but gave up three runs (only one of which was truly earned) and was stuck with the hard-luck loss after striking out a career-high 11 batters through 7 2/3 innings.
[Related: Yankees try to disguise empty seats at ALCS by moving fans ]
Head hangers: Robinson Cano is your new poster child for the inefficiency of the Yankees offense, which managed only four hits on the night. Cano went 0 for 4 to extend his hitless streak to 0 for 26, the longest drought in postseason history. No one in the New York lineup, however, was exempt from blame as the Yankees offense continued to struggle.
Second base umpire Jeff Nelson belongs in this spot too after blowing a call at second base. Though Cano's tag looked pretty evident for an out, Nelson ruled that Omar Infante was safe after trying to return to the bag and the inning was allowed to continue (though not before Joe Girardi was thrown out of the game for arguing the call). The Tigers used the opportunity to tack on two insurance runs to Kuroda's tab that they wouldn't end up needing any way.
Key play: Quintin Berry led off the top of the seventh with a ground-rule double. He'd later score the first run of the game on a fielder's choice by Delmon Young.
Interesting stat: Sunday's game was the first Yankees postseason game that didn't feature Derek Jeter in the lineup since Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS. Jeter had played 158 straight postseason game for the Yankees, a streak that ended after he fractured his ankle in the 12th inning of Game 1 on Saturday night.
What they'll be talking about: There will be a lot of instant replay talk as a blown call against the Yankees stood out in both Games 1 and 2. But they're not solely to blame as the Yankees just cannot hit the ball. Expect a lot lineup dissection over the next two days as New York tries to figure out what went wrong. As for the Tigers, it's all about their stellar starting pitching. You have to have good efforts from your starters if you want to win a World Series and Detroit's pitchers are doing just that. They've thrown 29 scoreless innings since Sanchez surrendered a homer in Game 3 of the ALDS and have a collective 0.93 ERA over 48 innings pitched this postseason.
What's next: The series shifts to Detroit's Comerica Park for Tuesday's Game 3 at 8:07 p.m. ET. Justin Verlander gets the start for Detroint and can put the Tigers on the brink of the World Series with a win. Phil Hughes is scheduled to start for the Yankees with Girardi still insisting that he won't move up Game 4 starter CC Sabathia to pitch on short rest.
Make sure all your bases are covered this postseason ...
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SAN FRANCISCO — Hey, would you look at that? It's the past two World Series champions meeting in the NLCS. And both, in their own ways, took surprising routes to get here.
Just be the Cardinals: They have the best team left in the field. The deepest lineup, the best starting pitching, the biggest horseshoe wedged ... Manager Mike Matheny is still new at this, and has shown he's capable of being outmaneuvered (like in Game 1 and Game 3 against the Nationals). So if he plays it straight and doesn't do things like bunt Jon Jay again after Chris Carpenter hits a double, Team Fredbird will be in good shape.
-4 The Giants' run differential against the Reds in their five-game NLDS victory. The Reds had a .716 team OPS and the Giants had just a .606 OPS, and the Reds had a 3.13 team ERA while the Giants had a 4.11 team ERA. The Reds did everything better than the Giants except win.
1.306 Carlos Beltran's career posteason OPS, best of all time. Beltran had a .444 average in the NLDS, best among everyone by a lot. This is Beltran's first postseason since Adam Wainwright struck him out looking in the 2006 NLCS, ending the Mets season. The Mets haven't been back to the postseason either, but now Beltran and Wainwright are teammates, and Beltran is adding to one of the most impressive postseason resumes in history. His 3-for-3 performance with two walks and two runs in NLDS Game 5 was a big reason the Cardinals were able to mount their historic comeback.
JIM LEYLAND: First of all, I had Dotel up (int the bullpen) because there were things I didn't really like (with Valverde). And the last part of the question I wouldn't discuss. We are going to discuss this as a staff, and now is not the time to discuss it. We haven't really made any decisions. We really want to put our heads together and discuss it first, to be honest with you, and get together as coaching staff and talk about it. We are certainly going to talk about it, but I don't really have any final information on it yet. We haven't discussed it. It will be something we discuss.
Score and situation: The Detroit Tigers walked the tightrope early and then nearly saw the entire game slip away thanks to Jose Valverde's ninth inning meltdown. Yet somehow, someway, they averted a complete disaster escaped with a 6-4 win over the New York Yankees in 12 innings on Saturday night in the Bronx.
Key play: For the first 8 1/2 innings, the biggest play in the game was a missed call by first base umpire Rob Drake in the second inning that cost the Yankees at least one run, and potentially many more as New York's inning would have continued with the bases still loaded. That changed, however, when Raul Ibanez connected for his game-tying home run. And then it changed again in the 12th when Young doubled past a diving Nick Swisher in right field.
$114 million The amount of money, from 2013 to 2017, that the Yankees still owe Alex Rodriguez, the man they pinch hit for in Games 3 and 4 and then benched for Game 5. The 37-year old Rodriguez was famous for his lack of playoff success with the Yankees before he got old and rickety (that's not entirely fairly; including this year, his career Yankee playoff OPS is still .830). But the team is starting to treat him like a part-time player and one wonders what the Yankees will do with him since all of the Tigers starters are righthanded. Never mind his next five seasons in the Bronx, the soap opera that will take place against Detroit should be fun.
22 The number of Athletics that Justin Verlander struck out in the ALDS, most in the division series round by a significant margin. Verlander won't repeat as MVP, but he's still a favorite to win the Cy Young Award. Judging by his postseason performance, it also seems fair to say that Verlander has taken the crown from Roy Halladay as the best pitcher in baseball. When the chips are down there's no question who you want on the mound. It's the big Virginian with the 100-mph fastball.
Score and situation: The St. Louis Cardinals world championship defense continues after they rallied from a 6-0 deficit to defeat the Washington Nationals on Friday night. Washington put on an offensive clinic early on, scoring six of their runs in the first three innings, but the Cardinals simply refused to go away, chipping away one by one until breaking through against Drew Storen for four runs in the ninth to win it 9-7.
Head hangers: Attempting to pitch for the third straight day, Drew Storen was unable to muster the effectiveness he needed to silence the Cardinals' bats in the ninth. He'll receive most of the attention, but it's important to remember Cy Young contender and 21-game winner Gio Gonzalez was the one handed a 6-0 lead, and he struggled to get through five innings. He ended up walking four and gave three of the runs back to St. Louis before Davey Johnson pulled the plug.
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