Tigers 6, Yankees 4: I Don't Want to Talk About It

The less said about this game the better.

The offense was shut down for eight innings, until another crazy ninth inning comeback thanks to Ibanez, but eventually the bullpen got more depleted and the Tigers scored two in the top of the 12th to beat the Yankees 6-4 and take a 1-0 lead in the ALCS. And to add to the defeat, Jeter fractured his ankle.

Andy Pettitte started for the Yankees and was again very good, giving up just 2 runs in 6.2 innings.

The Tigers finally broke through to take the lead in the sixth. Austin Jackson lead off with a triple. After getting Omar Infante to fly out, Pettitte intentionally walked Miguel Cabrera. Prince Fielder then singled to score Jackson. Next at bat, a Delmon Young single scored Cabrera to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

After some RISP fails from the Yankees, the Tigers added to their lead in the eighth. Derek Lowe had been brought in to relieve Pettitte in the seventh, and gave up a home run to Young with one out in the eigth. Next batter, Jhonny Peralta, doubled, which lead to Boone Logan coming into the game. Avisail Garcia singled to score Peralta to make the score 4-0. But these runs and the use of the bullpen would come back to haunt the Yankees.

Russell Martin lead off the bottom of the ninth with a single. Two batters later, Ichiro homered to make it a 4-2 game. Two batters later, with two outs Mark Teixeira drew a walk to bring up Raul Ibanez. And Ibanez continued his amazing late inning hitting, hitting another home run to tie the game at 4.

After two scoreless innings by teams, David Phelps was brought in to pitch the 12th. This did not go well. Cabrera walked to start the inning, and moved to second on a groundout by Fielder. Delmon Young doubled to score Cabrera to give the Tigers the lead again. Peralta then hit one to Jeter, who appeared to injure himself fielding. It did not look particularly good, as Jeter needed to be helped off. Don Kelly, who was running for Young, went to third on the play, and scored on a groundball single which Phelps couldn't field. Phelps got out of the inning without anymore damage, but it was 6-4. The Yankees wouldn't score in the bottom half and the Tigers took Game 1.

Phelps was pretty terrible, but he really shouldn't have been in the game. The Yankees went through Lowe, Logan, Eppley, and Rapada in the eigth and ninth innings. And with Soriano and Robertson each getting and inning, there was really no one else left. (Except for Joba, but who knows if he could've pitched.) Yes, Phelps was bad, but its tough to blame him, because Girardi burned though the bullped in the eighth and ninth.

The other culprit was the offense. Three seperate innings saw the bases loaded and no runs scored. No runs were scored other than in the ninth. The 2012 Yankees RISP Fail tradition continued today.

But it's gonna be best just to forget about this game, hope Jeter's injury isn't as bad as it looked (Fractured ankle. Welp.) and get ready for tomorrow. Go Yankees.