ALCS Game 2: Dominant pitching and the inept Yankees offense

If you love pitching, you would have loved this game. Anibal Sanchez and Hiroki Kuroda went toe-to-toe Sunday afternoon in Game 2 of the ALCS in the Bronx, and Sanchez and the Tigers ultimately came out on top.

Two story lines dominated this game:

Sanchez and Kuroda were dominant

Kuroda started off the game striking out seven of the first nine Tigers hitters, including both Cabrera and Fielder, and kept the Tigers scoreless until the seventh. The first five innings Kuroda was cruising and faced the minimum number of hitters. He gave up his first hit in the sixth to Peralta, but looked strong. The first crack in the armor came in the seventh. Quintin Berry led of the inning with a ground rule double and Cabrera followed up with single that moved Berry to third. Kuroda then struck out Fielder for a huge first out. Yankee killer Delmon Young stepped to the plate next, and Kuroda executed his pitch, inducing a grounder to Jayson Nix at short and what seemed to be a inning ending double play. Unfortunately for Kuroda and the Yanks, Cano botched the transfer and couldn’t make the throw to first base. That allowed Berry to score and got the Tigers on the board. Replays showed that the play at first would have been close, and I am sure the Yankees (even the seemingly nonplussed Cano) would love a redo.

Sanchez did his best to match Kuroda inning for inning. The game didn’t start as smoothly for Sanchez as Kuroda, but in the end he earned the W. Sanchez worked out of a bit of trouble in the first. After giving up a double to Teixeira and a walk to Ibanez, he induced a groundout from Martin.  He also had a spat of trouble in the sixth, but that was self-induced and not too threatening. After Ichiro reached on an error by Sanchez and advanced too third by two groundouts from Cano and Teixeira, Sanchez intentionally walked Ibanez, but got Martin to groundout again to end the inning. Other than those two instances, Sanchez looked great and was rarely tested. In fact, the only other runner to reach second base for the Yankees was Granderson in the seventh. Granderson walked and then stole second as Swisher struck out.

Both pitchers looked great on the night. Kuroda racked up 11 Ks (zero walks) and five hits. Sanchez added seven Ks (three walks) and gave up only three hits. Hats off to both guys for a well-pitched game.

The Yankees offense looks inept

Sanchez looked masterful. He caused the Yankees to continue their string of seemingly endless crappy at bats and offense ineptitude continued. The Yankees only managed four hits and three walks (one intentional). Granderson was the only Yankee with a positive WPA (WinProbability Added), and he was 0 for 3 with three strikeouts. Good things continue to happen when the Tigers put the bat on the ball with runners on base (see Delmon Young above); the same cannot be said for the Yankees. The Yankees look bad at bat and I am sure they hope that A-Rod’s single in the ninth will get him going a bit. They better hope something changes. Detroit is definitely in the driver’s seat - up 2-0 with Verlander on the mound Tuesday night.