The American League Division Series between the New York Yankees and the Detroit Tigers was supposed to see a lot of CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander. But after weather ruined the scheduled Game 1 clash of Cy Young aces, we will end up seeing limited action from two of the top AL pitchers.
Verlander pitched just one inning and Sabathia got through two before Game 1 was postponed. After the shortened outings, each ace was only able to have one more start in the series.
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Instead it will be Ivan Nova with the chance to win a second time for New York and Doug Fister hoping to rebound from the six runs and seven hits he gave up in 42Ú3 innings in Game 1 in the Bronx — where both he and Nova made their first career postseason appearances.
Fister helped the Tigers run away with the AL Central over the latter half of the regular season, going 8-1 after being acquired from Seattle, while A.J. Burnett was the focal point for New York’s worries over how they would fare in the postseason.
Thanks to a couple spectacular catches by Curtis Granderson, Burnett might just be the unlikely hero after forcing Game 5 when many questioned whether he should even be on the Yankees’ postseason roster.
As far as the two aces’ availability on Thursday, the Yankees plan to have Sabathia ready out of the bullpen if needed, but Tigers manager Jim Leyland said Verlander will not pitch at all.
– Craig Stouffer
