Well, one Detroit team was victorious on Monday. The Tigers and Rangers were tied 3-3 until the bottom of the 11th when Nelson Cruz hit the first game-ending grand slam in postseason history to beat Detroit 7-3. It was Cruz' 2nd homer of the game. How nice is this for Detroit pitchers? After facing Hamilton, Young, Beltre and Napoli - they get to pitch to the HOT bat of Cruz! That's his 3rd dinger in the ALCS!!
The Rangers lead the series 2-0. Game 3 tonight: Doug Fister vs Colby Lewis at 8:05 PM.
On a much brighter note - the Detroit Lions looked like world-beaters! The Lions beat the Chicago Bears 24-13 on Monday Night Football. The Lions are now 5-0 for the first time since 1956!! Detroit made the Bears look pathetic. Chicago committed 9 false start penalties and Bears' QB Jay Cutler was sacked 3 times. Jahvid Best ran for 163 yards, including an 88-yard TD! Next Sunday: 49ers vs Lions 1:00 PM at Ford Field.
We have a great afternoon/evening of sports to enjoy for our Canadian Thanksgiving: Tigers baseball and Lions football. Game 2 of the ALCS was postponed due to rain and rescheduled for Monday afternoon at 4:19 PM. The Tigers also learned that Magglio Ordonez will miss the rest of the postseason because he re-fractured his surgically repaired right ankle! Delmon Young is, already, unavailable for the ALCS with a strained left oblique. That's two pretty big bats out of the lineup...
Following in the footseps of the Tigers' playoff towels, the Lions will distribute 50,000 pink towels to the fans at Ford Field for tonight's Lions - Bears game on Monday Night Football. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will supply the towels as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month...
The Tigers' bats were MIA on Saturday night. The Rangers beat the Tigers 3-2. ...and WTF is with the rain? In Texas?? Two freakin' rain delays that totalled 1 hour, 50 minutes! There's a raincloud following the Tigers! The rain delays were the first at Rangers Ballpark since May 24th!! This season the Rangers endured one of the hottest and driest summers ever in North Texas, including 27 games when the temperature was 100 degrees or more!!! Justin Verlander didn't have his best stuff and the 2nd rain delay put him out of the game. All 3 runs were charged to Verlander, who only pitched 4 innings. Rick Porcello, Phil Coke and Ryan Perry pitched scoreless relief for the remainder of the game. Austin Jackson had the lone RBI and scored the other run on a wild pitch. Ian Kinsler, David Murphy and Nelson Cruz had the 3 RBIs for Texas. Cruz cranked a homer off Verlander. Both teams left 9 runners on base. The 3,4,5,6 hitters in the Rangers lineup are DEADLY! They're like the baseball equivalent of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, Adrian Beltre and Mike Napoli!!! There's some unbelievable power there... Having said that - I still think Max Scherzer can neutralize those big bats and even-up the series for the Tigers tonight. I'd like to, personally, thank FOX for bringing-in A.J. 'Douche' Pierzynski to help with baseball coverage...WTF???
Tonight: Max Scherzer vs Derek Holland at 7:45 PM.
Two more Game 5's. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2. The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0. Geez, who would've thought Roy Halladay would lose a game 5? Cards' hurler Chris Carpenter threw a complete game, 3-hit shutout.
ALCS Game 1: Justin Verlander vs C.J. Wilson at 8:05 PM.
Since this week's RACK-OFF! features mirrored rackage, I thought I'd post my two favourites...Lilly Robbins...
The HBWHOF is a baseball prophet. As you all know by now - the Detroit Tigers eliminated the New York Yankees in 5 games. Doug Fister got the win. Fister pitched 5 innings. During those 5 innings Yankees' skipper, Joe Girardi, brought 4 pitchers to the mound - Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, Boone Logan and CC Sabathia! Fister allowed a single run - a homer by Robinson Cano. Delmon Young homered again - his 3rd of the series. He became the first player in Tigers' history with 3 homers in a single postseason series!! V-Mart drove-in the winning run with a 2-out single in the 5th inning. So, before the series began, I called it in 5 games and picked Fister, Young and V-Mart as the series heroes. Yep, a freakin' baseball prophet.
Oh, by the way, the Tigers won 3-2 and head to Texas to play the Rangers in the ALCS. The Big Potato whiffed A-Rod to take the whole enchilada...
He also sawed-off Cano...
Your series heroes...Delmon goes DEEP for #3...
V-Mart drives-in the winning run...
Doug Fister gets the 'W'...
The Tigers do my favourite thing: Make Yankees' fans SAD...
That's a shame...
...and I'd like to end this post with a little tribute...I'm the father of 4 wonderful daughters. Being a Dad is a full-time job. There is NO better Dad in baseball than Victor Martinez. V-Mart takes his son EVERYWHERE. I've chronicled their journey during the season. Enjoy the ride...
And the Douche, with his douche-hands ready to deliver a blow, Stood puzzling and puzzling: "How could it be so? It came without Jeter. I think I might gag! "It came without Posada, They had a guy named Maggs!" And he puzzled three hours, `til his puzzler was sore. ... Then the Douche thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Winning," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. "Maybe Winning...perhaps...means a little bit more!"
And what happened then...? Well...in Motown they say That the Douche's small heart Grew three sizes that day!
