When an epic strikeout pitcher like Craig Kimbrel or Aroldis Chapman is on the mound in the ninth and I'm watching, I like to end at bats against players that strikeout by quoting Mortal Kombat, and blurting out the word "FATALITY" when a player strikes out to end the game on an absolutely deadly pitch. Unfortunately in Saturday night's Tigers-Yankees game, the word fatality came up twice, and neither was on a strikeout. Once came when Jose Valverde blew yet another save in epic fashion, his second in three playoff games this year and third terrible performance when you go back to game four of the 2011 ALCS against the Rangers. Thankfully for Valverde, his Tigers won this game. As for the second fatality…well, Jeter. But you knew that already.
–Tigers 6, Yankees 4 (12 innings)
Yesterday around TOC, we wrote the post-mortems for both of the Beltway area teams, the Orioles and Nationals. We also wrote about five observations from both the Cardinals-Nationals NLDS and Orioles-Yankees ALDS that both concluded on Friday evening. Today, we'll probably be posting previews for both the ALCS (which has already begun) and the NLCS (which opens this evening).
Games on the slate today…
-Tigers vs Yankees, 4:00 PM. Anibal Sanchez vs Hiroki Kuroda. (1-0 Tigers)
-Cardinals vs Giants, 8:00 PM. Lance Lynn vs Madison Bumgarner. (Game One).
Enjoy your day of baseball, everyone.
