In the twentysome hours between the Yankees loss to the Tigers on Monday night and the first pitch of Game 4 on Tuesday, everything focused on AJ Burnett. A team with a $207 million payroll was forced to put their postseason life on the arm of a pitcher with a 5.15 ERA. Yankee fans bemoaned their fate, while everyone else indulged in some serious schadenfreude.
A funny thing happened, though. Burnett held the Tigers to four hits and just one run in his 5 2/3 innings, easily out-dueling Rick Porcello, who gave up four in his six innings. The Yankees piled six more runs on in the top of the eighth for a 10-1 win, and now the series is headed back to New York for a decisive Game 5.
How did this happen? Here’s the thing: AJ Burnett isn’t actually your run-of-the-mill bottom of the rotation guy. He’s not Kevin Correia. His 5.15 ERA this year came coupled with almost a strikeout an inning (173 in 190 1/3) and a 2.08 K/BB ratio. He’s prone to getting hit hard, but anyone capable of missing bats like that is also capable of a good start every now and thing. Is he who any team in their right mind would want on the mound with the season on the line? No. But as last-ditch guys go, well, there are worse pitchers to have on the mound.
Joe Girardi did a good job with Burnett tonight and hooked him at the first sign of trouble in the sixth, knowing that he had a three run lead and no more than seven outs to get to Mariano Rivera. As it turned out, Girardi didn’t even have to go to Rivera thanks to the Yankees’ big eighth inning.
The biggest play of the game, though, wasn’t any particular hit in the game breaking eighth, nor was anything Burnett did, nor was it Girardi’s appropriately short leash on his starter. It was Curtis Granderson’s stumbling, leaping catch in the bottom of the first inning. Burnett’s final line from last night looks fine, but he walked the bases loaded in the first inning and with two outs Don Kelly hit a line drive right on the button to center field. It looked like it was over Granderson’s head, but he somehow hauled the ball and instead of a three-run Tiger lead, the first inning ended 0-0. It was really the closest that Detroit came to scoring off of Burnett and it set the pace for the whole game.
Just a few hours ago, the Tigers were looking at a chance to clinch an ALCS bid against AJ Burnett. Now they’re faced with traveling back to New York for Thursday’s Game 5. They’re most likely going to start Doug Fister, who got shelled on Saturday in his pseudo-start in Game 1. The Yankees haven’t announced a starter yet, but it’s a good bet that it’ll be Ivan Nova, who shut the Tigers down over 6 1/3 in his pseudo-start on Saturday. Tuesday night’s win was just one win for a Yankee team that ultimately needs one more to advance to the ALCS, but it feels like an awful lot has changed in this series.
