Steinbrenner should have been the star of the movie, not Cashman.

Just Thayin'

horsey of coursey - did you hear the stat last night on the telecast? The Lions and Tigers haven't made the playoffs in the same season since 1934. The Cleveland franchises last did that in 1954.

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7...waukee-brewers

I don't like Rick Reilly, but the Tony Plush stuff is hilarious.

Me: "You're sayin' you could take Albert Pujols?"


Morgan: "Oh, please. I'da f---ed him up. I'da one-punched him."

Would love to see Brewers/Cards NLCS. It could get really interesting if that were to happen considering the last few encounters

When the Tigers are playing golf in a few days, they're going to sit back and wonder a few things about this game four:

1. So many missed chances against AJ Burnett. Just pathetic swings in several key sequences.

2. Jim Leyland just doesn't get it. Biggest game of the season. Chance to close out a series, and he starts Don Kelly and Wilson Betemit. Kelly isn't so bad, but Betemit has been beyond atrocious in this series. An automatic out even.

AJ Burnett, Yankee hero!!

As a Tigers fan, losing like that to AJ Burnett of all people was just devastating. And the bullpen was embarrassing. At least the Wings start their season on Friday and the Lions and UM are playing pretty well.

Isn't that a little much? I know he isn't the most consistant pitcher in the world and is viewed as a black sheep in NY (mostly because his salary). But he does have electric stuff and is very capable to being dominate on any given night. The whole key for him keeping the wheels on the bus when things get a bit dicey. He was able to do that in the first last night (obviously with some help) and pretty much rolled from there.

Why is it a little bit much? The guy stunk this year, and they had every opportunity to get to him last night on multiple occasions, but aside from Victor Martinez, came up pretty small. And Leyland, again, was outmanaged - and that's saying a lot considering how bad Girardi has been in this series. Sacrifice bunt with no outs in the first inning? On what planet is that a good play?

Then again, this is the Tigers, and they have a long track record of making awful pitchers look good and good pitchers look awful.

It's a good matchup Thursday. I think it's a tossup game. Nova's better than I gave him credit for but still wasn't as good as Fister this year. I think it's a 50-50 chance the Saturday results could be reversed with those two pitchers. Porcello actually didn't pitch a bad game last night. Not great, but you're not gonna get much better than 4 in 6 against the Yankees from him.

the suspended game was an unbelievable break for the Yankees too. The difference between Fister and Nova is much smaller than Verlander and Sabathia. Only having to face verlander in essence, one time in a 5 game series was huge for the Yankees.

The Yankees were basically dominated by Max Scherzer, so you don't need to be upset about losing to Burnett. The Tigers didn't exactly have their ace on the hill either. The two defensive plays from Granderson were huge, perhaps even beyond huge. Granted he misplayed the ball in the first a bit but if that ball gets over his head Burnett never even sees the 2nd inning. The 6th inning play was at a time when the game still somewhat hung in the balance.

Scherzer is basically a younger version of Burnett. A complete knucklehead who generally is a pretty good pitcher when his head is screwed on properly.

That was a rocket from Kelly and just happened to be hit to just about the only place in the ballpark where it could be fielded. Still don't get why Ordonez wasn't in there (at least my man can draw a walk occasionally) and hope Betemit never sees another game in a Tigers uniform. You know a guy stinks when a Tigers fan is basically begging for Brandon Inge to be inserted in the lineup.

Horseyofcoursey says 50/50 on Thursday. I beg to differ. Hard to come back from a big game at home where the Tigers were as bad as they were last night.

I would just counter slot dirt is that it's post season baseball. It's completely unpredictable. AJ Burnett saves the Yankee season (yes with help from Granderson) and Ben Francisco saves the Philly season (who would have predicted that he perhaps gets the hit of the series for Philly). Anyone that thinks they have any idea how Thursday's game will go is lying. It could be the one game out of 30 where Austin Jackson gets 4 hits or the game where Posada hits a grand slam.

Austin Jackson actually hasn't been horrid except for game one. Has looked like an honest to goodness leadoff guy.

Terry Francona to be in the booth with Joe Buck for games 1 and 2 of the ALCS. Tim McCarver having a heart procedure and will not be available.

Could be interesting, could be a train wreck.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basebal...na_to_cal.html

Anyone would be better than Tim.

Even though its crazy, lets see if the comeback kids can win three in a row. Go Dbacks.

Not at all happy with the Crew's performance last 2 days. They were throwing batting practice pitches.

D-back fans are pretty weak though, didn't even sell out the stadium and gave away a black hanes t-shirt, really?

I still have a good shot to go 0 for 4 in my first round picks!!

Major League baseball franchises in Florida and Arizona was one of the worst ideas ever. There already were franchises there, it's called spring training.

momentarily watching a yankee pitcher that looks like a fat kid in pajamas reminds me why i stopped paying attention to baseball as an actual sport.

The Yankee fans look like Cub fans.

That was some moxy.

Told ya!! You had better starting pitching going into this series and through 5 games it showed. Fister came through tonight. That was actually brilliant by Benoit in the 7th pitching around Tex with the bases loaded. It worked.

I'm not a fan of the Yanks, but it's pretty obvious who the better team in this series was.

But that's what makes the baseball playoffs great. If your team hits better with RISP and you get decent pitching out of your 1-2-3, you can win the World Series. I like the Tigers to beat the Rangers.

When the Tigers acquired Fister they became the best team in baseball. Right now at this second, Verlander/Fister is a better 1-2 than Halladay/Lee and it's not even really close. The better team won that series without question. I don't know how he does it looking at him throw, but Fister was a great pitcher all year, he didn't get a heckuva lot of run support in Seattle.

Antitrust32 in 5.....4......3......

Fister has basically pitched like a right handed version of Lee the last three months. But still, as much as I appreciate horsey's enthusiasm, I can't compare Verlander/Fister to Halladay/Lee. Maybe to Halladay/Lee Harvey Oswalt.

:) I'm counting on my horse tonight! I can't wait for game 5... this is what playoffs are all about!

Wow. Nothing else to say about that except, Wow.

As far as the best team winning the series, not sure about that either. Just like Joey said, the Yanks had a ton of men in scoring position and did absolutely nothing with those opportunites.

Good luck Tiger fans going forward against the Rangers.

Also for the record, I thought Jim Leyland out-managed Girardi.

Hope the Cards win. I have no interest otherwise.

Not a fan of these 5 game series. If they want to do that then at least give the team with the best record in each league a first round bye and add another wild card team. Make having the best record more meaningful than home field advantage which in baseball isn't as important as football.

It's funny you say that, I heard Leyland's press conference yesterday. He mentioned that sometimes he feels like it's better to be on the road for these elmination games. He said something about there being certain distractions at home in addition to the pressures of playing in front of the home crowd.

Just scored tickets to game 5 tonight. Pumped up isnt the word! The Doctor will see you now........

wow!!! sooo jealous!! Have a great time!! Go Phillies!!

I'll ignore the ridiculous Fister hagiography, and just ask, what the hell makes you say that? They got outscored 28-17.

Didn't the Red Sox have almost an even run differential during their September collapse despite winning like six games? I'm not sure counting cumulative score is necessarily indicative of, well, anything.

I'm not sure Leyland outmanaged Girardi (that's like the blind leading the blind). He just got lucky. Miguel Cabrera somehow ended up with over 100 RBI's this year despite Leyland continually placing three guys ahead of him who don't ever end up on base. I realize Delmon Young had a nice enough series, but continuing to bat low-OBP guys like Jackson and Don Kelly early in a lineup isn't going to win a lot of games on the offensive end.

Girardi wasn't great last night, I'll give you that.

Really? Take a look at the MLB standings. They go almost exactly according to run differential. The top four in the NL were the four that made the playoffs. Three of the top four in the AL made the playoffs (Boston was third, Tampa was fifth). It's one of the best indicators of how good a team is.

But that's what a short series can do. It can propel the inferior team if they leave fewer runners on base and get slightly better starting pitching.

And the Red Sox were -23 in September.

Standing room only, but it'll do! Thanks Uncly, enjoy watching Doc as he transforms into the Surgeon. 5-2 Good Guys!