[actionjackson]

...Sorry to report this David Watts. The Tigers were able to hang onto first place as they went 95-67 and finished nine up on the Yankees despite a disgusting 4.84 Bullpen ERA.

So it was Tigers/Yankees in the ALCS. The Yankees blasted the Tigers 12-2 in Game 1. Tigers came back in Game 2 with a 6-3 win, but the Yankees took Games 3 and 4 6-4 and 4-1. So, the Tigers were down 3 games to 1. They fought back in Games 5 and 6 and won 5-4 and 5-2.

In Game 5 though there was some major foreshadowing of what unfortunately (for the Tigers) was to come. SP Roy Patterson was dominating the Yankees, entering the bottom of the ninth inning up 5-0. He got the first hitter Keith Lampard on a grounder to second. For some reason, the Tigers' manager lifted Patterson with two outs to get, up 5-0. Maybe it was because he'd thrown 114 pitches. Who knows?

Anyway Marc Hall came on, and was a disaster. Roberto Ortiz doubled, Logan Morrison singled, Brock Holt tripled them both in and was balked home during Karim Garcia's at bat. K. Garcia flied out to left and there were finally two outs.

Ramon Garcia relieved the inept Hall with the Tigers up 5-3. Jack Hiatt singled and was tripled home by Jeff Reed. Lou Whitaker was walked (unintentionally intentionally perhaps) on four pitches. Aaron Hill to the plate down 5-4 with two ducks on the pond and two out and he grounds out back to the mound. Oye! The Tiger manager must've run through a lot of Maalox, cigarettes, and who knows maybe some booze (after all it is 1932), in that winner of an inning...But they won the game, and as outlined above, they won Game 6.

Off to Game 7 we go. All things are running smoothly for the Tigers through six, as they're up 4-0, with Lee Grissom tossing the shutout. He gives up a single to Jim Clark to lead off the seventh, and is yanked in favour of Charlie Sproull after 105 pitches.

Sproull walks Chico Walker, and a groundout from Brock Holt moves the runners up to second and third. Aaron Hill then triples to score Clark and Walker. Whitaker grounds out to short to score Hill, and Jack Hiatt grounds out to end the inning at 4-3 Detroit. In the bottom of the seventh Mickey Mantle hits a solo blast to put the Tigers up 5-3. Sproull retires the Yanks in order on groundouts in the top of the eighth, the bottom of the eighth is uneventful, and now we're headed for the ninth inning.

Marc Hall relieves Sproull, and gets Jim Clark to fly out and strikes out Chico Walker. Two out...Nobody on. Brock Holt walks, Aaron Hill singles and up steps "Sweet" Lou Whitaker. The first pitch is smacked 394 feet over the right centre field fence, and the crowd goes dead silent. They've seen this before. Ramon Garcia relieves Hall, and gets Jack Hiatt to ground out, but the damage is done. We head to the bottom of the ninth. Paul Musser on in relief for the Yanks. Rafael Ramirez leads off for the Tigers with a double...And the roar of the crowd is back...Irish Meusel, Mickey Mantle, and Duffy Lewis are due up...Good things are gonna happen right?...Er no...Musser whiffs Meusel and Mantle back to back, and gets Duffy Lewis to fly out ending the game

...6-5 Yanks final...4 games to 3 Yanks final. Now that's a soul crushing loss after almost coming back in the series from 3 games to 1 down. I guess the saving grace for you is that Lou Whitaker of the Yankees was named ALCS MVP with a .280/.419/.800/1.219 series and 3 HR and 9 RBI. That bullpen did come back to bite the Tigers in the end...Sound familiar? Ouch!