Tigers too strong for A’s
Based on sheer numbers, the Oakland Athletics should be favoured to win their American League Divisional Series over the Detroit Tigers.
The A’s (94-68), after all, posted a better record this season than the Tigers (88-74). Since mid-June, Oakland has been the best team in the AL.
The Tigers, though, understand that it doesn’t work that way, and with good reason.
Two reasons, as a matter of fact.
In Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers suit up the best pitcher in the game, and the best hitter in the game and they figure to swing this series to Detroit’s advantage.
Detroit catcher Alex Avila summed it up when assessing the lineups for Game 1 of the series tonight at Comerica Park.
“We’re at home and we’ve got the best pitcher in the world throwing for us,” Avila said. “I like our chances.”
For all their Jekyll-and-Hyde ups and downs this season, the Tigers are a team that is best suited for playoff baseball.
“They’re probably built for the post-season,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.
Detroit is deep in starting pitching and lines up a powerful batting order that can put crooked numbers up on the scoreboard in a hurry.
“I think this is the type of team that sets up well in any playoff series,” Verlander said. “With power pitching and the ability to score runs, that can be tough to beat if the team gets rolling right.
“If we start swinging the bat and scoring runs and throwing up zeros, that’s how you win baseball games.”
Detroit’s run-generating centres on Cabrera, who led the AL in batting average (.330), home runs (44) and RBI (139) to become baseball’s first Triple Crown winner since Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967.
“It seems like almost on a nightly basis he does something to make his peers go, ‘Wow,’” Verlander said. “And that’s not easy to do.
“In the ballpark, when they announce Miguel Cabrera hitting, ears perk up, guys pay attention. I think everybody in the hot-dog line gets out of line and watches. I get out of the hot-dog line in the dugout and come down to watch.
“He’s just an unbelievable talent. It was really an honour to be able to watch him this year.
“Nobody in the last 45 years has been able to watch a Triple Crown winner on their team.
“I can tell my kids one day that I was able to watch that.”
Watching Verlander fire up his overpowering fastball and Cabrera overpower other pitcher’s fastballs into seatseeking missiles, the Tigers know they possess two ultimate weapons in their pursuit of World Series glory.
And the rotation is set so that Verlander would come back to pitch Game 5 of the series if necessary.
“Every time he goes out
“I CAN TELL MY KIDS ONE DAY THAT I WAS ABLE TO WATCH THAT.”
JUSTIN VERLANDER
there, we anticipate something special,” Cabrera said. “We just expect him to win games.”
The Tigers averaged 8.29 strikeouts per nine innings, the highest rate in club history. Seventeen-game winner Verlander led the AL, fanning 239 batters.
“If you look at the teams who win the World Series, it’s usually the team that gets the most Ks (strikeouts),” Avila said.
It was far from a perfect year for the Tigers, who struggled to clinch the AL Central title until the last week of the season. But they appear perfectly positioned to make a playoff run.
“We played inconsistently all year, but we found a way to get in when we had to,” Verlander said.
“Hopefully, we find a way to win three more series.”
This one should certainly fall their way.