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ALDS Game Three times two

by Matt Smith

CovHlWEMonday is Game Three day in the American League postseason.

Both of the two AL Division Series are tied at 1-1 heading into the third game of each respective series.  Teams can, and have, come back from trailing 2-1 in a best-of-five series, but winning the third game undoubtedly shifts the odds firmly in favour of the victor.

The Texas Rangers and Tampa Bay Rays have decamped to Florida, with Colby Lewis and David Price set to take the mound today.

BBC 5 Live Sports Extra will be broadcasting the game live from 22.00 BST, giving baseball fans, and maybe a few sports fans in the UK yet to take an interest in the sport, an exciting postseason game to enjoy live during the British evening.

The Rays will be glad to head back home to the scene of their recent stunning triumph over the Yankees that booked them a playoff place on the final day of the regular season. The Rangers will be slightly disappointed to have dropped one of the two games at their ballpark, but their victory in Game Two has kept this series finely balanced.

As for the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers, Game Three of their series finally offers us the tantalising prospect of a proper pitching match-up between two of the very best starting pitchers in the sport: CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander.

We got a glimpse of this contest in the initial staging of Game One before rain cut that short after less than two complete innings. 

The Tigers received a strong start from Max Scherzer yesterday as they levelled the series with a 5-3 victory. Scherzer is an interesting pitcher because he misses his spot more often than you would like for a leading pitcher, in particular dragging pitches to his glove side (i.e. towards a left-handed hitter).

However his stuff is so good that he generally gets away with it, as he did yesterday. If he can take the next step by sharpening his command and being more consistent with his slider, Scherzer could become a genuine ace.

His performance appeared to have put the Tigers into a comfortable position, but there was nothing comfortable about the final inning for Detroit.

Their eccentric closer Jose Valverde came to the mound having completed a perfect regular season, amassing 49 saves from 49 opportunities. Yet he struggled to find the strike zone in this game and the Yankees took advantage by plating two runs to set up a grandstand finish for the Yankee fans that had stayed beyond the rain showers (which disappointingly was by no means all of them). 

Robinson Cano stepped up to the plate with two runners on and two outs, but this time he couldn’t match his Game One heroics and grounded out to end the game and leave the Tigers letting out a big sigh of relief.

Game Three of the Yankees-Tigers series is set to start at 01.30 a.m. in the early hours of Tuesday.  ESPN America will show the game live, either from the start or once the Rangers-Rays game (also being shown on ESPN America) is completed.

No MVP case for  a closer

TBS commentators John Smoltz and Ron Darling were doing their bit for the Pitchers’ Union by touting Valverde as a potential MVP before his blow-up yesterday  Much as I respect their pitching records, and I’m also a fan of their commentary too, I have to strongly disagree with John and Ron on that one.

I’m not completely against a pitcher taking the award and Valverde’s team mate Justin Verlander certainly deserves to be in the running this year.  However, voting for a person who only contributed 72.1 innings to the regular season cause would be going a significant leap – never mind a step – too far.

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