Detroit – This is all this city wanted for 19 years. A team it could love, a team that could avert its attention from the dreadful Lions.
The Detroit Tigers, this postseason’s lovable mutts, completed an improbable demolition of the New York Yankees, winning 8-3 Saturday to advance to their first American League Championship Series since 1987.
Their march toward the World Series continues Tuesday in Oakland. It’s hard to imagine they could play any better than they have during the past three games. They outscored the Yankees 18-6, grabbing baseball’s most storied franchise by the nape of the neck and slamming it to the curb.
“Everyone doubted us, and we did it,” Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordoñez said. “We can beat anyone now.”
The Tigers began the playoffs as a morbid fascination, having deployed their airbags over the final two months. They dropped their final five games, squandering the AL Central title – and the homefield advantage that accompanied it – to the Minnesota Twins. A week ago today they were swept by the Kansas City Royals, blowing a six-run lead in the finale.
“I know we broke our fans’ hearts. But I hope they forgive us and are celebrating tonight,” said Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who was carried off the field by his players. “This is just the first step.”
The regular season-ending collapse, oddly, unclenched the Tigers’ fists. They played free and easy, feeling they had nothing to lose – a psychological edge maximized by Leyland.
On Saturday, playing in front a crowd louder than the one at the Big House cheering on the Michigan Wolverines, the Tigers mauled the Yankees, proving again that one of the greatest lineups is no match for good pitching.
Jeremy Bonderman breezed through five no-hit innings, barely perspiring. He allowed just one run over 8 1/3 innings, providing the perfect followup to Kenny Rogers’ gem Friday. If there was any doubt that the postseason is an arms race, consider this: The Tigers assaulted, in order, Jaret Wright, Cory Lidle, Brian Bruney, Scott Proctor and Kyle Farnsworth, nobody’s idea of excellence.
“Plain and simple, they dominated us,” said maligned Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez. “It’s not like we lost by one or two runs. They kicked our butts.”
The outcome was decided in the Tigers’ three-run third inning. Ordoñez opened the scoring with a 422-foot home run to center field, the fans exploding like a bottle of G.H. Mumm champagne that would later soak the Tigers’ clubhouse. Moments later, Craig Monroe greeted a hanging slider with similar ferocity, his two-run home run to left numbing the Yankees.
“We shocked the world, baby!” screamed Monroe as he danced through the cigar smoke afterward. “Shocked the world!”
New York, inexplicably, came out flat, offering little resistance. The Yankees were blanked for 20 consecutive innings before scoring in the seventh. Their lineup reeked of desperation. Manager Joe Torre shifted Rodriguez to eighth in the lineup and benched Jason Giambi for match-up purposes, not an ailing shoulder that required a cortisone shot late Friday night.
“They outplayed us. They outpitched us,” Torre said. “There’s not much else you can say.”
Uncertainty and disappointment permeated the Yankee clubhouse, with speculation that Rodriguez had played his last game with New York and that George Steinbrenner would be replacing four members of his rotation. Pitching was the difference, and fittingly the Tigers’ party began on the mound after Melky Cabrera grounded to second base for the final out.
“They can’t have any excuses about shadows or calls, we beat them,” Tigers closer Todd Jones said. “We’re celebrating and they are not, and it feels great.”
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com.
