Yankees Beat the Tigers 10-1 – MLB Playoff Recap

It was quite an afternoon, evening and night in Major League Baseball.  The Texas Rangers eliminate the Rays early, the Phillies move closer towards the NLCS, the Yankees avoid elimination on the back of AJ Burnett and the Arizona Diamondbacks also avoid an end to their season. 

It was a do or die situation for the New York Yankees last night as they faced elimination with a game 4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.  They decided to put their fate in the hands of the very shaky AJ Burnett, who wasn't even in the starting rotation for the postseason.  At the end of the night, it would be AJ who had the last laugh as he threw into the 6th inning and only allowed 1 run on 4 hits.

Burnett didn't do it alone though.  He had some defensive help from Curtis Granderson, who made two phenomenal catches in center field to save some big runs by Detroit.  Offensively, the Yankees were really able to get after Tigers starter Rick Porcello as they tag him for 4 runs on 5 hits over 6 innings.  The Yanks would also tag the Detroit bullpen for 6 more runs.  The series is now at 2-2 and moves back to New York on Thursday for game 5.

Before the Yankees began, they knew who the other team in the ALCS was, and that would be the Texas Rangers who closed things out against the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-3 win.

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre was pretty much the entire offense for the team as he jacked 3 solo home runs.  The only run he wasn't responsible for was a first inning homer hit by Ian Kinsler.  Pitcher Matt Harrison was able to keep the Rays enough in check to grab the win.

Now the Texas Rangers move onto the American league Championship series for the second time in just two years.  They await either the Tigers or Yankees.

The Philadelphia Phillies were the best team in baseball for the entire season.  They were tied at 1-1 with the St. Louis Cardinals going into last nights game 3.

St. Louis was able to get to Philly pitcher Cole Hamels for some hits through his 6 innings, but are unable to put any runs across the plates.   Cards pitcher Jaime Garcia looked good as well until the 7th when he gave up 3 runs, which would end up being the deciding ones.

In the 9th inning the Cardinals started to rally starting with a double by Albert Puljos.  He would score making it a one run game, but the Cardinals would be on the losing end of this one as Philly was able to hold on for a 3-2 win.  They now lead the series 2-1 and game 3 will be tonight from St. Louis.  The Cardinals now face elimination.

Another team facing elimination were the Arizona Diamondbacks.  The Milwaukee Brewers led them 2-0, but Arizona wasn't willing to hang it up just yet.  They were able to get to the Brewers right away with a 2 run first inning.

They would follow that up with another run in the 3rd and 5 runs in the 5th inning.  Shaun Marcum gave up 7 of the 8 Dback runs and takes the loss last night.  Arizona's Josh Collmenter was great on the mound last night and goes 7 strong innings allowing just 2 hits and 1 run from the always dangerous Brewers.  Milwaukee still leads Arizona 2-1 and game 4 is tonight from Arizona where the Diamondbacks will once again have to fight off elimination.