The Detroit Tigers have demonstrated consistency and skill to beat the New York Yankees 2-1 in Tuesday's game and move to within one win of eliminating their opponents.
Joe Girardi, Yankees manager, made changes to his batting order yet again. Nick Swisher and Alex Rodriguez were benched; however, the move did not pay off.
"I have seen a lot of teams shuffle around a lot of lineups when I am out there, so it doesn't really faze me one way or the other if those guys are in there or not," said Verlander who put in a stellar pitching effort for the Tigers. "I just need to come up with the game plan to face the certain guys that I am going to face. I can't say I was surprised, but that's Girardi's decision, not mine."
The Tigers can easily win their second title in seven years if they complete a sweep in the next game on Wednesday. Tigers' Max Scherzer will pitch against CC Sabathia in the fourth game.
Jim Leyland, the Tigers manager said: "We put ourselves in a decent position, but that's all we have done."
For the Tigers, ace Miguel Cabrera contributed with an RBI double while Delmon Young hit a solo home run.
The Yankees' batting is a cause for concern for manager Girardi. Their unimpressive batting average of .182 in the series and .200 during the postseason is below par and the main reason they're struggling against the Tigers.
Girardi said: "There were some good at-bats tonight. The ball was not carrying tremendously well tonight, we know that. But I think he ended up with three strikeouts.
"So our guys put the ball in play and tried to get on base, but, you know, when you face Verlander, you know what you're up against."
Phil Coke allowed 2-out hits to Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira. Cano snapped a slump of 29 at bats without a hit. The game ended for the Yankees when Coke's slider struck out Ibanez.
Verlander said: "I've got faith in our bullpen. Coke did a great job in New York. He's done a great job for us all year, so I was okay with it. And I was up around 130 pitches or so, so I don't think they're just going to leave me out there and sacrifice the rest of the postseason just for this game, especially when Coke's been throwing the ball extremely well."
The Tigers are now eying the World Series title -- for the first time since 1984.
As for the Yankees, it's an uphill task for them now as they need to win all the remaining games to claim the AL championship series.
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