THE SPORTS DESK
Pro Baseball: Tigers rally to win ALCS Game 1; Yankees lose Jeter
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK—Delmon Young doubled home the go-ahead run in the 12th inning after New York’s Raul Ibanez hit another stunning game-tying home run during a four-run rally in the ninth, and the Detroit Tigers outlasted the Yankees 6–4 Saturday night in an AL championship series opener.
But the bigger loss to the Yankees happened before the final out was recorded: star shortstop and team captain Derek Jeter suffered a fraction in his already battered lower left leg while attempting to field a grounder and had to be helped off the field.
Manager Joe Girardi later announced the fracture at the postgame press conference and said he is out for the remainder of the playoffs.
Jeter rolled over his knee when he dove in an attempt to glove Jhonny Peralta’s grounder up the middle in the 12th. Unable to move, he flipped the ball toward the mound and his leg was dangling as he was assisted off by Girardi and trainer Steve Donahue.
Detroit was coasting to a 4–0 win before the Yankees rocked Tigers closer Jose Valverde in the ninth.
Ichiro Suzuki started the comeback with a two-run homer with one out, and the 40-year-old Ibanez hit another two-run drive with two outs. Three nights earlier, Ibanez hit a tying home run in the ninth against Baltimore in Game 3 of the division series and another homer in the 12th to win.
Young’s one-out double off David Phelps, which followed a leadoff walk by Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, sliced in right and eluded Nick Swisher, who appeared ready to dive but couldn’t get his glove out when he realized the ball was closer to him than he had thought.
Young drove in three runs, hitting an RBI single in a two-run sixth against Andy Pettitte and a solo homer in the eighth against Derek Lowe.
Rookie Avisail Garcia singled in a run against Boone Logan, and Andy Dirks added an RBI single in the 12th on a comebacker that glanced off Phelps’ pitching hand.
Drew Smyly, who had started warming up in the third when starter Doug Fister took a line drive off his right wrist, got the win by pitching two scoreless innings.
In Game 2 on Sunday night, New York starts Hiroki Kuroda, pitching on three days’ rest for the first time in his big league career.
Detroit sends Anibal Sanchez to the mound.
Twenty-five of 42 previous Game 1 winners have gone on to take the AL pennant.
