Well, relaxing didn’t seem to help.

Sure, Max Scherzer seemed relaxed and efficient, keeping the A’s to 4 base runners and no earned runs through 5 1/3, while striking out 8.

Unfortunately the bats were a bit relaxed as well, as the Tigers only managed to score 3 runs despite 10 hits, and although Fielder had a big fly, his relaxed glove at first led to Oakland’s 6th inning unearned run,

But all that relaxing was nothing compared to the 9th inning tension spawned by Jose Valverde, who gave up runs until the A’s didn’t need any more. If that seems like the same old 2012 Valverde to some, it did come in a new flavor:  he was sporting a new pre-delivery back waggle (his actual delivery appeared to be the same).

Everyone seemed to notice it except Valverde and Avila, who both said, nope, nothing different.

Now both ends of the backend bullpen tandem have blown leads already this series.  And if Tiger fans aren’t tense enough going into tonight’s deciding game, be aware that both Benoit and Valverde are ready to go tonight, and it would be very unlike Jim Leyland to not go back to his 8th inning and 9th inning guys again tonight.

In the heat of the moment last night, I found myself hoping that that was the last time I would see Valverde closing a game in a Tiger uniform.  Since the only way that will happen is if they lose tonight, I take it back.

Speaking of Leyland, in case you missed it, he says he is not going to go away, and intends to continue managing beyond this season. (Whether or not the Tigers make that decision for him has probably been affected by knowing that Francona is now unavailable as a replacement).

At any rate, one thing that has worked out is that it is Justin Verlander’s turn to take the mound.  For all of those of who answer Verlander to the question which pitcher would you want in one must-win game, here you go.  Hopefully he keeps the pitch count low and limits bullpen opportunities; if I were JV they might need to call security to keep me from taking the mound in the 9th.

Stat of the Day: Fielder and Cabrera combined for an 0-for-5 against tonight’s starter Jarrod Parker in Game 1.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Miguel Cabrera. Time for Mr. Triple Crown to stop hugging it out with Inge and the A’s, and unleash an MVP-worthy performance.

Today’s Rubbery Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Andy Dirks LF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Infante 2B

Relax, don’t worry.  That’s the message Jim Leyland has for the Tigers and Tiger faithful after the A’s shut out Detroit 2-0 on Tuesday night to stay alive in the ALDS.

Anibal Sanchez and the Tiger bullpen were up to the task, but the Tigers are still waiting for their offense to be unleashed, a common refrain that’s bound to bring a sigh from those of us who have been paying attention all season.

But what would postgame comments be without a bit of “that’s baseball:” “We’re going to have to hit better. But it’s baseball, and you never know how it’s going to play out.” There, that’s better.

Probably a tip of the cap is in order too, because the missing Tiger offense was due in large part to some fielding gems by the A’s outfielders (both on balls hit by the snakebit Fielder), and by some great pitching by Brett Anderson, making his first appearance in almost a month.

Oakland seemed to draw on the energy of its vocal fans, who are likely to be even more inspired now that the A’s have one in the win column.

Still, no reason to worry.

Actually, maybe you should.

In which camp are you?

The Tigers will turn to Max Scherzer tonight, who will attempt to show that he has recovered from shoulder and ankle injuries, and exploit the Oakland penchant for striking out.

The A’s will counter with another rookie (naturally), A.J Griffin, whose last playoff experience was in last season’s Class-A California League playoffs. He faced the Tigers on Sept 18 and gave up 5 runs in 4 2/3 innings, including a home run to Prince Fielder, who is certainly due.

Stat of the Day: The Tigers offense has struggled frequently this season, but not to the point of being shutout often–the Tigers were shut out only twice in the regular season, the fewest of any team in the Majors.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Max Scherzer. Mad Max needs to dial up the K’s.

Today’s Rookie-Beating Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Andy Dirks RF
7. Jhonny Peralta SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Infante 2B

The Tigers swept the home series with the A’s and now have 3 tries to finish the job in Oakland.

John Lowe gives 3 reasons why we shouldn’t assume a Tiger series win:

• The Tigers haven’t really hit the A’s well yet
• Joaquin Benoit
• Home field advantage–the A’s just swept 3 must-win games there against Texas

I’m sure our faithful readers can add more reasons of their own.

Here are 3 reasons I think the Tigers will win it:

• Strikeouts: The A’s led the AL in striking out; the Tiger pitchers led in strikeouts, a match made in heaven, or at least a match made to reduce the clown show opportunities.  The playoff rotation is without the one Tiger non-strikeout pitcher (Porcello).
• Al Alburquerque: The Q-Factor has continued his clutch pitching, and Jim Leyland had said during the season the team could use a big of swagger, and Alburkissy certainly swaggered it up.
• The Twos.  Berry and Infante are a combined 4-8 in the 2 spot. Infante seems to have recovered from his fielding funk and his bat has heated up at the right time; the speed of Berry has put pressure on the Oakland defense.

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At any rate, apparently the most important even of Sunday’s game was that Al Alburquerque kissed the baseball before throwing it to first, at least judging by media coverage.  Al for his part has apologized;  Leyland doesn’t seem to be a fan of the move either. It seemed to crack up most of the Tiger players, many of whom referred to Alburquerque’s crazy personality, which is something I think we need to hear more about.

The A’s weren’t as amused; even Brandon Inge took issue (was afraid of going through this series without an Inge item).  Drew Sharp was in favor, since he thinks baseball is a bit too boring.

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Tonight Anibal Sanchez takes the mound for the sweep. Dave Dombrowski has come out as being in favor of keeping Sanchez, which will make for some interesting decisions over the offseason, financial and otherwise, which are outlined by Jason Beck.

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Stat of the Day: Regardless of what the RH/LH match ups say, Detroit should probably just go with whoever the DH is in the late innings. The Tigers pinch-hit for their DH 8 times in 2012, with an OPS of .000.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Anibal Sanchez.  The Oakland A’s have struck out (literally) against Detroit pitching so far in this series, 23 times already in the first 2 games.  Anibal needs to get in touch with his inner K to make this a short series.

Today’s Righteous Righty Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Omar Infante 2B
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Jhonny Peralta SS
7. Andy Dirks LF
8. Avisail Garcia RF
9. Gerald Laird C

1-0, 2 games left to win in the series.

Prior to last night, JV was 0-2 with a 9 ERA in 3 previous game 1 playoff starts.  After Coco Crisp lined the 4th pitch of the game into the RF bleachers, on a 1-2 count no less, it looked like more of the same. But it wasn’t.

Verlander then went into beast mode, and allowed only 2 hits and 6 base runners over 7 innings while striking out 11, including 5 of the last 6. The A’s only advanced to 2B once after the HR, and never had more than 1 runner on in an inning. The four walks were a little uncharacteristic, but note that they were all on full-counts.

I honestly believe that JV didn’t have his best stuff last night. He didn’t locate well, and obviously labored with the high PC. But he absolutely shut down a team that had won 6 in a row prior to last night, and seems to be the it pick in the playoffs.

The bullpen the came in and threw just as well, as Valverde had perhaps his best save of the year.

Cabrera and Fielder were surprisingly quiet, going 0-7 with a walk and GIDP (no RBI), but Berry’s speed created mayhem in the A’s infield, and Alex Avila hit his first HR of the season during a JV start.

All together it was a 3-1 win, and the perfect start to the ALDS.

Today’s A’s starter is lefty Tommy Milone. Milone is 13-10 on the year with a 3.74 ERA and 1.28 WHIP. His K/9 is only 6.49, which is a little below average, but he hardly walks anyone – 1.78 BB/9, which gives him an outstanding K/BB ratio of nearly 4:1.  Milone’s fastball will top out at around 90 MPH, but he’s got a plus change and has 5 pitches that he throws with regularity (2 seamer, 4 seamer, change, cutter, curve).

Both of Milone’s starts against the Tigers during the regular season ended up in Oakland blowouts. Milone pitched well back on May 11th , allowing only 1 ER on 5 hits in 7 innings. The Tigers then got to him for 3 runs and 9 hits in only 4 2/3 a few weeks ago on September 20th, but those early runs didn’t hold up and the A’s ran away later in the game. In those two starts the Tigers managed 14 hits (.311 BAA) and 4 walks (.360 OBP), but only 3 XBH, all doubles. So look for extra bases, and not just singles, to be the difference today.

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A few updates:

– Found this post on Fangraphs which says that the matchup is pretty close. Always interesting to see them labor through the numbers.

– Rod Allen thinks that today is a must-win for the A’s. With JV slated for game 5, it’s hard to argue, says ESPN’s David Schoenfield (and everyone else). Though Rod may want a redo on his game 2 “I see you,” since Avila is not starting today.

– The New York Times ran a nice piece on Cabrera on Friday, and reminded us that the last 3 Triple Crown winners all played in the World Series.

Today’s Morning (in Texas) Lineup:

1. Jackson, CF
2. Infante, 2B
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Peralta, SS
7. Dirks, LF
8. Garcia, RF
9. Laird, C

It was a long road, and never easy, but the Tigers did it, and the playoffs are here! Let baseball’s second season begin!

Because of the peculiarities of this season’s scheduling, even though Detroit is the away team, they get the first two games of the best of five series at home, beginning with Justin Verlander on the mound tonight at 6:07, and Doug Fister tomorrow afternoon at 12:07, before heading out west to Oakland on Tuesday.

The Tigers won the regular season series with the A’s 4 games to 3, but the A’s come into the postseason as the hottest team in baseball, overcoming a 5-game deficit in 9 days to steal the AL West on the last game of the season from the Texas Rangers, who are now headed home to figure out what happened to their season.

First things first:  the Tiger playoff roster is set, and in what may be a bit of a surprise, Brennan Boesch was left off, while Don Kelly and Danny Worth are in.  In addition Brayan Villarreal was left out, which means Al Alburquerque will assume a big role. Rick Porcello will move to the bullpen for long relief.

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So who are these Oakland A’s anyway? Nobody expected them to contend this season, not even Billy Beane, who thought he was assembling a rebuilding team who would contend in 3 years. Sports Illustrated tries to reverse-engineer the A’s to see what went so right, including an aggressive running game and an efficient mix of part-time players, who combined to give the A’s the most opposite-handed plate appearances in the AL, which makes their lineup hard to name, but also difficult to beat. (SI also predicts Oakland will take it in four).

*****

The contrast between the two clubs is maybe nowhere more apparent than in the pitching match-ups. Oakland hands the ball to rookie right-hander Jarrod Parker (13-8, 3.47), who leads a team of rookies that combined to account for 54 wins (and 56 home runs). Parker’s gem is his change-up:  he has thrown over 600 of them this season, and has yet to have one leave the yard.

Parker will face reigning MVP/Cy Young Justin Verlander, who is looking to establish himself as a postseason pitcher in front of the home crowd.  Verlander’s postseason totals hardly say “ace” (3-3, 5.57), but he has been bounced around a lot by rain delays.

Stat of the Day: Quintin Berry finished the season with 21 steals without being caught, an AL record. Teams haven’t tended to run against Oakland (144 attempts, vs 176 against Detroit). If Q-Berry gets on, will he get a green light?

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Miguel “Triple Crown” Cabrera, who is also 2-3 career against Parker.

Today’s Central Division Champions Lineup:

1. Austin Jackson CF
2. Quintin Berry LF
3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
4. Prince Fielder 1B
5. Delmon Young DH
6. Andy Dirks RF
7. Jhonny Peralta  SS
8. Alex Avila C
9. Omar Infante 2B