DETROIT — Even the largest self-loathing Yankee fan can’t pin the latest dreadful performance on everybody’s favorite whipping boy.
Because Joe Girardi opted to bench Alex Rodriguez on Tuesday night, baseball’s highest-paid player had nothing to do with the Yankees losing, 2-1, to the Tigers in Game 3 of the ALCS.
With Nick Swisher and Rodriguez on the bench the Yankees were dominated by Justin Verlander who allowed a run, three hits and never faced a batter with a runner in scoring position in 8 1/3 innings.
Verlander’s gem moved the Tigers to within nine innings of advancing to the World Series with a victory in Wednesday night’s Game 4 that would also sweep the Yankees into the off-season.
The Yankees have never led in 30 innings against the Tigers and have scored once since the four runs in the ninth inning of Game 1.
The AL East champion Yankees, the team with the best record in the regular season, turns to ace CC Sabathia on Wednesday to extend the season another day. Max Scherzer starts for the Tigers. Game 5 is scheduled for Friday, but teams that don’t score can’t win and Scherzer is the Tigers’ second-best pitcher behind Verlander.
Ignoring Rodriguez’ strong performance chart against Verlander, Girardi decided Rodriguez’ recent struggles against right-handers (0-for-18; 12 Ks) rendered him a liability and started the left-handed hitting Eric Chavez at third.
Chavez and the rest of the Yankees’ morbid lineup wilted in front of Verlander who thrilled the Comerica Park crowd of 42,970 when he came out for the ninth.
However, Eduardo Nunez, who started at short instead of Jayson Nix, homered leading off the inning. Jim Leyland visited the mound and left Verlander in to face Brett Gardner. When Gardner grounded out to Verlander, Leyland summoned lefty Phil Coke to face Ichiro Suzuki.
Coke retired Suzuki on a grounder to the right side before Mark Teixeira bounced a single to center.
That brought up Robinson Cano, who hadn’t had a hit in a MLB post-season record 29 at-bats. He stroked a single to left advancing pinch-runner Nix to second.
Coke’s first two pitches to Raul Ibanez were balls and the third fouled back. Coke missed with a 95-mph fastball. A foul pushed the count full and Coke fanned Ibanez with an 81-mph change-up.
Phil Hughes left in the fourth with back stiffness and was replaced by David Phelps. A fielding error by Chavez led to an unearned run in the fifth when the Tigers gave Verlander a 2-0 lead that looked a lot larger to the Dead Bat Society.