NEW YORK
Cagey, cool, craggy Jim Leyland won Game 5 of this American League Division Series for his Detroit Tigers on Thursday night, 3-2, over an apparently panicky Joe Girardi of the overwrought New York Yankees.
- Thomas Boswell
- Columnist
Yankees vs. Tigers: Jim Leyland manages Detroit right into the ALCS
Bill Kostroun/AP - The Detroit Tigers' Don Kelly hits a home run off New York Yankees pitcher Ivan Nova in the first inning of the deciding Game 5.
They say managers don’t win games by themselves. Factually, it’s true. Don Kelly, the Tigers’ 25th man whom Leyland batted second on a hunch, and Delmon Young hit back-to-back homers in the first inning off the Yankees’ Ivan Nova. Doug Fister, the 6-foot-8 right-hander who was crunched in a Game 1 loss, got the win with five solid innings.
And, in the end, hard as it was to believe, Detroit closer Jose Valverde, who had the bravado, or lunacy, to guarantee a victory over the Yankees after the Tigers took a series lead after Game 3, finished Thursday’s clinching victory with a 1-2-3 ninth inning and a victory stomp of a dance on the Yankees’ own mound. Yes, that’s 51 for 51 in saves for him and still counting.
Highest payroll in baseball? All-star lineup? Home-field advantage? Take it wherever the Red Sox are now singing the blues and join them in a chorus.
All that pinstripe glamour and glory was torn to bits and shredded. And nobody had a larger hand in it than Leyland. The 66-year-old skipper did absolutely everything the loose manager of the underdog is supposed to do, even though he may be the least relaxed man alive. He even makes his constant cigarettes and black coffee nervous.
Meanwhile, everything Girardi did looked tight, worried and, in the end, seemed to reflect the tension in his team as they stranded runners all night. Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts, including one with the bases full in the seventh inning as well as the game-ender.
“Because the Yankees are so good, this is probably the game I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” Leyland said.
He used a lifetime of tricks, for sure.
First, Leyland forbade the best pitcher in baseball, his Justin Verlander, from pitching on two days’ rest, something many stars have done in postseason. He even had Verlander throw a side session earlier in the day to remove all doubt, even from his teammates’ minds. Thus, Leyland set himself, not his team, up as the potential goat.
Leyland even pranked Verlander, convincing him the side session had been a miscommunication and that he really wanted him for relief.
“I finally got one over on Verlander,” Leyland said. And the Tigers started the night laughing about the manager’s gags, not gagging themselves.
That decision shifted pressure, but it also committed Leyland to use far less heralded Max Scherzer, who won Game 2, as his first man into the game after Fister. Both notions worked as the pair combined for 61 / 3 innings and still handed a lead to the two-man Tigers back end of Joaquin Benoit and Valverde. Girardi had relievers by the gross. For such a game in such a thundering palace, Leyland had only two suitable men. Just enough.
Next, Leyland played a hunch with Kelly, saying: “You don’t get sentimental at this time of year. He deserves it. Good for Don Kelly.” Afterward, Leyland showed how much he’d actually led with his heart. “Stars like Miguel Cabrera are going to have a million days,” he said. “Donnie Kelly will have this one day — forever.”
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