ACE-ALCS

CC Sabathia put the Yankees on his back this afternoon and went the distance to advance the New York Yankees to the American League Championship Series. The performance that Sabathia gave his team is the definition of ace. Sabathia was as clutch as he has been as a Yankee, putting the Yankees on his back and giving them their first trip to the Championship series since 2010. Sabathia had all of his pitches working for him and the Orioles aggressiveness helped keep his pitch count low to enable him to go all the way tonight. There was one inning where Sabathia got into trouble and allowed a run to score in the eighth but that would be all that Sabathia would allow as he pitched his way through the eighth inning, leaving the bases loaded. Sabathia is the first Yankee starting pitcher to pitch a complete game in the postseason since Roger Clemens in 2000. That is a remarkable statistic that CC Sabathia will now hold next to his name. He definately earned his paycheck tonight. Sabathia took the three runs that he was provided with and ran with it all the way to the finish line.

Speaking of offense, the Yankees looked dead through the first four innings of the game. Jason Hammel was keeping batters honest and not many balls were being hit hard. Mark Teixeira led off the fifth inning with a single lined over the shift into right field. He then stole second base after Baltimore had not been holding him on first for the entire series. Teixeira stealing second base was a momentum shifter in the Yankees direction as Raul Ibanez came up in a big spot and singled up the middle to score Teixeira from second. Later, Ichiro would add to the lead with an RBI double to score Jeter from first base. To cap the scoring, Curtis Granderson, who looked horrendus throughout the entire series added to the lead with an insurance solo blast into the second deck in right. Granderson also had a line drive single in the game, which is a great sign for the Yankees. If Granderson starts to hit he will be a huge threat in the series against Detroit.

Tomorrow night at the Stadium, Andy Pettitte will take the ball for game one against the Detroit Tigers who beat the Athletics in five games behind Justin Verlander. Fortunately for the Yankees, Verlander pitched for game five and will not start game one of the ALCS.

My prediction for the next series: Yankees in six. Verlander will win his game, but the rest of the Tigers staff doesn't scare me at all. The Yankees do well against right-handed pitching and have good numbers against Fister, Sanchez and Scherzer. They have even beaten Verlander twice in the 2012 regular season. With that being said, I give the Yankees an edge in the starting rotation and as long as they do not let Cabrera beat them, the Yankees should do well in this series.