Tigers 3, Yankees 2: Our Long (Inter)National Nightmare is Over

shucks

When Derek Jeter hit a fly ball to deep right field with the tying run on and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, and the Yankee Stadium crowd reacted like you would expect the Yankee Stadium crowd to react in that moment, I was sure it was gone -- just for a second, but sure, absolutely sure. That it settled easily into Don Kelly's glove a few feet in front of the wall was, to me, more surprising than the Yankees leaving the bases loaded twice, more surprising, even, than the back-to-back home runs from Kelly and Delmon Young in the first inning. It just seemed like here was Derek Jeter, in the playoffs, in Yankee Stadium, and that was it, the Tigers luck had run out, and the natural order of the universe was about to reassert itself. When Jose Valverde came out in the bottom of the ninth, as is his custom, to face Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, and Alex Rodriguez, that weighty-as-all-hell task seemed lighter to me (no doubt not to him) because Jeter's ball had stayed in the park, suggesting that the usual yet intolerable rules that govern all things Yankee might not hold. If there is a sweeter way to dispense of the Yankees than by getting Alex Rodriguez swinging to end the ninth, I don't know what it could be. 


Bless you, 2011 Detroit Tigers. You have done us a gracious service, for which we thank you with all sincerity. 


KS