The Rangers have had their fair sure of playoff heroes this year. After all, it takes more than one player to facilitate a 6-2 run against two of the league’s best teams. But there have been a select few players keying the Rangers’ success in October. Nelson Cruz has been the guiding light so far, with the walk-off grand slam in Game Two and the throw to nab Miguel Cabrera at the plate as well as the three-run home run to bury the Tigers in Game Four. Neftali Feliz and Alexi Ogando have been fantastic in relief, throwing nine combined innings with only one run allowed and a whopping 13 strikeouts. Mike Napoli had the game-winning hit on Wednesday.

Those are all names people expected to propel the Rangers to victory. But with the exception of Cruz, one could make the argument that Scott Feldman has been more crucial to the Rangers’ ALCS success. His 5.1 innings pitched trail only Colby Lewis, who had a very mediocre start in Game Three, the Tigers’ only victory so far. Feldman also has a stellar +0.45 WPA in this time, trailing only Feliz among pitchers and actually outpacing Cruz’s contribution with the bat (+0.37), only falling behind after we add in Cruz’s fantastic throw, which was worth roughly +0.36 WPA according to The Hardball Times’s WPA calculator.

Scott Feldman was a 17-game winner two years ago (for all that matters), but he failed to make an impact in 2010 and spent much of 2011 injured. How is he now the relief ace pacing the Rangers through the ALCS?

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Rick Porcello wasn’t given much of a chance. With the Detroit Tigers down 2-1 heading into last night’s game, many wondered whether Jim Leyland should throw Justin Verlander on short rest instead of the 22-year-old Porcello. Porcello has been somewhat of an enigma since entering the league. Though he was widely considered one of the best pitching prospect in his draft class — an ace with a true strikeout curveball — he’s turned into more of a back-end starter in the big leagues. Despite Porcello’s struggles in the majors, Leyland stuck to his guns and turned to Porcello to even the series. Though the Tigers failed to win the game, Porcello didn’t let his manager — or his team — down.
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The Dude Walks Alone.

And on we move to Game Four of the ALCS: Matt Harrison vs. Rick Porcello.

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Today we appreciate the career of an underrated AL Central outfielder through the lens of Mr. Huey Lewis.

After game one of the ALCS, the Detroit Tigers announced that Magglio Ordonez would be shut down for the rest of the postseason due to a broken right ankle – his second ankle ailment of the campaign. According to the Detroit Free Press, he was considering hanging his spikes up “three or four months ago” because his “ankle wasn’t responding” to treatment and his play wasn’t where he wanted it to be. Statistically, this season was a new low for Ordonez, as he hit .255/.303/.331 with only five round-trippers and an uncharacteristic 41/23 strikeouts-to-walks ratio. Not only was the ankle injury sustained in the ALDS Ordonez’ second of the season, Tigers trainer Kevin Rand noted that this fracture was of a completely different nature than the first (horizontal rather than the initial vertical), which appears likely to require surgery and extensive rehabilitation.

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The Tigers may not have had any choice but to reactivate Delmon Young to take the place of Magglio Ordonez on the American League Championship Series roster prior to Game 2. But they did have an option on where they batted him, and it didn’t need to be third. By the end of the night, it was one of many confusing decisions on the part of Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland, who did not have his finest night at the ballpark.

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If the Texas Rangers win Game Three of the ALCS tonight, the Tigers will find themselves down 3-0 in the series and would face elimination tomorrow. Rick Porcello is the scheduled starter for Detroit in that game, but there has been some rumblings about moving Justin Verlander up and have him start tomorrow if the Tigers season is on the line.

Jim Leyland won’t even consider doing that, however.

“He’s pitching Game 5,” Leyland said prior to a 7-3 loss on Monday in Game 2. “That’s a slam dunk. That is the end of the conversation.”

“What people don’t realize is, you’ve got to win four games,” Leyland said. “Nobody might believe this — the public, the TV people might not want to and everybody else — but let me tell you something: At this point, from what I’ve seen, pitching Justin Verlander on the fifth day is two-fold. It’s the best thing for Justin Verlander, and it’s the best thing for the team. Trust me when I tell you that.

“In my heart, it is a no-brainer. It might read better if I said I changed my mind. Everybody would love it. But it’s not the best thing for him, and it’s not the best thing for this team. He needs the day. That is a no-brainer.”

Leyland is going to get some grief for this stance if the Tigers get eliminated with Porcello on the hill and Verlander in the dugout, but in this instance, he’s exactly right.

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There’s no need for panic in the Motor City just yet. Although the Detroit Tigers trail the Texas Rangers 2-0, there’s still a chance to salvage the series. In order to do that, the Tigers will have to go through Colby Lewis. While Lewis may have been the biggest surprise of the 2010 season, he fell to Earth this season. Lewis still managed to post 2.3 WAR in 2011, but he also displayed some pretty significant weaknesses. If the Tigers want to get back in the series, they are going to have to exploit those deficiencies.
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We will chat our way through today’s Tigers-Rangers game here.

Judging from the reception to my game preview from last Friday, it seems there are other people out there like me: they like knowing a pitcher’s repertoire and attack plan before watching a game. Since it seemed to be a hit the last time around, I’ll try and provide quick little game previews for each new pitching matchup this postseason.

….That is, I’ll keep it up until everyone gets sick of hearing from me.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at today’s early game: Max Scherzer and Derek Holland.

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With their backs against the wall, the New York Yankees clobbered the baseball around the diamond for a 10-1 victory and tied up the ALDS with the Detroit Tigers at two games apiece.

The two teams will now head back east to New York for a decisive Game 5. New York will trot out young Ivan Nova, while Detroit counters with right-hander Doug Fister. It will be a rematch of Game 1, in which Fister surrendered six earned runs in 4.2 innings and, ultimately, took the loss. Given that Fister’s dominating second half with the Tigers was so surprising, it’s natural to think that perhaps he was exposed by having to face a good line-up, and that the Tigers are in trouble asking him to try and get the Yankees out again.

After all, it’s become fashionable to point out that Fister didn’t exactly have the hardest road after Detroit picked him up from Seattle in July. This criticism is based in fact – his opponents in August and September, chronologically:

Texas, Cleveland, Baltimore, Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, Cleveland, Minnesota, Oakland, Kansas City, Cleveland

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