Tigers sweep past Yankees into World Series

The Detroit Tigers booked their World Series berth, downing the New York Yankees 8-1 to complete a four-game sweep of their American League Championship Series. Max Scherzer on Thursday became the latest Detroit pitcher to thwart the Yankees. He didn't surrender a hit until the sixth inning and combined with three relievers on a two-hitter as the Tigers became the first team in 32 years to sweep the Yanks in a post-season series. Scherzer gave up one run and struck out 10 over 5 1/3 innings. The Tigers reached the World Series for the 11th time and the first time since 2006. They'll face either San Francisco or St. Louis in Major League Baseball's championship showcase, starting next Wednesday. "We just know we're all really good, and we're executing off-speed pitches as well as anybody," Scherzer said of Detroit's starters. "Everybody is doing it at a phenomenal rate, and I'm just a piece of the puzzle. To be able to sweep New York at home, there's nothing like it." Not even another lineup change by manager Joe Girardi could ignite the Yankees' sagging offense. Girardi again benched superstar third baseman Alex Rodriguez, along with slumping Curtis Granderson. The re-tooled batting order managed just a triple from Eduardo Nunez and an RBI double by Nick Swisher, both in the sixth inning. The Yankees scored only six runs and batted only .156 over the four games, their lowest ever average in a playoff series. "That team has a lot of future Hall of Famers on it," Detroit's Prince Fielder said of the Yankees. "For them to be off balance, that's a lot to credit to our pitching staff." In a game postponed from Wednesday because of rain, Detroit battered Yankees ace CC Sabathia. Jhonny Peralta belted a brace of homers and drove in three runs. American League triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera and Austin Jackson also homered. Seven Tigers players recorded two or more hits. Andy Dirks went 3-for-5 at the plate and Delmon Young was 2-for-4 with an RBI single on his way to being named Most Valuable Player of the series. Young, who singled in a run in the first inning on Thursday and had delivered the go-ahead double in the 12th inning of Saturday's 6-4 game one victory, knocked in a run in Detroit's 3-0 victory in game two and smacked a solo homer to help the Tigers edge New York by a 2-1 in game three on Tuesday. Sabathia lasted just 3 2/3 innings and surrendered six runs on 11 hits. The big lefty struggled from the start, surrendering singles to Omar Infante and Fielder in the first inning before Young's two-out single to right field pushed in the first run of the game. Sabathia worked out of a jam in the second. But after Detroit loaded the bases with two out in the third, an error by Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira extended the inning and a Avisail Garcia singled in Fielder for a 2-0 lead. After Infante reached first in the fourth, Cabrera smacked a drive into the left-field stands to stretch the lead to 4-0. With Young on first, Peralta smacked a first pitch from Sabathia over the wall in lef-center field to put the Tigers up 6-0. Swisher spoiled Scherzer's shut-out bid in the sixth. After Nunez opened the inning with a triple, Swisher doubled to give the Yankees a run. The Yankees, trying to further trim the deficit in the sixth, put Rodriguez in as a pinch-hitter but Drew Smyly came on for Scherzer and induced him into a fly to center that stranded runners at first and third. "You're crushed," Rodriguez said. "Obviously you work eight months to get to this point. I know there are a lot of teams that would love to be in this position, in the ALCS, but we just came up short." Jackson and Peralta punctuated the victory with solo homers, Jackson connecting off Derek Lowe in the seventh and Peralta going deep off David Robertson in the eighth.