Tigers vs Yankees ALDS Championship Game 1 Betting Tips

Detroit Tigers (Fister R) +120 at New York Yankees (Pettitte L) -130 Total: OvUn 8.0 Game 1 Series 0-0

The Tigers head to Yankee Stadium for Game 1 of the ALCS. Both teams were taken to their limits in the ALDS, winning Game 5 rubber matches.

The Tigers wrapped up their divisional series with a gem from Verlander on Thursday, in a hard fought series against the upstart Oakland Athlectics. The Yankees also finished their series last night, a Game 5, 3-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. This projects to be an evenly matched series, with the Yankees holding home field advantage. The first two games will be played in the Bronx; Games 3 through 5 will be played in Detroit, and if necessary Games 6 & 7 will be played in New York.

Perhaps the most controversial situation in baseball right now is the benching of Alex Rodriguez. He was pinch hit for in Game 4 for Raul Ibanez, who tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with a home run, and then won the game in extra innings with another walk off solo shot. It will remain to be seen if A-Rod will be in the lineup tonight, but it can’t be good news for Yankee fans or management, as A-Rod is stilled owed 20+ million for five more seasons. To make matters worse, A-Rod has unquestionably struggled against right handing pitching, and the Tigers will only be starting right handed starters in this series.

The Tigers will go with right hander Doug Fister, who had a 10-10 record in 2012. He pitched just over 161 innings this year and had a season long ERA of 3.45. The Yankees counter with veteran lefty, Andy Pettitte. Pettitte started 12 games for the Bombers this year and had 5-4 record. He has pitched 75 innings and had an ERA of 2.87.

Fister vs. Yankees

Fister was 1-1, with a 6.52 ERA in two starts against the Yankees in the divisional series last season.

Other than Jeter, the Yankees haven’t faced Fister much. Jeter is hitting .385 off him in 13 at bats, with a double. Big Tex also has 12 at bats against Fister, he is hitting .250 off the righty with a triple and a home run. Many other Yankees have less than 5 at bats against him, but have shown some doubles power, and of course at Yankee Stadium is a bandbox of a ball park if there ever was one.

Pettitte vs. Tigers

Andy Pettitte is 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA in three starts at Yankee Stadium.

The Tigers have more convincing numbers against Andy Pettitte. Delmon Young has owned him with 11 hits in 19 at bats, good for a .579 average. Cabrera has also hit the left hander well. He has 4 hits in 12 career at bats – more impressively two of the hits were home runs and another a double.

Our Play

Both teams are coming off tough series wins that both went to the five game maximum. The Yankees will bit a little more tired out, as they finished their series against Baltimore just yesterday. Also, not many of the Yanks are hitting, except Jeter and Ichiro and they don’t have significant numbers against a possibly underrated Fister. The Yankees did not score many runs against the Orioles and what was clearly a mentally taxing series, as they were stifled often by Oriole pitching. All the controversy regarding A-Rod’s benching does not help matters, either.

Pettitte has been terrific at Yankee Stadium, but the many of the Tigers have great numbers against him, and Detroit’s offense has been much more potent than the Yankees so far in the postseason. This is a close matchup, but we like the Tigers in Game 1.

We like Detroit +120 which you can get now at www.topbet.eu