Jeter Injured, Out for the Season as Tigers Comeback to Win

TIGERS 6
YANKEES 4

Going into the 12th inning the headline of the evening was the fact that Raul Ibanez once again erased a near defeat for the Yankees with a last second homer to pull the Yankees out of the cellar. Down to their final strike going in the ninth inning, Ibanez blasted a two run shot to the bleachers in right to tie the first game of the 2012 ALCS at four.

It was the third time in as just two and a half weeks that Ibanez had homered to rescue the Yankees.

Yet, his heroics took a back seat to a very scary moment for New York as short stop Derek Jeter left the game in the 12th with a fractured left ankle.

While trying to field the baseball, Jeter slipped and rolled awkwardly on his ankle, and had to be helped off the field. The stunned Yankees crowd, which had been at full voice after the Ibanez blast in the ninth was totally silent.

During the Yankees post game press conference, manager Joe Girardi announced that Jeter fractured his ankle and will be out for the remainder of the season. He will need to recover for three months, without surgery, and should be ready for Spring Training in 2013. Eduardo Nunez will be activated for Sunday night's game.

With Jeter out of the line-up for the rest of the season it creates a major hole for this Yankees team. Sure they have Hall of Famer's all over the line-up, but Jeter is the glue for the Yankees. Only once before have the Yankees lost Jeter for an extended period of time when he injured his shoulder on a slide into third in Toronto back in 2005, but that injury was in April. This is October.  

When Mariano Rivera was lost for the year back in May, it raised concerns, yet the Yankees overcame. Now without Jeter, you can almost certainly forget the World Series. Cross it off your list for this season.

The Tigers took advantage. Before the Jeter injury, David Phelps couldn't contain the Tigers. He gave up a lead-off walk to Miguel Cabrera, and an RBI double to Delmon Young to give Detroit a 5-4 lead. Then Jeter was injured, and the air totally came out of the balloon.

Andy Dirks added an insurance run for Detroit with an infield single to make it 6-4.

Drew Smyly would proceed to shut down the Yankees in the bottom half of the 12th to ice it.

In a game that featured so much emotion, it is fair to say that winning game one could determin who wins this series.

The Yankees struggled with their bats early on, as they squandered two bases loaded situations in the first and second inning respectively. The Yankees had the bases loaded again in the sixth, but Doug Fister once again got through the inning, striking out both Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin.

The Tigers slowly built their lead, tacking on two runs in the sixth on RBI singles by Prince Fielder and Young to make it 2-0.

Young later added a solo homer in the eighth to make it 3-0, and Avisail Garcia capped off Detroit's initial scoring with an RBI single to score Jhonny Peralta.

The Yankees knocked around Detroit's embattled closer Jose Valverde in the ninth, as Ichiro Suzuki and Ibanez homered to tie the game. Once again Valverde showed why he is not a reliable reviler for Detroit.

However, the biggest story of the day is the loss of Jeter. Without him, don't be shocked if Detroit takes it to the Yankees for the rest of the series.