Anibal Sanchez latest to tame Yankees: Quick hits

After being blanked in Game 2, the Yankees find themselves backed into a corner and bound for Detroit.

By Dayn Perry

Oct 14, 2012 at 7:23 pm ET • 2 min read

Anibal Sanchez is the latest playoff starter to tame the Yankee bats. (Getty Images)

After another punchless effort from the offense, the Yankees are down 0-2 and headed to Detroit. Needless to say, the events of Game 2 mean that the ALCS is now the Tigers' to lose ...

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Hero: Anibal Sanchez was simply outstanding. Across seven scoreless, Sanchez gave up just three hits, whiffed seven, issued two unintentional walks, and induced 11 ground-ball outs. Of his 110 pitches, 67 went for strikes. If the Yankees were smothered to such an extent by Sanchez, just imagine what Justin Verlander might do to them …

Goat: Robinson Cano, batting in the second spot for the first time in his postseason career, remained lost at the plate: ground-out to second in the first, ground-out to short in the third, ground-out to the pitcher in the sixth. He's now zero for his last 26 in the postseason, which, according to Elias, is an all-time record. But what really assures Cano the goat horns is his pretty awful attempt to turn a critical double play in the seventh. Cano received a perfectly reasonable throw from Jayson Nix, and then, well, Cano pulled a Garo Ypremian …

Cano's failure to pivot the 6-4-3 allowed the eventual winning run to score.

Turning point: With two outs in the road half of the eighth, Omar Infante singled, and then Austin Jackson followed with a single of his own. Nick Swisher scooped up Jackson's knock and fired it to second base, where Infante was attempting to scramble back after thinking better of going for third. The replay -- and even the naked eye at the time -- showed Infante to be out by a wide margin. But second-base umpire Jeff Nelson called him safe. On cue, pinch-hitter Avisail Garcia followed with an RBI single. More damage followed.

It was over when: Yankee pitchers, with two outs in the eighth, allowed two runs to score and five straight batters to reach base, and it was done. That was especially the case since Detroit manager Jim Leyland opted not to entrust the lead to Jose Valverde.

Next: After a travel day on Monday, the series will shift to Detroit. Tuesday's Game 3 start time will be 8 pm EST.