Tigers slip past Yanks

Associated Press

DETROIT

Justin Verlander struck out 11 in eight gritty innings and Jose Valverde stopped a Yankees rally for the second straight night, whiffing Derek Jeter with two on to close out the Detroit Tigers’ 5-4 victory over New York on Monday.

Delmon Young hit a tiebreaking homer in seventh off Rafael Soriano and the Tigers took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five American League playoff, pushing the Yankees to the brink of elimination.

Verlander and Yankees ace CC Sabathia were back on the mound after their Game 1 matchup was halted early by bad weather Friday night.

While Sabathia didn’t make it through the sixth Monday, Verlander was still hitting 100 mph on the stadium radar gun in the eighth.

Before Sunday’s loss, the Yankees had won seven straight division series games, including sweeps of Minnesota the past two years.

Freddy Garcia, 35, made his first postseason appearance on Sunday since winning the Game 4 clincher in the 2005 World Series for the Chicago White Sox at Houston.

He dropped to 6-3 with a 3.28 ERA in 10 postseason starts. Max Scherzer is 3-0 with 2.84 ERA in three regular-season starts against the Yankees.

Two of those were scoreless outings.