NEW YORK — Now the Detroit Tigers hope for a repeat of five years ago.
Back then, the Tigers lost the opener of their AL division series to the Yankees. They came back to win three in a row and rode the spurt to their first World Series appearance since their 1984 title.
Detroit is hoping for a similar comeback after Doug Fister and Al Alburquerque were hit hard by the Yankees, who beat Detroit 9-3 in their rain-interrupted playoff opener Saturday night as Robinson Cano drove in six runs with a grand slam and two RBI doubles.
With the score 1-all, Cano put the Yankees ahead in the fifth with a double off Fister, a ball that hit the top of the left-field fence and bounced back, maybe an inch shy of a homer.
Brett Gardner pounced when Fister hung an 0-2 breaking ball in the sixth, driving a two-run single to right-center for a 4-1 lead. Three batters later, Alburquerque relieved and Cano made sure there was no doubt about this one, depositing his second pitch into the second deck in right field, Cano's fourth grand slam in less than two months.
There was no coming back for the Tigers, who had just three hits and looked like they were still resting after clinching the AL Central on Sept. 16.
Fister, the loser, gave up six runs and seven hits in 4 2-3 innings, failing to live up to his 8-1 record after Detroit acquired him from Seattle.
Winner Ivan Nova did even better than CC Sabathia, whose heralded start against Justin Verlander was cut short when rain caused a 23-hour, 29-minute delay and suspension in the middle of second inning Friday night. Nova, a rookie, allowed four hits in 6 1-3 innings, pitching scoreless ball until he was charged with two runs in the ninth.
Detroit had just six hits and got its only runs Saturday on Alex Avila's bases-loaded forceout and Ryan Raburn's RBI single.
There will be a quick turnaround. Game 2 is set for Sunday afternoon, with Detroit's Max Scherzer (15-9) opposed by New York's Freddy Garcia (12-8). The series then shifts to Detroit on Monday, skipping a travel day.
All in all, not too dissimilar from 2006, when the Yankees spurted out to a five-run lead in the opener and coasted to an 8-4 win. The Tigers bounced back to sweep the next three games 4-3, 6-0 and 8-3, causing such tumult that the Yankees dropped Alex Rodriguez to eighth in the batting order for Game 4.
While afternoon rain cut short batting practice, it was dry by the time the game resumed at 8:36 p.m., and a record crowd of 50,940 came out to new Yankee Stadium on the first cool and blustery autumn night.
Strangely taking the mound first as the visiting pitcher because of the suspension, Fister worked out of a second-and-third, two-outs jam in the second. That started a streak of 11 straight batters he retired.
Former-Tiger Curtis Granderson ended it with a two-out single in the fifth, and Cano followed with his near homer. Umpires spent 4 minutes to go under the stands and review video, then determined the ball bounced back onto the field without touching the fan sitting in the first row, Chris Vitali, a 37-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J.
"Everyone in this row spoke about not reaching over and catching a ball," Vitali said. "We said, 'Don't do it. If it's Detroit, fine. Catch it.'"
That bounce was the last good bounce for the Tigers, who twice ran into bad luck in the sixth.
In the top of the inning, what would have been a single up the middle by Magglio Ordonez turned into a double-play grounder because Cano sprinted over to cover second and was in place to glove the ball, step on the base and throw to first.
Then, after Gardner singled in the bottom half, Derek Jeter hit what normally would have been an inning-ending grounder. But Gardner was running on the pitch and the ball went into right, setting up a six-run inning capped by Cano's grand slam.
Nova retired his first seven batters before Detroit threatened in the fifth on Avila's one-out walk and Raburn's single. Jhonny Peralta lined a single to center that Granderson grabbed on one hop. He threw to Jeter, who relayed home to Russell Martin. The catcher, standing about 1 yard up the third-base line, applied the tag to Avila to preserve the tie.
A day earlier, Delmon Young's first-inning homer was offset by Rodriguez's RBI grounder in the bottom half.