Inside Pitch

DETROIT -- It was windy and drizzling early this morning in the Motor City. By 11:30, it was pouring. But the forecast is holding and less than three hours before the first pitch of rain-delayed Game Four, the sun is out at Comerica Park and we should be good to go for a 4:07 start.

And there's this nugget of news: Both teams are using the same lineups. That means, just like last night, no Granderson and no A-Rod for the Yankees.

It will be Ichiro, lf; Swisher, rf; Cano, 2b; Teixeira, 1b; Ibanez, dh; Chavez, 3b; Martin, c; Gardner, cf; Nunez, ss

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

The grounds crew puts the tarp on Comerica Park as the scoreboard shows an ugly weather radar of impending rain. (AP Photo)

DETROIT -- I've seen plenty of rainouts in 20+ years of covering Triple-A and Major League Baseball. Usually, however, it's raining for a game to get banged.

That wasn't the case Wednesday night at Comerica Park, where MLB decided to call off Game Four between the Yankees and Tigers "in an effort to preserve the integrity of an uninterrupted, full nine-inning game."

Fair enough. Don't blow starting pitchers CC Sabathia and Max Scherzer in a one- or two-inning performance. Problem was they could have easily played five or six innings -- and maybe more -- because it was barely sprinkling at 10 p.m. But I get it. That said, if we had played six and got suspended, the Yankees could have had a huge advantage if things finished with a battle of the bullpens. Won't happen now.

More thoughts from the rainout:

The rotation: The Yankees take a hit here as GM Brian Cashman confirmed there's no way CC Sabathia would pitch on two days rest in Game Seven, if the series actually got that far. The Tigers, meanwhile, would have Justin Verlander on his regular day.

(Yes, this was a big postgame topic. I say there's ZERO chance of Game Seven and you can quote me 2004 -- I was there -- but this Yankees team is simply not hitting. The '04 Red Sox scored seven runs in the opener of that ALCS and eight in Game Three before finally getting their pitching together.)

The lineup: Do the Yankees change their mind and give A-Rod or Granderson a shot tomorrow afternoon? Doubt it. I think Joe Girardi stands pat with the same he was planning for tonight.

The series schedule: The Yankees played five straight tough games in five days -- three in the division series and two in the ALCS. They finally got an off day on Monday and didn't play again Wednesday. They would now need to win four games in four days to take the series, as there will be no off day prior to a potential Game Six in New York.

The forecast for Thursday: It's not good but we can sit and wait all night with a 4:07 scheduled first pitch. It does get better as the day and night moves along.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

DETROIT -- They've just announced at Comerica Park tonight's game will not start on time due to "weather in the area." We had already surmised something was going because CC Sabathia and Max Scherzer were not warming up.

It was a beautiful, 71-degree day full of sunshine in the Motor City. But the forecast deteriorated during the day and rain that was supposed to come at 2 a.m. is now supposed to hit at 9:30 or so. The radar is pretty ominous.

Although it was clear at 8 p.m., the betting is that neither team wanted to burn their starting pitchers playing two innings and then stopping.

Stay tuned.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

DETROIT -- Yankees GM Brian Cashman had a remarkable 14-minute meeting with the media this afternoon to talk a little about Derek Jeter's surgery and a lot about the continued benching of Alex Rodriguez, who is again out of tonight's lineup.

DETROIT -- This just in a few hours before Game Four of the ALCS: The Yankees have announced Derek Jeter is going to have surgery on his injured ankle Saturday in Charlotte, N.C.

The kicker here is the recovery time is listed as 4-5 months. That could put Jeter well into March, certainly meaning he won't be ready for spring training and won't play for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic. It could even put Opening Day of 2013 in doubt.

The Yankees, remember, were hoping Jeter would avoid surgery and listed a three-month timetable when the injury happened Saturday night in Game One.

7 p.m. update: Yankees GM Brian Cashman said this is a more conservative timeline but that the 4-5 months is when Jeter would be ready to play in games.

"There is no new information," Cashman said. "... Nothing seen worse than what our team doctor saw. But in terms of the timeframe, I just think wanted to be more conservative with it. So that's what we're going to go with. My understanding is that it's possible he will be ready earlier than that timeframe, but it is best to at least put out there four, five months as a safer bet."

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

Alex Rodriguez's only view of Game Three was from the dugout (AP Photo)

DETROIT -- Statistics often lie. These don't.

Detroit Tigers starting pitchers have an 0.96 ERA in the postseason (six earned runs in 56.1 innings) and an 0.42 mark in the ALCS against the Yankees (one earned run in 21.2 innings). Justin Verlander did the job Tuesday, working into the ninth inning as the Tigers posted a 2-1 win to take a 3-0 lead in the series.

Wrote Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press of Verlander's dominance in the early innings: "A lawn mower doesn't flatten things this easily."

The Yankees are batting .182 in the ALCS and slugging at a pathetic .291 clip. They have five runs and have scored in just two of 30 innings (the ninth inning of Game One and Game Three). They are batting .200 overall in the postseason.

No wonder the Tigers can complete a sweep tonight in Comerica Park. It's Max Scherzer and CC Sabathia, an ace looking to extend the Yankees' season.

The Yankees have a wee bit of an issue in how to deal with Alex Rodriguez after his Game Three benching. A-Rod stayed silent Tuesday and the New York Post's latest story about his Game One dugout dailiances won't help in that regard. Joe Giradi has oddly understated A-Rod's issues ("SOME struggles"?) but GM Brian Cashman was front and center Tuesday and seemed to be taking charge. 

ESPNLosAngeles.com talked to Kobe Bryant about A-Rod Tuesday and Kobe revealed what he said to A-Rod about the benching: 

"I just say to him, 'You're Alex Rodriguez. You're A-Rod. You're one of the best to ever do it,'" Bryant said. "I think sometimes he kind of forgets that and wants to try to do the right thing all the time. Which is the right team attitude to have. But other times you really have to put your head down and say, 'Hell with it' and just do your thing.

"Hopefully the next game they'll kind of give him a chance, maybe put him back at third and let him respond to the pressure, which I think he'll do."

Bottom line from the Post's Joel Sherman: You can't win if you can't score.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

DETROIT -- Here's what's going through my mind after the Tigers' 2-1 win over the Yankees in Game Three of the ALCS:

Justin Verlander (left): He's matured before our eyes the last two years. This was a night where he was consistently throwing 96-98 but couldn't get strike three. But he was undaunted and took things all the way until the ninth inning. We haven't seen this in the postseason from anyone since Josh Beckett in 2003. 

"Really my approach was to get ahead and be aggressive and not let anybody score," Verlander said. "That approach kind of went out the window in the fourth.  I kind of fell out of rhythm a little bit and started falling behind guys, and I think that's why ‑‑ not that it matters, but I didn't strike out many more guys.  I was behind everybody and had to throw fastballs and throw fastballs almost down the middle.

"But was able to make pitches when I needed to.  Got some pop‑ups and groundouts and was able to make pitches when I had to."

Verlander knew he was in trouble in the ninth if anyone got on base and the Eduardo Nunez home run, which came at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat, spelled doom for his complete game.

"I think we [Verlander and Jim Leyland] both understood if there was trouble with 130 pitches or so, I would have to come out of the game. And just so happens Nuñez put up one of his best at‑bats, given the situation, I have ever seen, especially with me on the mound.  And then he comes out there and I was hoping he wasn't going to take me out, and he comes out and asks if I can get one more out for him.  And I said absolutely.

"So I knew after I got Gardner out that was the end of the game.  So it wasn't like I was disappointed to see him come out a second time.  I knew he was coming out after that."

The Yankees' offense: It is, well, offensive. How about Raul Ibanez hitting against a left-hander and striking out to finish the game (right), with Joe Girardi correctly showing far more confidence in him than having Alex Rodriguez up against a right-hander? 

The lineup switch: The Yankees had some better at-bats against Justin Verlander and ran a lot of three-ball counts. But they never had more than one man on base at a time until the ninth. Interesting that Nick Swisher was on deck when Ibanez fanned rather than A-Rod, who seems completely buried.

Bad omen: According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is just the third time the Yankees have played at least three straight games in a single postseason without once having the lead -- and both of those series ended in sweeps (1963 World Series vs. Dodgers, 1976 World Series vs. Reds).

Closers: Jim Leyland said after this one that Phil Coke is not available tonight. Does that mean Jose Valverde gets a chance to get the final out to put his team in the World Series? Another nervous ninth Tuesday but unlike teams like the Nationals and Orioles, the Tigers survived.

What can Joe Girardi do? Here's what he said: "I can't hit, if that's what you're asking. I wouldn't want to face Verlander, not at my age. So the thing that you do is you keep encouraging the guys and you keep telling them, 'Hey, find a way, find a way to get it done.' 

"And, you know, the one thing about this group that I'm very proud of is they have overcome a lot this year, and there is nothing that has come easy for us. You can start with the first three games of the year, we got swept. 

"And it has been a battle the whole year, and they have found a way to get it done. And that's what we're going to have to do."

Down 3-0: We don't need to tell you the only time in history someone reversed a 3-0 deficit, do we?

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 
Photos: Associated Press 

DETROIT -- The Yankees' bizarro lineup is in and Justin Verlander is ready to take the mound for the Tigers in Game Three of the ALCS. MLB credential rules prohibit play-by-play updates (you can follow the pitch-by-pitch here) but we'll have plenty of inning-by-inning thoughts here.

Recapping the lineups:

Yankees: Gardner cf; Ichiro, rf; Teixeira, 1b; Cano, 2b; Ibanez, dh; Martin, c; Chavez, 3b; Granderson, cf; Nunez, ss
Tigers: Jackson, cf; Berry, lf; Cabrera, 3b; Fielder, 1b; Young, dh; Dirks, rf; Peralta, ss; Avila, c; Infante, 2b

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

End-1st (0-0): The first pitch from Verlander to Gardner, a 94-mph fastball, was taken for a strike at 8:08 p.m.  The temperature is 53 degrees with a chilly breeze. The Yankees were retired 1-2-3 (4-3, K, F8) on nine pitches. So much for working any counts. Hughes gave up a single to Berry and a walk to Fielder but got out of the inning on a screamer to right by Young. Hughes needed 18 pitches and the Tigers were making good contact.

End-2nd (0-0): So much for the Yankees' strategy to work counts. Verlander has retired all six men he's faced on only 20 pitches. Hughes was much better in the second, going 1-2-3 as well. All the offense in the NLCS has looked funky compared to this series. No question two runs likely enough for Verlander if the Tigers can swing them.

End-3rd (0-0): Verlander making it look stupid easy. Nine up, nine down, 33 pitches, 24 strikes. Chavez had the best at-bat yet, working the count full before lofting a fly ball to center. The wind is picking up (temp dropping) and it's blowing in. Too much acreage here. Your only chance for a HR is down the lines.

Hughes is starting to struggle but still making key out pitches. He allowed a one-out single to Jackson and a walk to Cabera (who was down 0-2). Fielder then took three balls before cracking the 3-0 pitch on a line to Granderson for the third out. Hughes at 50-30. Huge for him to escape there.

Mid-4th (0-0): Gardner popped out on a full-count pitch. Ichiro went 3-0/3-2 and then lined a single through the left side to end the perfect game on Verlander's 48th pitch. But Teixeira popped foul to third (great running catch by Cabrera who had a long way to do while in the shift) and can made it 0-for-28 by bouncing in a force. Verlander at 54 pitches through four. Leyland's plan for a closer will be Verlander at this rate. Still, a much better inning for the Yankees, forcing him into 21 pitches.

End-4th (1-0, Tigers): Detroit takes the lead as Young cracks a leadoff homer to left on a terrible hanger from Hughes. A 79-mph curveball on a 1-2 pitch and Young roped it through the wind. Hughes then left the game with an apparent injury while pitching to Andy Dirks. No word from the Yankees yet although TBS is saying it was a back problem. David Phelps got out of the inning by getting the final two men (Infante fly ball, Jackson fielder's choice) after there were men on first and second.

Hughes line: 3+ IP, 3H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 1K 61-36

Mid-5th (1-0, Tigers): A tweet from Joel Sherman of the New York Post:  asks "... is this the largest 1-0 lead in MLB history?" Sure seems that way. Verlander has his one-hitter going. He's at 68 pitches, hitting 95-97 regularly. Crazy easy.

End-5th (2-0, Tigers): Berry led off by reaching on an error by Chavez at third. Cabrera doubled him home with a slicer to right-center that Granderson completely misread and let roll to the wall. And two runs feels like 10 against Verlander. Nice play by Nunez at short saved another run and got the Yankees out of the inning. The Tigers have left on eight. It could be worse. 

Mid-6th (2-0, Tigers): Verlander has pitched to one over the minimum and has a one-hit shutout through six. The Yankees are getting into some good counts but can't take advantage. Granderson was 3-0 leading off, got to 3-1 and popped out to third. Verlander at 81 pitches through six. Just two strikeouts. Getting the job done. Still at 97.

End-6th (2-0, Tigers): Boone Logan, the fifth Yankees pitcher, keeps this one alive by getting Cabrera to ground into a double play with the bases loaded. Nice pick by Chavez at third to start the 5-4-3. The Tigers have left 10 men on base and are just 2-10 in RISP at-bats.

Mid-7th (2-0, Tigers): Ichiro led off with a single and never moved. Teixeira flied to left, Cano extended his hitless streak to 0 for 29 (0 for 29!) by striking out on a 98-mph heater and Ibanez scored one that Fielder corraled on a hop at first. So Verlander has a two-hit shutout going but he's at 101 pitches (65 strikes). Should be able to go 120-125. Does Leyland possibly use his bullpen here?

End-7th (2-0, Tigers): Yankees still holding on. No complaint on the pitching. The hitting? Heh. The only hope seems to be if Jim Leyland somehow has a braincramp and goes to Valverde.

Mid-8th (2-0): A 1-2-3 inning. Verlander cruising. 

TIGERS WIN 2-1: The last inning of a game crunching newspaper deadlines is not the best time for a blog post to simultaneously go belly-up, so apologies there. I'll have some other thoughts in a separate post but it's a 3-0 lead for Detroit and a looming sweep tomorrow.

DETROIT -- So here it is. The Yankees go into a pivotal Game Three tonight in Comerica Park and Alex Rodriguez and Nick Swisher are on the bench. And deservedly so. Wow.

Joe Girardi certainly followed along with voters in our poll from earlier today. Brett Gardner leads off and will make his first at-bats since April.

The lineup:

Gardner 7
Ichiro 9
Teixeira 3
Cano 4
Ibanez DH
Martin 2
Chavez 5
Granderson 8
Nunez 6

A left side of Chavez-Nunez with ARod out and Derek Jeter hurt. Crazy. 

6:30 p.m update: Girardi on the moves -- ""You would think with the resumes these guys have and the type of play they've put up during the course of the season that you would have a pretty set lineup."

Girardi said he considered keeping A-Rod in against Justin Verlander but his brutal showing this month against right-handers (0-18, 12Ks) was the deciding factor. Gardner took at-bats yesterday in a simulated game in Yankee Stadium and is needed in the vast outfield here with Phil Hughes, a flyball pitcher, on the mound. He said A-Rod is out for performance, not because of the NY Post report he tried to get a female fan's phone number during Game One.

Said Girardi: ""When you have one or two guys struggling in a lineup, you're probably still scoring some runs so it doesn't become as noticeable and you're not talking about it as much and you may not be making some changes. When you have a lot of guys struggling and you're not scoring runs, it's something we're going to talk about."

---Mike Harrington

A-Rod flips the bat after another strikeout in Game Two. 

DETROIT -- Just imagine you're Joe Girardi right now. No one other than Raul Ibanez is hitting, you're in an 0-2 hole in the ALCS and facing Justin Verlander tonight in Game Three at Comerica Park. 

Teams go through slumps all the time in the regular season. Normally, you just wait them out, give a guy a day or two off here and there and the course naturally gets reversed. But under the playoff spotlight, everything is different. And, of course, there's no time for days off or waiting. The Yankees, for the most part, are stuck with what they have and it's an ugly set of numbers. Check them out. 

Regular season: .265 BA, 4.96 RPG, .453 SLG, .337 OBP, .790 OPS
------------
Postseason: .205 BA (53-258), 20 R (2.86 RPG), .326 SLG, .277 OBP, .603 OPS
ALCS: .192 BA (15-78), 4 R, 20 Ks, .308 SLG, .276 OBP, .584 OPS.

Postseason individuals
Cano: 2-32 (.063), .125 SLG, .091 OBP, .216 OPS
Granderson: 3-26 (.115), 14 Ks, .231 SLG, .207 OBP, .438 OPS
A-Rod: 3-23, 12 Ks, no XBH, .130 SLG, .330 OPS
Swisher: 4-26, 8 Ks, .192 SLG, .233 OBP, .426 OPS

ALCS individuals
Cano: 0-10
Granderson: 0-7, 5 Ks
A-Rod: 1-7, 3 Ks
Swisher: 2-8, 3 Ks

Joel Sherman of the Post says about the best hope is for the Yankees to invoke the Spirit of '96. Remember, in the 1996 World Series against Atlanta, the Yankees dropped the first two games at home by a combined 16-1 and recovered to win four straight. The catcher on that team? Joe Girardi. Hmmm. 

But frankly, there aren't a lot of great lineup options. Brett Gardner has had just three at-bats all season but he's better defensively and a faster runner than Swisher -- and how can his plate appearances be any worse? If A-Rod sits tonight against Verlander, how can he play tomorrow against fellow righty Max Scherzer, considering he's 0-18 with 12 Ks against righties in the postseason?

Granderson is simply swinging at everything and getting to almost nothing and Swisher (left) is likely on his way out of town after another postseason flameout and what appears to be a bitter breakup Sunday in Game Two with his beloved Bleacher Creatures in right field at Yankee Stadium.

What a spot for Girardi. I'm betting Gardner is in and Swisher is out, with Granderson keeping his spot to see if he can catch lightning in a bottle in his old park. Maybe A-Rod gets tonight since he's had some success in his career vs. Verlander.(.333 average, 3 HRs; 4-6 w/2HRs this year). Maybe he DHs and Eric Chavez (9-25 vs. Verlander) goes to third. Mike Vaccaro of the Post says A-Rod should stay in tonight and get one last chance to channel his inner 2009. For what it's worth, Donald Trump tweeted A-Rod should donate his salary to charity. Easy for him to say.

The one guy who's had no career success against the Tigers' ace? It's the red-hot Ibanez, who is just 3-29 with no HRs. But can you really put him on the bench?

ESPNNY.com's Andrew Marchand has been a proponent for days of benching Swisher and putting in Gardner. He says that's a must for Game Three.

What do you think? Pick all that apply below in our poll. And be sure to stay tuned later today for my coverage direct from Comerica.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington
(Photos: Associated Press) 

Jeter's injury. New York Daily News photo 

No Mariano Rivera. And now, no Derek Jeter. This is a postseason unlike any others the Yankees have had since 1995. In about an hour late Saturday night/early Sunday morning, everything went crazy in the ALCS. The Yankees were in a 4-0 hole and doing nothing until Detroit closer Jose Valverde -- who certainly can't close anymore -- gave up two run homers to Ichiro Suzuki and Raul Ibanez to plunge Game One into extra innings.

Detroit won it in the 12th, 6-4, but the Yankees suffered a far bigger loss. Derek Jeter is done for the season. Repeat that. You've never heard it before. Derek Jeter is done for the season. Fractured ankle while fielding a Jhonny Peralta grounder. Clearly an offshoot of the "bone bruise" he's been playing with.

Lots of good reads:

Andrew Marchand, ESPNNY.com: The Yankees are now October underdogs
Wally Matthews, ESPN.com: You might not like your look at the post-Jeter Yanks.
Joel Sherman, Post: 74 minutes between Everest (Ibanez HR) and hell for Yanks.
Mike Vaccaro, Post: Losing the game devastating enough. Losing the captain?
Mike Lupica, Daily News: This one hurts right to the Core (Four)

If you missed the video (it was, after all, after midnight), watch below:

Jayson Nix will play short for the Yankees today. They've got Hiroki Kuroda pitching on short rest for the first time in his career -- and Justin Verlander waiting for Game Three in Detroit. Talk about trouble. This could be a very short series, provided Jim Leyland finds a closer (has to be Octavio Dotel)

In non-Yankees news, be sure to read my Inside Baseball column featuring thoughts on Josh Hamilton, the Nationals, Ozzie Guillen and more.

I'll be in Detroit to cover the ALCS starting with Game Three.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

The Cardinals celebrate the final out of their stunner in Washington. (AP Photo)

I know the majority of you out there are Yankees fans and props to them -- especially to CC Sabathia -- for finishing off the Orioles Friday in Game Five, 3-1. Good luck in the ALCS against the Tigers starting tonight in the Bronx. They'll need it if they don't find any offense.

But what I can't stop thinking about is the end of the Cardinals-Nationals game. It's just too bizarre for mere words. Almost Groundhog Day. I was in Busch Stadium last year for Game Six of the World Series, when the Cardinals were two runs down and down to their last strike in both the ninth and 10th innings aganist the Rangers and somehow survived.

Last night? Same score in the 9th. 7-5. The Cardinals get four runs to win 9-7 and hand the Nationals a shocking end to the breakout season for baseball in the nation's capital. That fascinating potential Baltimore-Washington World Series? Toast. ESPN.com's Jayson Stark was at both games and neatly connected the two.

In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Bernie Miklasz wrote "if you closed your eyes and listened intently, you may have heard the echoes of the late Jack Buck barking "Go crazy, folks. Go crazy." 

In the Washington Times, former News intern Amanda Comak wrote the Nationals "stood on the precipice. One out away. One strike away. One iota away from a ticket into the National League Championship Series." They never got the strike.

Said first baseman Adam LaRoche: "Seven, eight months worth of hard work goes away in one inning like that. I don’t know what to tell you. It’s frustrating. This is going to sting. It’s going to sting until next year.”

In the Post, legendary columnist Tom Boswell unleashed this gem: "You don’t get the whole feast in the first course. But Washington and its baseball fans, in their first visit to baseball’s postseason banquet, didn’t expect to be served arsenic in the appetizer."

Certainly the Stephen Strasburg situation loomed over this one afterward. He would have pitched Game 1 and Game 5 so we'll never know what would have happened. The starting pitchers had a 5.25 ERA but the offense managed just 3.2 runs in the first four games as well.

I say the Nationals tweaked the baseball gods too much -- but letting Teddy win the Presidents Race. Bad karma. Winless until the season finale and perfect in the playoffs? Booo to that.

Relive the Cardinals' comeback here:

So it's Yankees-Tigers and Cardinals-Giants. Give a vote below and watch for my coverage of the ALCS, starting Tuesday with Game Three in Detroit.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington

Be sure to vote in our poll on who will win Yankees-Orioles Game Five (and do it quick before I close it down!)

And do it with this knowledge: No A-Rod in the lineup for the Yankees and he's not happy. 

Quick thought: Joe Girardi has been doing a good job handling a very tricky situation. But he's got more trouble than just A-Rod. With Curtis Granderson, Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano all struggling too, this series would be over if Orioles closer Jim Johnson had been himself, especially in Game Three.

Girardi needs somebody -- anybody -- to get a hit.

(I'm going to be off the Twitter grid for this one covering the Sabres/French Connection statue unveiling. I'll need lots of good tweets to keep me updated!)

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

The Yankees and Orioles have played 22 games this year counting the regular season. They're 11-11. So it makes sense their division series is going the distance. The Orioles pulled out a 2-1, 13-inning win last night and there were high-fives all around when it ended (left). So it's CC Sabathia vs. Jason Hammel today at 5 in Game Five.

(Tons of inquiries why the Yankees aren't in prime time. The ALCS starts Saturday and the earlier start gives the Tigers extra time to get to New York, or the Orioles extra time to get to Detroit.)

Neither team is hitting but it's certainly pronounced in the Yankees'  lineup. Joe Girardi has to get Raul Ibanez in the lineup tonight. That means either Curtis Granderson sits or (gasp) Alex Rodriguez sits and Eric Chavez plays third. And we still have to see if Derek Jeter is going to DH or play short. Joel Sherman of the New York Post, in fact, says it's time for A-Rod to take a seat and goes over the rest of the lineup possibilities. A-Rod is 0 for 11 with 9 Ks against righties in the series. Yeeesh.

Tonight is the end of the seasonlong sparring between the Yankees and Orioles. Writes great friend of the blog Mike Vaccaro in the Post: "This is the climax to one of greatest two-team races you will ever see. This is Affirmed and Alydar in 1978, a metaphor the Yankees wouldn’t mind continuing since close as Alydar came all across that spring, he never could run down Affirmed. This is one of those Olympic swimming races that somehow ends with one racer touching a wall one-one-hundredth of a second sooner than the other guy."

At 8:30 in DC, it's the Nationals and Cardinals in Game Five. After their Game Three dud, the Nationals won their first home playoff game since 1933 on Jayson Werth's walkoff homer in the ninth off Lance Lynn that produced a 2-1 win. Great column by Thomas Boswell in the Washington Post about how this was the first great playoff moment in the District in generations.

In the Washington Times, former Buffalo News intern Amanda Comak writes that the home run "carried with it the hopes of a team, of a fan base, of an entire city hoping the team’s season would live at least one more day."

It was an incredible, 13-pitch at-bat with an incredible radio call by Charlie Slowes on the Nationals network that starts at the 40-second mark of this clip. 

Be sure to cast your votes for tonight's Game Five winners below.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington
Photo: Associated Press 

Plenty of news coming out of the Bronx late this afternoon in advance of tonight's Yankees-Orioles game:

1). Joe Girardi's 81-year-old father passed away in an Illinois nursing home, where he's been dealing with Alzheimer's for many years. Orginally thought to have happened overnight, Jerry Girardi's death apparently took place Saturday and Joe has been keeping it quiet to not cause a distraction for his team. Wow. Joe Girardi spoke about his father today (above) and will manage tonight as normal.

2). Derek Jeter's sore foot will limit him to DH duties tonight, with Jayson Nix starting at short. That's the first time in 155 Yankees postseason games that Jeter will not be at short, dating to the climactic Game Five of the 1995 division series in Seattle. Tony Fernandez started that one, which turned into the Mariners' dramatic, 7-6 victory in 11 innings. 

3). Alex Rodriguez has been dropped to fifth in the lineup but Raul Ibanez is not in the lineup tonight despite his epic performance last night.

Meanwhile, we finally have a team that closed out a game and won a series. The Giants scored six runs in the fifth -- the last four on Buster Posey's grand slam -- and held on to beat the Reds, 6-4, to take their series in five games. Watch the slam here:

The Giants are the first team in NLDS history to crawl out of an 0-2 hole in any format and the first to do it in a 2-3 format when dropping the first two games at home.

Another horrific entry to the odd resume of Reds manager Dusty Baker, who wins plenty of games but blows plenty of big moments. Think 2002 Giants (a 5-0 lead and six outs left to win the '02 World Series in Anaheim), 2003 Cubs (Bartmaned away NLCS to Marlins).

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

(Photo: Getty Images)

The old cliche is that momentum is the next day's starting pitcher. But that has to be amended, at least for a day. After what we saw late into Wednesday night and into early Thursday morning I submit that momentum is what we saw yesterday.

Yeesh. We get another quadruple-header today!

The Reds brought a 2-0 lead home but the Giants have won two straight and they play Game Five today at 1. It's up to Mat Latos to give somebody a homefield advantage.

The Cardinals are wiping the floor with the Nationals, who need to win Game Four today at 4 to stay alive. But as Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell insists, the absent Stephen Strasburg isn't the problem. He's wrong, by the way. Boswell, one of the game's famous pens, has supported the Nats' foolishness all year. They're getting theirs now, and this USA Today blog says plenty of rivals are happy. 

Then there's the American League. Where do you begin?

The Orioles were 77-0 this season when leading after seven innings. They had a 2-1 lead with one out in the ninth when Joe Girardi pinch-hits for Alex Rodriguez (a great move, but a wow one) and Raul Ibanez takes 51-save closer Jim Johnson deep to tie the game (above). A-Rod's spot in the lineup is no longer automatic, writes Joel Sherman in the New York Post.

Then Ibanez goes deep again in the 12th to give the Yankees a 3-2 win and make Ibanez the first player in postseason history to tie a game with an HR in the 9th and win it with another in extra innings. Seriously. Game Four tonight at 7:37. Said Mike Vaccaro in the Post: "Girardi hit the greatest jackpot of his managerial career, cashed the biggest Lotto ticket of his life."

Said Mike Lupica in the Daily News on the results of A-Rod taking a seat: "Ibanez gave you a new spin on the old story of Mr. October, three swings for Reggie and three home runs in ’77, when Ibanez swung the bat twice and hit two home runs, and saved the Yankees from having to play for their season Thursday night."

How do the Orioles bounce back? Baltimore Sun columnist Peter Schmuck says more offense is the key. Playing the one-run road won't always work and it finally failed the O's in Game Three.

Take a look at Ibanez's heroics here, including the crazy radio calls of Yankees voice John Sterling:

I flip the channel and the Tigers have a 3-1 lead in Oakland. Then it goes to the ninth and they're three outs away. Then Jose Valverde implodes and Coco Crisp's single caps a three-run ninth and the A's win 4-3 and we have Game Five tonight at 9:30. Crazy. Walkoffs R Us, writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ann Killion.

Here's the MLB.com video wrapup of the bottom of the ninth. (No embed code, sorry)

All that talk of a Baltimore-Washington World Series is slipping. All the Bay Bridge talk appeared dead but San Francisco-Oakland is back on the table again.

If the Yankees wrap it up tonight, they get to use CC Sabathia in Game One of the ALCS while the Tigers will have already blown through Justin Verlander tonight in Game Five. And doesn't Verlander have to stay in the game as long as possible with the way the Tigers' bullpen is blowing up?

Another long day ahead. Can it possibly come close to yesterday?

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

We're starting one of those great days when all four Division Series matchups will be staged consecutively, starting shortly after 1 p.m. with the Nats-Cardinals game -- the first postseason contest in DC since 1933 -- and likely not wrapping up until around 1 a.m. with the final pitch of Tigers-A's. And here's a quick note: I hear you. Loud and clear.

I've received numerous emails and Twitter replies about the 2-3 format for the NLDS/ALDS and it really does stink. I agree.

It's hardly fair for a team with a better record to have to open with two games on the road. It was patently unfair for the A's to play Friday night in Detroit and then turn around to play Saturday at noon -- which is really 9 a.m. to their bodies. In less than 24 hours, they were in an 0-2 hole.

So what in the name of Bud Selig is going on? 

The second wild-card was added late in the spring, long after the schedule had been drawn and the dates set out for the postseason. You don't want the World Series going into November if you can avoid it (Game Seven is Nov. 1 this year) so you have to limit travel days in the early rounds. You have to have them after Games 2 and 5 of the LCS, so the only real option is keep things tight in the division series.

You added an extra wild-card game and had the fear of tiebreakers and rain really messing with the schedule. So the decision was made to drop the 2-2-1 format for the division series and go back to 2-3, which is how it was in the early years when the wild-card took over in 1995.

Teams howled back then it was unfair and I would think the Yankees, A's, Nationals and Reds all agree (Cincinnati broke through with a 2-0 run in San Francisco). I remember covering the 99-win Indians of 1996 and they were furious they had to open in Baltimore. They lost both games there, won Game Three at home but lost Game Four in 12 innings. That was a better team than the '97 Tribe that went to the World Series but it was the Yankees and Orioles who played in the '96 ALCS.

Still, a Wall Street Journal blog this week showed a negligible impact on the result of the series based on 2-3 or 2-2-1. And, the best team still has Game Five at home anyway.

Here's the good part: It's a one-year thing. Next year's schedule is built to accommodate the days better. Selig & Co. have already said the division series goes back to 2-2-1 next year. As it should. And nothing has changed for the LCS or World Series. That's 2-3-2 as they've long been.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

(AP Photo: Bryce Harper (34) and the Nationals are introduced Wednesday afternoon prior to their first home playoff game against the Cardinals)

Homer Bailey kind of let this one slip during his presser last night and the Reds have made it official today that Mike Leake (left) will start Game Four today against the Giants. Since Leake wasn't on the roster to start the division series, ace Johnny Cueto is coming off due to the back spasms he suffered in Game One.

And that might really hurt the Reds down the line. By being removed,  Cueto is ineligible for the NLCS. 

So last night was a big one for the Bay Area as the Giants and Athletics both staved off elimination. The pressure is really on the Reds and Tigers today to win Game Four and not let their 2-0 leads slip to Game Five. Especially for Detroit, which is playing out in Oakland.

Meanwhile, Chris Carpenter starts today for St. Louis in Washington (the first home postseason game in DC since 1933) and there's still plenty of what-if-they-had-Strasburg talk going on.

Most of the focus around here, of course, deals with the Yankees. They return home in a 1-1 tie with the Orioles but with plenty of questions about their offense. Specifically, Alex Rodriguez (right). When I saw the Yanks in Toronto at the end of the season, A-Rod's bat speed was practically nil. And that's continued here.

Now comes the real question: Does Joe Girardi move him down in the lineup? Sure seems like he has to. This ESPN study shows how the fastball has been killing A-Rod of late. But there's more: A-Rod had two extra-base hits (two!) in his last 88 at-bats of the regular season. He had a .360 slugging percentage and .685 OPS in September.

In the last two years, he's averaging 17 homers and 60 RBIs. And there's still more than $100 million left on his contract. Yikes.

Joe Girardi admitted yesterday he's pondering the A-Rod situation.

Ken Davidoff of the New York Post says it's time for A-Rod to bat sixth. I might go as far as No. 7.

Wally Matthews of ESPNNY.com says you keep A-Rod where he is. 

3:40 p.m. update: We ran a poll earlier today and you can see the results below. Girardi has taken the easy way out and has stayed the course. A-Rod bats third tonight. Boo. 

---Mike Harrington

Twitter: @BNHarrington
(Photos: Associated Press) 

Here's the video of the crazy call that plummeted the NL wild-card game into chaos Friday night in Atlanta.

What in the world were the men in blue thinking? They weren't.

MLB is piece-mealing game times for the Division Series to allow for national coverage of all games (there can be up to four games in a day).

The Yankees' division series opener, on the road against the winner of today's Baltimore-Texas game, will be Sunday night at 6:15.

Here's the latest updates from MLB.com

Saturday, Oct. 6: ALDS Game 1, OAK at DET, 6:07 p.m. ET, TBS
Saturday, Oct. 6: NLDS Game 1, CIN at SF, 9:37 p.m. ET, TBS

Sunday, Oct. 7: ALDS Game 2, OAK at DET, 12:07 p.m. ET, MLB Network
Sunday, Oct. 7: NLDS Game 1, WSH at STL or ATL, 3:07 p.m. ET, TBS
Sunday, Oct. 7: ALDS Game 1, NYY at BAL or TEX, 6:15 p.m. ET, TBS
Sunday, Oct. 7: NLDS Game 2, CIN at SF, 9:37 p.m. ET, TBS

Monday, Oct. 8: NLDS Game 2, WSH at STL or ATL, 4:37 p.m. ET, TBS
Monday, Oct. 8: ALDS Game 2, NYY at BAL or TEX, 8:07 p.m. ET, TBS

Tuesday, Oct. 9: NLDS Game 3, SF at CIN, 5:37 p.m. ET, TBS
Tuesday, Oct. 9: ALDS Game 3, DET at OAK, 9:07 p.m. ET, TBS

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

Baseball's first-ever wild-card playoffs are set for today on TBS, with the Cardinals in Atlanta to meet at the Braves at 5 and the choked-the-division-away Rangers hosting the Orioles at 8:30.

It's a pretty interesting addition to the postseason format, as I discussed in today's preview story.

I think the pitching of Kris Medlen will be too much for the Cardinals to handle, and the Braves will keep Chipper Jones' career afloat. In the AL, I think the Rangers will find a way to survive at home -- especially against a Baltimore team that has a 7.62 ERA this season against Texas.

What say you? Vote below

---Mike Harrington

Be sure to catch my thoughts on the new playoff system in Friday's editions. While I'm working on that story, here's a few things running through my mind.

---The Boston Globe has trotted out its list of potential replacements for Bobby Valentine. Blue Jays manager John Farrell is, of course, at the top of the list. And so is Jays first base coach and Buffalo Baseball Hall of Famer Torey Lovullo, whom I talked to on that topic for last week's Inside Baseball column.

---Dan Shaugnessy in today's Globe on Valentine's finale last night in the Bronx: "This must be what it felt like when Richard Nixon was walking around a near-empty White House, holding a tumbler of scotch and talking to the portraits of former presidents that line the hallways of the residence on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 

"Bobby Valentine’s final hours as Red Sox manager Wednesday were a little sad. His Boston bowsers rolled over one last time in the Bronx, finishing the season with another pathetic loss (14-2) against the American League East champions. Bobby’s dogs dropped their final eight games, 12 of their last 13, and went 7-22 since Sept. 1."

---I'm trying to figure out what the Orioles are doing starting lefty Joe Saunders in Friday's wild-card game at Texas. He's 0-6 with a 9.36 ERA in his career at Rangers Ballpark. Can you say short leash? The Rangers, meanwhile, are going with Yu Darvish.

---Bad news for the 98-win Nationals: The team with the best record in the regular season has won the World Series just three times since 1990 (The Yankees in 1998 and 2009 and the Red Sox in 2007). 

---I picked the Tigers and Giants to make the World Series in our season preview section in March. I've been thinking for weeks it will be the Reds and the Rangers. What to do, what to do, what to do ...

---Did you catch the way the Blue Jays gave Omar Vizquel a sendoff Wednesday night in the final game of his career? Awesome stuff. Watch the highlights below.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington

File this under the no-kidding category: The Red Sox just fired Bobby Valentine.  GM Ben Cherington will lead the search for a new manager, the team said. Maybe this time, John Henry, Larry Lucchino and Tom Werner will actually let the GM pick the manager.

Lucchino's hand-picked choice got plenty of pub -- for all the wrong reasons. Bobby V, as it turns out, is the first guy whacked after one year with the Sox since 1934 after leading them to their worst record since 1966.

Wonder if he can trade jobs with Terry Francona again and head back to the ESPN booth.

Talk about the postseason and the Bobby V firing in our live chat here at 2.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

AP Photo: A glum Valentine watches a 14-2 loss during Wednesday's finale in New York

Sure, we'll talk playoffs. How far do the Yankees go? Can the Nationals really get there without Strasburg? Are the A's for real? And what the heck happened to the Rangers?

But we can also look ahead to the losers like the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Phillies and Mets. Lots of changes coming. Bring your questions!

It was a pair of routs -- the Yankees' 14-2 win over Boston and Oakland's 12-5 shredding of Texas -- the cemented the final playoff spots Wednesday in game 162 of the regular season.

The list of series openers is below and the entire postseason schedule is at this link:

American League

Friday's wild-card game
Baltimore at Texas, 8:30 (TBS)

Saturday's division series opener
Oakland at Detroit, 6 pm.

Sunday's division series opener
New York at Balt/Tex winner, TBA 

National League

Friday's wild-card game
St. Louis at Atlanta, 5 p.m. (TBS)

Saturday's division series opener
Cincinnati at San Francisco, 9:30

Sunday's division series opener
Washington at St. Louis/Atlanta winner, TBA 

Be sure to join me Thursday for some prediction polls and a live chat here at Buffalonews.com at 2 p.m.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

Among Crash Davis' numerous lessons to Nuke LaLossh in "Bull Durham" was this one: Never, ahem, mess with a winning streak. Now, it wasn't a winning streak but the Washington Nationals messed with their most famous streak in their season finale Wednesday and superstitious types wonder how that might impact their playoff hopes.

Forget about shutting down Stephen Strasburg. The Nationals let Teddy win. I don't call bully on that. I fear for them now. At least today, they beat the Phillies, 5-1, to clinch homefield in the NL playoffs. We'll see from here.

The Racing Presidents are a fixture at Nationals Park. Giant bobblehead figures of George (Washington), Thomas (Jefferson), Abe (Lincon) and Teddy (Roosevelt) race once a night. And much like the doom that greets Celery at Bisons games every night in the Chicken Wing Race, Teddy has never won a single race. Lost all 534 of them.

Until today, when he won with the help of a phake Phillie Phanatic.

Here's the official video from the Nationals (man, the PA guy is annoying).

Tweeted Teddy after the race (yes, he has a Twitter account): "I'm just getting warmed up! Time to get ready for the postseason! You ain't seen nothing yet! The Rough Rider has arrived!"

Pretty certain there will be more later today on LetTeddyWin.com and the Let Teddy win blog. Yes, there really are such things.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

(Photo: Associated Press)

Six months and 161 games later, it all comes down to this:

---The Athletics and Rangers meet in a 3:35 ET matinee in Oakland that's become a winner-take-all showdown for the AL West title. The A's have won the first two games of the series, including last night's 3-1 victory that ended shortly before 1 a.m. and left both teams with 93-68 records. Today's pitching matchup is Texas veteran Ryan Dempster vs. Oakland rookie A.J. Griffin.

The A's were 37-42 and 13 games out of first place on June 30. Since then, they've gone 56-26 (wow!) while the Rangers are 43-39. The A's are trying to become just the fifth team in history to come back from a deficit of 13 games or more and the first since the 1995 Mariners. The last time the A's had a share of the division lead? March 30, when they were 1-1 after splitting with the Mariners in Japan.

Oakland has an amazing rotation of rookies plus a solid bullpen that includes veteran closer Grant Balfour (left).

Quite a difference winning and losing this one. The winner heads right to the division series while the loser has to host the wild-card game, likely against the Orioles, on Friday.

---I'm calling a Yankees win tonight over the Red Sox and a trip to the ALDS for the Bombers (it's Hiroki Kuroda vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka) Moreover, they would claim homefield advantage in the playoffs as well, something that didn't seem likely a couple of weeks ago. But the Rangers are 4-8 in their last 12 games and 2-6 in the last eight (including 2-4 against Oakland). That's brought the Yankees and A's back in the hunt.

The Yankees got in this position by getting a couple huge swings from Raul Ibanez in a 4-3, 12-inning win over the Red Sox. Ibanez hit a two-run homer off Andrew Bailey in the ninth and was greeted by Alex Rodriguez (right) when he won the game on an RBI single in the 12th.

Anyone still want Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui as the Yankees' DH?  And don't forget the 13th-inning homer Ibanez hit to cap the four-run inning and get the Yankees even against Oakland on Sept. 22. The Yanks won that game in 14; how big does that one look now?

The Yankees, of course, could slip back into a tie with Baltimore if they lose today and the Orioles win at Tampa Bay. If that happens, the teams would meet Thursday at Camden Yards.

A lot less to settle in the NL after the Dodgers' loss to the Giants late last night clinched the second wild-card for the Cardinals. The Nationals have the tiebreak edge over the Reds and can clinch homefield with a win today over the Phillies. The Braves and Cardinals will meet Friday in Atlanta in the first NL wild card playoff.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

(Photos: Associated Press)

The Mets and Marlins play a relatively meaningless game tonight in Miami (7 p.m., SNY) and it's noteworthy for two things: R.A. Dickey's attempt to go for his 21st win and Adam Greenberg's at-bat.

Greenberg, you may recall, was the subject of a post here last week that detailed how he's been signed to a one-day contract by the Marlins and will get one at-bat -- more than seven years after getting beaned in the head during the only pitch he saw in the big leagues with the Chicago Cubs. That pitch, oddly enough, came from Marlins reliever Valerio De Los Santos, so the club made Greenberg the offer in the wake of a huge online petition drive.

Greenberg was offered the contract Thursday on NBC's Today Show and is expected to appear on the show again Wednesday morning to discuss his appearance in the game.

Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen said Monday night the team thought about starting Greenberg and batting him leadoff but will instead simply use him as a pinch-hitter. Expected in the stands is 75-year-old Fred Van Dusen, the only other player in MLB history to be hit by a pitch in his lone big-league at-bat. 

Here's a story on Greenberg from Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

The Yankees want to cut payroll to about $189 million by 2014 to avoid luxury tax payments and one way to do it is to go young in their rotation. That theory got quite a bit tougher today.

In a surprising bit of news out of the Bronx, the team announced that 21-year-old left-hander Manny Banuelos (above) -- considered a likely member of that '14 rotation -- is going to need Tommy John surgery and will be out all of next season.

It's thus hard to imagine Banuelos having much impact at the big-league level until 2015. He was 0-2, 4.50 this year at Scranton before getting shut down in mid-May. At the time, the Yankees said his elbow trouble was not serious, but Banuelos never returned to the mound and an approach of rest and rehab has not worked.

Banuelos started for Scranton against the Bisons in the second home game of the season on April 12 in Coca-Cola Field and had a disastrous outing. In two innings, he gave up three hits and walked six (but somehow only gave up two runs). He threw just 36 of his 74 pitches for strikes on a 49-degree afternoon but got a no-decision in a 7-2 Scranton win.

Banuelos and 6-foot-8 Dellin Betances were expected to anchor the Scranton rotation and punch their tickets to New York soon. But Banuelos got hurt and Betances ended up back at Double-A Trenton after blowing up in Scranton and pitched poorly in both places (3-5, 6.39 at Scranton, 3-4, 6.51 at Trenton). Betances is trying to get himself together this month for Scottsdale of the Arizona Fall League.

Oddly enough, Betances was a disaster in Buffalo the day before Banuelos -- allowing eight runs on seven hits and walking six in 3 1/3 innings in the Bisons' 12-3 win in the home opener on April 11. Yankees fans here sure didn't see much from the Bombers' key pitching prospects in 2011.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

The Washington Nationals -- yes, the Washington Nationals -- and Detroit Tigers became division winners Monday night. The Oakland A's clinched an improbable wild-card berth and can still win the AL West, while the Yankees moved a step closer in the AL East and the Cardinals are on the brink of cementing baseball's first wild-card playoff matchup.

The Nationals lost to the Phillies, 2-0, but clinched the NL East in the middle of the ninth inning of that one when the Braves lost at Pittsburgh, 2-1, and the party was officially on at Nationals Park (above). Former Buffalo News intern Amanda Comak reports on all the sights and sounds of the celebration in today's Washington Times.

So now we officially have the scenario so many people in baseball have wondered about: The Nationals are in the playoffs, but how will they do without Stephen Strasburg? They have a 21-game winning ace in Gio Gonzalez and another stud in Jordan Zimmermann but we'll have to see how the rest of the rotation holds up.

The Tigers won at Kansas City, 6-3, and that was enough to clinch the AL Central in what was an up-and-down year. The White Sox won at Cleveland, 11-0 but Chicago's 2-9 slump proved fatal in the division. Miguel Cabrera's Triple Crown hopes grew with a four-hit night. He's batting .329 but Angels rookie Mike Trout also had four hits and is at .325. He has 44 home runs, one ahead of Josh Hamilton and leads by 10 in the RBI race.

In Oakland, the A's posted a 4-3 win over Texas to clinch the wild-card. And if they beat the Rangers in the final two games, they would take the AL West and send the two-time defending AL champions on a stunning slide into Friday's wild-card games. The Rays were eliminated.

Wrote Susan Slusser in the San Francisco Chronicle: "An improbable, implausible, absurd season for the Oakland A's churned out one sensational story after another, and at last comes the most fantastic tale yet: The 2012 A's are going to the postseason."

It is crazy to ponder how a team that traded the likes of Gio Gonzalez and Andrew Bailey over the winter -- and has five rookies in its rotation -- will finish ahead of the big-money Angels and make the postseason.

Said outfielder Jonny Gomes, an alum of the upstart 2008 Rays: "We wear jerseys on the field. We don't wear contracts between the lines."

The Yankees can clinch the AL East tonight with another win over Boston and another Baltimore loss in Tampa Bay. New York's 10-2 win Monday featured a franchise record-tying four home runs in a nine-run second. The Red Sox are just pathetic, as John Harper writes in the Daily News.  The Cardinals' magic number is one for the second NL wild-card and a one-game showdown with the Braves Friday in Atlanta.

---Mike Harrington
Twitter: @BNHarrington 

(Photo: Associated Press)