Mike Valenti: The Tigers Will Advance To The ALCS
The Tigers and Athletics will finish their series out in Oakland Thursday night in what is being dubbed Verlander v. Gray II. The aces match-up again for the right to play the Red Sox in Boston in the American League Championship Series on Saturday.
97.1 The Ticket's Mike Valenti is confident that Tigers' fans have nothing to worry about and that there's no way that the A's will win in Game 5.
"The Athletics cannot ask Sonny Gray to out-duel Justin Verlander twice in a series. It wont happen," Valenti said on his radio show Thursday. "The A's lost the series after they had the bases loaded and nobody out and Max Scherzer dominated them. The way that the Tigers won Game 4 has essentially won them series, they won't recover.
"Book your tickets to Boston. It's in the bag."
Verlander and Gray faced each other in Game 2 of the series with Gray coming out the victor after pitching eight scoreless innings and striking out nine batter, while Verlander countered with seven shutout innings and 11 strikeouts. The A's eventually won 1-0 on a walk-off single.
Spanning into the first four games, the Tigers' offense scored just six runs in 31 innings to start the series until breaking out for eight runs and two home runs in the last four innings of Game 4. The Tigers defeated the Athletics in Game 5 of last season's ALDS behind a complete game from Verlander.
Will the Tigers advance to their third straight ALCS against the Athletics? Will the pitching match-up live up to the billing?
Let us know in the comments below.
