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Game 5 is Yankees' for the taking

But the scenario for the New York Yankees -- in the fifth and deciding game of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night at Yankee Stadium -- is as close as you can get to it.

In a winner-take-all game to advance to the AL Championship Series against the Texas Rangers, the Yankees have everything in place to win and get a rematch from last postseason:

• Their rookie pitching sensation, Ivan Nova, starts for them. He beat the Tigers in impressive fashion in Game 1.
• The Yankees' bullpen is locked and loaded. Best of all, Mariano Rivera would be able to pitch two innings. To this point, he has thrown three pitches and doesn't even have a save in the series. Even CC Sabathia would be available, if needed.

• The Yankees have been playing defense like it's going out of style. Curtis Granderson and Alex Rodriguez have been playing at an ESPN Top 10 Plays caliber.

• The Yankees finally started hitting in their Game 4 win at Detroit. They scored 10 runs on 13 hits. The Tigers will start Doug Fister, whom the Yankees beat up on in Game 1, scoring six earned runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

• Soon-to-be AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander isn't starting Game 5, which was the original plan before rain suspended Game 1. Better yet, Verlander, who won Game 3 in Motown, isn't available to pitch at all in Game 5.

• Last but not least, the Yankees -- who tied for the second-best home record in baseball during the regular season -- will be playing in front of their home crowd. Enter loud. Enter advantage.

For sure, the Yankees still have to come out and play. There are no layups in the postseason. The Tigers, who won Game 2 here, didn't come all this way to get knocked out of the playoffs without a fight.

"You can ask both sides -- you feel good about your opportunity," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said Wednesday afternoon. "I know these guys. I know their hearts, I know how hard they play, know how hard they work and their ability to get things done and their resiliency. But we have to go out and play. That's the bottom line."

Tigers manager Jim Leyland knows when the deck is stacked. Leyland, who won a World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997, knows his team might have squandered its chance to eliminate the Yankees for the second time since 2006.

The Tigers didn't take advantage of having all their ducks in a row. They had A.J. Burnett, a mostly disappointing pitcher this season, on the mound in their place with a chance to close out the series. Instead, they got a Detroit beatdown in Comerica Park.

"We'll respond," Leyland said. "Like we always do.

"We got a big game with the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. It's a great scenario. It's great for baseball. It turned out to be a five-game series. I wish I could tell you what's going to happen, but I don't know. But we feel good. I'm sure they feel good."

Especially with Nova on the mound. The Yankees' 19-8 mark this season in games started by Nova was the second best for any AL team in starts by one pitcher (minimum 20 games started). The Tigers were 25-9 in games started by Verlander.

"I got the most important game of my life," Nova, 24, said of Game 5. "[Thursday] is the time to do what I've been doing the whole year.

"[Thursday] is the time to step up for the team, because that's the game that we'll need to keep us in the playoffs or we go home."

The Yankees fully expect to win. Anything less, and the perfect storm will have been wasted.

"We're all going to be disappointed if we don't win," Girardi said. "This team has played all year long, and I'm proud of what they've done to this point.

"We all understand what the goal is here, and that's no secret. I would say for any team ... if you don't win the World Series, it's disappointing."

On Thursday, it's all set up for the Yankees to take the next step toward another shot at a World Series title. They just have to play.

Tigers hold off Yankees, advance to ALCS

Cool, calm, and collected, the Detroit Tigers are advancing to the American League Championship Series.

The New York Yankees are heading into an offseason filled with questions.

Joaquin Benoit escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh inning with minimal damage and then came within a few feet of giving up a Derek Jeter go-ahead homer in the eighth, but the Tigers held on for a 3-2 win over the Yankees in the decisive fifth game of their American League Division Series.

Don Kelly and Delmon Young homered on consecutive pitches off Ivan Nova in the first inning and Victor Martinez singled in the eventual game-winner off CC Sabathia in the fifth.

Jose Valverde retired the side in order in the ninth for his second save of the series, ending it by fanning Alex Rodriguez.

The Tigers will face Texas Saturday night in the opener of the ALCS in Arlington.

http://www.canada.com/sports/Tigers+knock+Yankees+playoffs/5515400/story.html

Jorge Posada finished with Yankees?

Realizing he likely played his final game in pinstripes, an emotional Jorge Posada cut short his media session after the New York Yankees lost Game 5 of the ALDS, 3-2, to the Detroit Tigers. Tears came to Posada's eyes when he was asked about what the fans have meant to him.

"They have been awesome," Posada said. "The fans have been unbelievable to this team and to me."

Posada, 40, spoke for 3½ minutes before he welled up and politely walked away.

In the Game 5 loss, Posada went 2-for-4. During the playoff series, he finished 6-for-14 (.429), which was the best on the Yankees. He had a .579 on-base percentage.

"He was awesome," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who also got emotional when talking about Posada. "He's had a tremendous career and I'm sure he's going to play, and I don't know what's to happen."

Posada declined to answer whether he thought this was his last game as a Yankee. Several times this year, he has said he would consider playing for another team if the Yankees don't want him.

Posada, 40, completed his four-year, $52.4 million contract. Last winter, the Yankees moved Posada from behind the plate, making him a part-time DH. Posada had his fewest at-bats in a non-injury season since 1997.

In his 344 regular-season at-bats, he finished with 14 homers and 44 RBIs. In a game in May, he removed himself from the lineup against the Boston Red Sox when Girardi had him batting ninth. Later in the season, Girardi benched him, but each time Posada fought back to earn some playing time. He ended up picking up the game-winning hit in the Yankees' AL East-clinching win against the Red Sox last month.

"I'm not prepared to talk about the winter right now," said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. The GM's contract is also up, but he's expected to return.

With the Tigers featuring righties, Posada started each of the five playoff games.

"What he gave us in the postseason, I don't think there is a prouder moment that I've had of Jorgie," Girardi said.

Girardi later added, "The heart that he showed during this series, that's why Jorgie has been a great player."

With the Yankees wanting to open up the DH position as a place to rest Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and others -- and with Jesus Montero's emergence -- the expectation is that Posada will not be offered a contract for 2012.

"Next year is all going to wait for all of us," Cashman said earlier in the week.

Cashman appreciates what Posada has meant over a Yankees career that really began in full force in 1997.

"He is definitely one of the premiere catchers of this generation," Cashman said. "He is a borderline Hall of Famer and he is one of the best catchers in Yankee history."

If Posada is indeed finished in New York, Yankees closer Mariano Rivera will be sad to see his longtime friend and teammate go.

"I definitely will miss him, definitely will miss him," Rivera said.

Meanwhile, Yankees ace CC Sabathia is facing a decision on whether to return to the Bronx next season. Sabathia, 31, has an opt-out clause in his seven-year, $161 million contract that he can use to make himself a free agent. Since spring training Sabathia has refused to say if he will use the opt-out or not. Sabathia has four years and $92 million remaining on his current contract.

After the Yankees' loss, in which Sabathia pitched in relief for the first time in his career, he said "a lot" will go into his decision, starting with his family and "everything that matters."

"We just have to wait and see," Sabathia said.

Cashman has already pegged keeping Sabathia as a top priority.

"He is our ace," Cashman said. "He ranks highly."

Sabathia finished the regular season at 19-8 with a 3.00 ERA. In his 1 1/3 innings in relief on Thursday, he allowed a run, which raised his ERA for the series to 6.23 in 8 2/3 innings.

Sabathia has been worth his money thus far. In 2009, his first season with the club, he led the Yankees to the World Series title by pitching on three days' rest throughout the postseason. Over his three seasons, Sabathia is 59-23 with a 3.18 ERA.

"I love it," Sabathia said when asked about playing in the Bronx. "I've loved this since day one that I got here."

The Yankees originally gave Sabathia the opt-out clause to ease any fears that he had in coming to the Bronx.

The team and Sabathia could work out an extension before Sabathia can negotiate with other teams after the World Series. A glum Sabathia slouched in his clubhouse as he contemplated the season's finality.

"It's stunning," Sabathia said. "It's always tough when you lose."

Andrew Marchand covers the Yankees for ESPNNewYork.com.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7070043/2011-alds-jorge-posada-finished-new-york-yankees

Sean Avery is chargeless on $20,000 bond afterwards actuality arrested aboriginal Friday morning in Hollywood for array on a accord officer, a abomination allegation that carries a abeyant amends of up to one year in bastille and/or a $2,000 fine.

So the Rangers’ advocate has a Sept. 2 cloister actualization at Los Angeles Municipal Cloister Division 80.

What’s not clear, afterwards admiral from the Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles Badge Department were summoned to Avery’s accommodation to breach up a affair afterwards a acquaintance complained of loud noise, is whether this afresh will account him some issues with the NHL or aching his affairs of actual with the Rangers

"We are acquisition advice so it would be inappropriate to animadversion at this time," NHL abettor John Dellapina said.

Avery was accused of advance a badge administrator afterwards answering the door. The cloister address shows he was arrested at 12:30 a.m., appointed at 2:58 and appear at 8:10.

Avery, 31, is entering the final division of a four-year, $15.5 actor accord he originally active with the Dallas Stars afterwards abrogation the Rangers as a chargeless agent.

"We will altercate the amount with Sean and accept no added animadversion at this time," the Rangers said in a statement.

Avery’s administration with the Stars lasted 23 amateur and the NHL abeyant Avery indefinitely and ordered him into counseling to assignment on his acrimony administration afterward comments he fabricated about his ex-girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert, and then-Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf. Avery resumed his NHL career by arena the final 18 amateur of 2008-09 with the Rangers afterwards they claimed him off re-entry waivers.

Avery had three goals and 21 assists in 76 amateur for the Rangers and drillmaster John Tortorella fabricated him a advantageous blemish in six of the final 13 approved division amateur and the opener of a five-game accident to the Capitals in the aboriginal annular of the playoffs.

The Rangers account 13 assiduously on their agenda and that does not accommodate Mats Zuccarello, who had six goals and 17 assists in 42 NHL amateur aftermost season, or affairs such as Swede Carl Hagelin. So Avery acceptable has to acquire his agenda atom in the preseason.

___

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Advice Services.

There was a time at the acme of Randy Moss's mostly august career, that any canyon lofted aerial abundant in his administration would about accordingly appear bottomward in those two easily softer than Corinthian leather.

On Monday, it seems, no fresh arrangement was lofted aerial abundant for Moss to accede advancing aback for a 14th National Football League season.

Moss has absitively to retire, his abettor accepted Monday.

His career was allotment brief star, allotment World Wresting Federation villain – the all-embracing mix of a once-in-a-generation aptitude attenuated by again helpings of surliness in his accessible (and sometimes onfield) persona.

He was a linchpin of arguably the greatest offenses in pro football history: the 1998 Minnesota Vikings and the 2007 Fresh England Patriots – No. 2 and No. 1, respectively, in NFL history for credibility denticulate in a season.

And yet he was additionally the man who, as a Viking in 2005, absolved off the acreage afore a bold adjoin the Washington Redskins was finished. The receiver who sometimes appeared to run his routes with such accord that he lacked alone a Big Gulp, a bag of chips, and a Barcalounger.

What is absolute is that, aback he was motivated, he was a receiver who, for all intents and purposes, could not be covered.

A backstab West Virginia aerial academy amateur of the year in basketball, Moss accumulated the acceleration of a sprinter with the acme and bound of a basketball amateur and the abiding easily of a Hall of Fame receiver. The aftereffect was a amateur for whom no brawl could be befuddled too far.

In 2007, aback Moss set the almanac for touchdown receptions in a division (23), Patriots quarterback Tom Brady ability as able-bodied accept absolved into the ataxia of a backyard barbecue football game, winked at Moss, and said "go deep." The circuitous geometry of pro-ffotball defenses were apparent by Moss's arduous athleticism – abrogation hapless defenders scrabbling at his elbows.

By the alpha of aftermost season, however, his career was acutely in apparent decline. He was casting off by the Patriots afterwards actualization active in preseason.

He approved to disclose his career aback in Minnesota, but succeeded alone in accepting himself unceremoniously cut aback he criticized the Vikings apprenticeship agents in post-game comments. The division concluded with eight boilerplate amateur with the Tennessee Titans.

He accomplished his career with 954 receptions, 14,858 yards, and 153 touchdowns – acceptable for eighth, fifth, and additional on the NFL best list.

He is a basic lock for the Hall of Fame.

Bears drillmaster Lovie Smith consistently claimed to be a Cowboys fan, but no one could accept absurd this.

The aggregation agreed to agreement with active aback Marion Barber on a two-year deal, the third ex-Cowboy to accompany the aggregation in the aftermost two days. Barber joins above Dallas teammates Roy Williams and Sam Hurd on the Bears' roster.

General administrator Jerry Angelo admired Barber advancing out of college, and Barber ability be the short-yardage aback the Bears need. It could spell agitation for Chester Taylor, and amateur Matt Forte aloof ability get the advice he didn't get from Taylor aftermost season.

Barber's two-year accord is account $5 million.

He spent the aftermost six seasons with the Cowboys, accustomed the brawl 1,042 times for 4,358 yards and 47 touchdowns in 88 amateur (41 starts).

Free abettor WR Plaxico Burress met with New York Giants arch drillmaster Tom Coughlin at the team's ability Friday as the aggregation considers application the 33-year-old, according to the Associated Press.

Burress was a Giant from 2005-08 afore confined a two-year bastille appellation stemming from a 2008 adventure in which he attempt himself in the leg with a firearm in a nightclub.

He was appear June 6.

Burress met with Coughlin for about 90 minutes, again spent 15 account with both Giants admiral John Mara and accepted administrator Jerry Reese afore abrogation through a ancillary door.

On the way out, he chatted with several players but was not fabricated accessible to the media.

Mara said Thursday that the aggregation was a "long ways" from resigning Burress, who was a affiliate of the Giants' 2008 Super Bowl championship team.

The Giants, who accept yet to assurance chargeless agents Kevin Boss, Amhad Bradshaw and Steve Smith, were after arresting end Osi Umenyiora, who is captivation out for a more good deal.

Umenyiora said during the lockout -- and swore in an affirmation -- that Reese did not accomplish a swear to renegotiate his contract, which has two years and $8 actor remaining.

"I am not demography any catechism about Osi," Reese told reporters Friday. "He is not here. He knows training affected is accessible today, He is not here."

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Game 5 is Yankees' for the taking

Tigers hold off Yankees, advance to ALCS

Jorge Posada finished with Yankees?

Rangers’ Sean Avery arrested for shoving police officer

Randy Moss retires: sullen, spectacular, and forever one of a kind

Bears add former Cowboys RB Barber

Plaxico Burress met with New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin