The Tigers are already off to a quick lead against the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of their ALDS playoff series in the Bay Area, taking a 3-0 advantage after getting four hits in the opening inning and now Max Scherzer and Bartolo Colon are going at it on TBS for Game 1 in the series.
The Tigers are coming into the series after winning the American League central for the third straight season and the Oakland A's are coming into the playoffs after winning the AL West yet again, but this time the team locked it up early rather than making a historic comeback like they did last season. Scherzer has went 21-3 this year and Jim Leyland said that he felt his likely Cy Young winning pitcher deserved the opening nod over former Cy Young winner Justin Verlander and on Friday Scherzer matched up against a past Cy Young winner in Bartolo Colon.
Click here for live coverage of the Athletics and Tigers game or for more on the MLB playoffs.
Yoenis Cespedes hit a nice triple for the Athletics to give the team its best chance early and he had the first hit for the team in the game, which Scherzer has been pitching very well. Scherzer has been on fire this year with his fastball and Leyland will be looking for him to continue doing that in the playoffs. The Tigers came into the series as one of the best offensive teams in the league while ranking second in the league in runs scored while also ranking second in the league in on base and slugging percentage and they also ranked first in batting average.
Click here for the live score from ESPN.com.
The Athletics are coming into the series after winning the AL West and now O.co Coliseum will be the host of the series for the first two games, the second of which on Saturday will push the Oakland Raiders game to the night time against the San Diego Chargers. The A's come into the series with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball and Billy Beane has put together a very solid roster with names like Josh Donaldson and Brandon Moss having solid seasons on the cheap.
The Athletics have been to the playoffs in six of the past amount of seasons since 2000 and the team has only advanced to the ALCS once and now they will play a team that they played last season in the Tigers. The team ranked fourth in the league in run scored this season and were ranked eighth in on base percentage and fourth in slugging percentage, while ranking 14th in batting average. The team was one of the best in the clutch and they will be ready for anything against the Tigers.
