Tigers trying to avoid 0-2 hole in ALCS at Texas

[October 10, 2011]  ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- The Detroit Tigers have already lost two starting outfielders for the water-logged AL championship series.

Now they will try to avoid losing a second game against the defending American League champion Texas Rangers before the series switches to Detroit without a break between games.

After the ALCS opener won by Texas 3-2 in a game that was twice delayed by rain, Game 2 was postponed Sunday night because of the expectation of more wet weather and rescheduled for Monday afternoon.

"Just another obstacle," Tigers catcher Alex Avila said.

Soon after officials called off Sunday's game, manager Jim Leyland said Magglio Ordonez will miss the rest of the postseason because of more problems with his right ankle.

The Tigers, already without Delmon Young (left oblique), later released results of X-rays and a CT scan that showed Ordonez had re-fractured the ankle, which was surgically repaired in July 2010. Ordonez missed more than a month this summer because of problems with the ankle, then came out of the twice-interrupted ALCS opener.

"We're a real resilient team. Do I like this? Obviously, no. Do I like losing Delmon? Obviously, no," Leyland said. "But we're a tough team. We'll figure something out, and we'll get through this."

The Rangers and Tigers will lose their travel day with Game 3 still set for Tuesday in Detroit.

Derek Holland pitches Monday for the Rangers against Max Scherzer, who gets an extra day after his 1 1-3 innings of relief in the Tigers' AL division series clincher Thursday night against the New York Yankees.

Holland planned to use the extra time to rest, review video of himself and the Detroit hitters and go through all his other pre-start routines, from playing a hockey game on his Xbox to watching a chunk of the movie "For Love of the Game."

"Getting this extra day of rest is the more important thing, especially to clear up some of the sinus stuff that I've got going on," Holland said, later stressing that his sniffles were no big deal. "I can just kind of relax and watch more video. Maybe I'll pick up something that I didn't see before. So that's a good thing to have, too."

The ALCS opener was stopped by rain twice in the top of the fifth inning Saturday night for a total of 1 hour, 50 minutes.

Ordonez, who had walked to load the bases during a 13-minute resumption of play between the delays, was replaced by a pinch runner when the game restarted for good.

"Magglio had just been talking three or four days ago about how he felt great, how he felt as good as he's felt for a long time," Leyland said. "When the trainer came in during the rain delay and told me, I was almost flabbergasted, to be honest with you. ... It doesn't appear that there was any significant movement or anything that did it. "

The rain delays Saturday night were the first at Rangers Ballpark since May 24. This season was played during one of the hottest and driest summers in North Texas, including 27 games when the temperature was 100 degrees or more at first pitch.

With the forecast for more rain Sunday night, officials were wary of a repeat of what happened Saturday.

"We felt with the forecast that we had that we didn't want to experience what we did last night. ... With the forecast for this evening, it appears that it's going to be a duplication of what we saw," Rangers president Nolan Ryan said. "The one thing we're concerned about is the integrity of the game and not put either team in a situation where possibly the elements could affect the outcome of the game."

Both of Detroit's playoff series openers this season have been plagued by rain with ace Justin Verlander on the mound.

Verlander threw one inning and 25 pitches in the division series opener at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 30 when that game was suspended by rain. The right-hander who won 24 games in the regular season came back and started Game 3, winning as he threw 120 pitches with 11 strikeouts over eight innings.

The likely AL Cy Young winner threw 25 first-inning pitches again Saturday at Texas, and had 82 in four innings before the first delay.

Though Leyland had planned to bring Verlander back, that changed after the second delay since it had been about two hours since his last pitch when the game finally resumed.

Rick Porcello, Detroit's scheduled Game 4 starter, had two scoreless innings after replacing Verlander.

Leyland had indicated he could possibly alter his planned rotation, but said Sunday he was sticking to the original plan for Scherzer to be followed by Doug Fister and Porcello. Verlander would pitch Game 5 in Detroit scheduled for Thursday.

"He'll pitch Game 5 under any circumstances," the manager said.

Leyland stuck to a similar decision in the last series, when Verlander was never considered to pitch in relief in the ALDS finale and was ready to go on regular rest for his start against the Rangers.

As for Ordonez, he was re-signed to a $10 million, one-year deal by the Tigers last December after he broke his ankle sliding into home plate midway through the 2010 season. He struggled early this year, then missed a month before returning to the lineup in June.

After hitting a career-low .255 with five homers and 32 RBIs in 92 games during the regular season, Ordonez was 5 for 13 in the postseason.

"I saw him in the training room in between the rain delay. As far as how bad it was, nobody really knew how bad it was," outfielder Ryan Raburn said. "That was unfortunate for us. He's a veteran presence in the lineup we'll definitely miss. We'll need other guys to step up like we have done all year."

[Associated Press; By STEPHEN HAWKINS]

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