Tigers Top Yankees, Reach Championship Series

The Detroit Tigers beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on Thursday to reach the American League Championship Series against the Texas Rangers.

The victory gave Detroit a 3-2 winning margin in their best-of-five divisional playoff series.

Don Kelly and Delmon Young blasted back-to-back home runs in the first inning off starter and loser Ivan Nova and three relievers finished up for Tigers starter Doug Fister to secure the victory with Jose Valverde notching the save.

Nova left after two innings due to some tightening in his forearm and the Yankees paraded in six relievers, including Game Three starter CC Sabathia, who made his first relief appearance after 370 major league games as a starting pitcher.

Sabathia yielded the third run for Detroit in the fifth inning when he gave up a broken-bat double to Austin Jackson, who came around to score on a single by Victor Martinez.

Robinson Cano accounted for the Yankees first run with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth off Fister. New York scored another run on a bases-loaded walk to Mark Teixeira in the seventh, but they left three men on in the inning, as they also did in the fourth.

The Tigers will travel to Texas to play the Rangers in Saturday's opener of the best-of-seven series that will produce the American League representative in the World Series.

Texas advanced by beating the wild card Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 in their best-of-five series.