Fiery Rogers shuts down vaunted Yankees lineup

	TIgers veteran Kenny Rogers pitched with a lot of emotion on Friday night. Elsa/Getty Images
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DETROIT -- On a chilly October night, under a luminescent full moon, a soft-tossing 41-year-old with a horrid October record stifled the most expensive lineup in baseball and turned in the most improbable pitching performance of the year. In his virtuoso outing, Kenny Rogers struck out eight Yankees: four on dawdling changeups, one on a 94 mph -- 94! -- heater, another on a 91 mph fastball, and two on a pair of hellacious 74 mph curves.

"He was on a roll tonight," said Joe Torre. "He kept us off-balance, moved the ball around, changed speeds. And you could see the fire at the end there with him. He just wanted to finish it himself."

Even in the hours leading up to the game Tigers players saw a Kenny Rogers they had never seen before.

"He was so amped up," said Brandon Inge. "You could see his determination in his eyes." Of Rogers' past postseason failures, Inge said, "I think that's what got him going, he was absolutely determined out there. Before the game he was saying this team had a .500 average against him, and he'd have to be perfect. He was throwing a little harder than usual, which made his [offspeed] pitches even harder to hit."

FROM THE BENCH

Torre's decision to slot Bernie Williams cost his team in the Yankees' nightmarish second inning. Torre said his 11th-hour decision to insert Bernie Williams in the lineup and bench Gary Sheffield was based on Williams' career numbers against Rogers (the 38-year-old entered the game 12-for-34 against the Gambler). "The biggest thing I had to find out, I had to wait for Jason to make sure he could play first base with his hand," said the skipper before Game 3. But in the game's second inning, Giambi misplayed Randy Johnson's pickoff move with Curtis Granderson at first, throwing high to second; moments later Granderson came home on Placido Polanco's single. Williams? He went 0-for-3 with two Ks and three left on base ... Torre's reason for penciling Alex Rodriguez at cleanup? "So I can make everyone happy," he quipped before the game ... Leyland has the Midas touch: his hit-and-run in the bottom of the 6th with Carlos Guillen at first ensured that Detroit would score its fourth run on Ivan Rodriguez's double ... Of his Game 4 lineup, Leyland says, "(Sean) Casey will be hitting third and Granderson will be hitting first. We'll go back to our lineup that you saw in New York."

CLUBHOUSE CONFIDENTIAL

After the game the Tigers clubhouse was quiet as a church: no music blaring, and it seemed that all the media that had converged on Detroit was crammed into the Yankees clubhouse; few reporters lingered in the winning locker room ... Chien-Ming Wang, slotted to start a possible Game 5, stayed behind in New York, and the young righthander, according to Torre, "wasn't too happy about it." On whether he would have considered deploying the 19-game winner for Game 4, on three days rest, if the Yankees faced elimination, Torre said, "This youngster has pitched more innings this year than he's ever pitched. I'm certainly not going to take a chance with his future on short rest." ... When asked about the Yankees' 14-inning scoreless streak, Leyland said, "Why did you have to bring that up?" ... Said Torre about his team's utter futility in the clutch: "We got a little overanxious at times. We're a better ballclub than that...Not much to talk about; we didn't do it." ... Last October, Jaret Wright -- the Yankees' Game 4 starter -- was slotted to start Game 1 of the ALCS against the White Sox while the rest of the team was in Anaheim for Game 5 of the ALDS against the Angels. "Last year was tough for me because I was on an airplane [during Game 5] while they were playing the game, flying to Chicago," Wright said. "I actually asked the stewardess if we won or lost. She said we lost."

BOTTOM LINE

These are desperate times in Yankee Nation, but the reality is that New York holds the pitching edge in Game 4, and with Wang set for Game 5, they would have the advantage in a possible final game on Sunday as well. Jeremy Bonderman has looked badly fatigued down the stretch: he has a 5.50 ERA since the start of August and was dismal last Sunday against the Royals with the AL Central title on the line. Wright, by contrast, takes the mound on the heels of his best month as a Yankee. Detroit, though, is optimistic they can lock up their first postseason series win since 1984 in front of the home crowd. "Tonight, it was the most electric it's ever been here," says Inge. "It was on par with how it was in New York the last two days. We can't wait to go back out there tomorrow."