| 2012 American League Division Series | |||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 7–12 | ||||||||||||
| Television | TBS | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Ernie Johnson, Cal Ripken, and John Smoltz | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Orel Hershiser | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Brian Gorman (crew chief), Mark Carlson, Fieldin Culbreth, Mike Everitt, Ángel Hernández, Tony Randazzo | ||||||||||||
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| Dates | October 6–11 | ||||||||||||
| Television | TBS (Games 1, 3) MLB Network (Game 2) TNT (Games 4–5) | ||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Don Orsillo and Buck Martinez (TBS/TNT) Matt Vasgersian and Jim Kaat (MLBN) | ||||||||||||
| Radio | ESPN | ||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | Dave O'Brien and Aaron Boone | ||||||||||||
| Umpires | Jim Reynolds, Mark Wegner, Dana DeMuth (crew chief), Eric Cooper, Wally Bell, Scott Barry | ||||||||||||
| ALWC | Baltimore Orioles defeated Texas Rangers, 5–1 | ||||||||||||
The 2012 American League Division Series were two best-of-five-game series to determine the participating teams in the 2012 American League Championship Series. The three divisional winners and a fourth team—the winner of a one-game Wild Card playoff— played in two series. TBS carried most of the games, with some on MLB Network or TNT.
The series used the 2–3 format for 2012 because on March 2 the league had implemented the new "wild card" playoff, eliminating the travel day between Games 4 and 5.[1] The 2–3 format was used for best-of-five Championship Series rounds prior to 1985 and for the Division Series rounds from 1995 to 1997. The matchups for the 2012 ALDS were:
- (1) New York Yankees (East Division champions) vs. (5) Baltimore Orioles (Wild Card Game winner): Yankees win series, 3–2.
- (2) Oakland Athletics (West Division champions) vs. (3) Detroit Tigers (Central Division champions): Tigers win series, 3–2.[2]
This was the third postseason match-up between the Athletics and the Tigers, and previously the Tigers had defeated the A's 4–0 in the 2006 ALCS. The Yankees and Orioles were meeting in the postseason for the second time; the Yankees had beaten the Orioles 4–1 in the 1996 ALCS, which witnessed the controversial Jeffrey Maier incident in Game 1.
The Tigers went on to defeat the Yankees in the ALCS, then lose the 2012 World Series to the National League champion San Francisco Giants.
- ^ Bloom, Barry M. (March 2, 2012). "Addition of Wild Card berths finalized for 2012". MLB.com.
- ^ The restriction on teams from the same division meeting in the Division Series was removed prior to the 2012 season. Therefore, the Yankees and Orioles, both from the East Division, were able to meet in the Division Series. Under the format used from 1998 to 2011, (1) New York would have faced (3) Detroit in one Division Series, and (2) Oakland would have faced (5) Baltimore in the other.