The 2013 American League Championship Series between the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox is an exciting one, marked by close, exciting games. The Tigers upset the Red Sox on the road, 1-0, before succumbing to a late Boston rally in Game Two, 5-6.

The ALCS goes to Comerica Park in Detroit for Games 3 to 5 starting Tuesday. We will give you a recap of the first two games to put Game 3 in its rightful context.

Game One: Playing more like the home team than the Red Sox, the Tigers' pitchers struck out 17 Red Sox batters and combined to keep the Sox hitless until the 8th inning. Anibal Sanchez had 12 strikeouts, pitching for six innings with shutouts. Jhonny Peralta, who had multiple hits (3) in the game, helped Miguel Cabrera, hitting an RBI single in the sixth inning for the only run of the game.

Game Two: Clay Buchholz, the starting pitcher for the Red Sox, was taken off early after allowing one run in the second inning. Boston drew even with a Dustin Pedroia RBI before Detroit came back with a four-run streak of their own, punctuated by home runs by Miguel Cabrera and Alex Avila. All was not lost for Boston, though, as they drew even with a four-run blast, anchored on a David Ortiz in the eighth inning before winning the game on a single in the ninth.

The Detroit Tigers might have had stolen the home-field advantage with the Game One victory, and they intend to keep the Red Sox offense to a standstill. For their part, the Boston Red Sox just want to steal at least one game at Comerica Park in order to force at least a Game Six back at Fenway. Game 3 will be a Battle of the Mound as Boston's John Lackey, a 2002 World Series champ with Anaheim, trades pitches with 2011 Cy Young winner Justin Verlander.

Watch the game LIVE here (10/13/2013 06:07 am AEDT): LINK 1 LINK 2 LINK 3