ALCS GAME 3

Tigers 3

A’s 0

DETROIT – All you had to do was listen to the 41,669 fans chanting “Kenny! Kenny!” at Comerica Park last night to understand the amazing transformation of Kenny Rogers.

Rogers was dazzling again, pitching 71/3 innings in the Tigers’ 3-0 victory over the Athletics in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. The upstart Tigers can sweep away the A’s today and head to its first World Series since 1984.

That was two years after the Rangers took Rogers in the 39th round of the draft. Now, 3,066 major-league innings later, Rogers has found October happiness.

The veteran left-hander bedeviled the A’s just as he shut down the Yankees in the Division Series. Rogers has not allowed a run this postseason over 15 innings.

Yes, this is the same Kenny Rogers who once wore Yankees and Mets uniforms. A baseball life can have its rewards if you persevere. In the clubhouse, after most of the media had left, Rogers talked in emotional terms about what this postseason has meant to him.

“It’s like a big reward for hanging in there and persevering through all the things that go on in a big-league career, with last year and all that,” Rogers said humbly. “It’s rewarding to be able to say you withstood all that and you’ve come out of that tunnel and you’re better for it.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he added. “I was supposed to come to Detroit. I’m in a city that appreciates what I do, playing with teammates I can’t say enough about.”

Rogers surrendered two hits and struck out six. When he left the mound with a runner on first and one out in the eighth, he acknowledged the warm cheers on the cold day by taking off his cap, waving to the crowd, then twirling around as if to thank each and every towel-waving fan in the park.

This series unofficially ended when the A’s lost two games in Oakland. No team in LCS history had lost the first two games at home and bounced back to win the series.

Rogers and the elements psychologically beat the A’s from the start yesterday. The temperature was 42 degrees at the time of the first pitch. When the A’s took the field for batting practice with a strong wind ripping across the field, shortstop Marco Scutaro wore a scarf around his face. For part of the game he wore an A’s wool hat over his baseball cap.

There were eight hits, and the plucky Tigers pushed across two runs in the first against losing pitcher Rich Harden on an RBI single by Placido Polanco and a fielder’s choice grounder by Magglio Ordonez. Craig Monroe homered leading off the fifth to ice it.

Of the 81 outs recorded this series by Tigers pitchers, 24 have been by strikeouts. The A’s barely can put the ball in play against this spectacular staff.

Rogers, 41, came into this October 1-3 in postseason play with a 6.43 ERA. With the Yankees and Mets he was 0-3 in the postseason. But all that has changed. He is more aggressive and more animated. And his command has been perfect. It’s all paying off.

“I feel like using my emotions instead of trying to control them,” Rogers said of his new approach.

Detroit manager Jim Leyland, who has seen his share of postseason pitching greatness, said of Rogers’ performance: “Nobody could have pitched better than what Kenny has pitched the last two outings, including John Smoltz, who is the best postseason pitcher I’ve ever seen.”

Pitching wins in October – and Rogers is leading the way for the Tigers.