If the Yankees come back in the ninth inning, will anyone be around to see it?

Judging from our TV pictures, it looks like most of the fans who left their seats during a seventh-inning downpour just kept on heading home, with their club trailing 4-0.

And without more than a smattering of fans in the stands, will anyone believe it if the Yankees do come back?

After all, during the regular season the Tigers went 77-0 in games they led after seven innings. Of course, nothing lasts forever. But a four-run deficit is huge against almost any club, and the Tigers' bullpen is better than average.

Curtis Granderson did get things started with a leadoff home run in the eighth, as Joaquín Benoit -- who'd pitched brilliantly to escape a seventh-inning jam -- left a fastball over the plate and Granderson, as he's done so many times in 2011, crushed it.

But Benoit recovered to retire Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira. And in the ninth, the Yankees will need at least three runs against José Valverde, who hasn't blown a save yet in 2011.