No national anthem, all Yankees.

Robinson Cano hit a grand slam and drove in six runs, rookie Ivan Nova pitched brilliantly into the ninth inning in an unusual relief appearance and New York shook off a 23-hour rain delay to beat the visiting Detroit Tigers 9-3 in their suspended playoff opener Saturday night.

A day after rain wiped out aces Justin Verlander and CC Sabathia after only 1-1/2 innings, the game resumed in the bottom of the second with two new pitchers on the mound.

Cano barely missed a homer on his tiebreaking double in the fifth and New York broke it open with a six-run sixth against losing pitcher Doug Fister. Brett Gardner had a two-run single with two outs to make it 4-1 and, moments later, Cano connected off Al Alburquerque for his fourth grand slam since Aug. 11.

"I always say things happen for a reason," Cano said. "We couldn't play last night, but we played today and we ended up winning the game."

Freddy Garcia starts for New York today (noon, TNT) in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League division series. Max Scherzer gets the ball for the Tigers, who will try to rebound the same way they did against the Yankees in 2006.

That year, Detroit dropped the series opener in New York before winning three straight to stun the heavily favored Yankees in the first round. Game 2 of that playoff was postponed a day by rain. This time, it took two nights to finish the opener.

Along with Curtis Granderson, Cano is one of New York's two leading contenders for AL MVP - and he showed why. Yankees manager Joe Girardi moved the slugger up from fifth to third in the lineup for the playoffs to get him more protection and pitches to hit.

Smart move so far.

Cano added a run-scoring double in the eighth to tie a club record for RBIs in a postseason game. His seventh career postseason homer was the 11th slam in Yankees postseason history and the first since Ricky Ledee connected in the 1999 AL championship series against Boston.

Rangers 8, Rays 6: At Arlington, Texas, with Texas fans chanting his name, Mike Napoli kept fouling off pitches until getting the big hit after James Shields had hit two batters.

Then Tampa Bay's starter really got wild.

After Napoli's two-run single, Shields threw a pair of wild pitches to the same batter. One of the balls in the dirt sent home the tiebreaking run in a five-run fourth inning for the Rangers in a win that evened the AL division series at a game apiece.

The defending American League champion Rangers were finally on the board in the game - and in the series after being held to two hits in the opener by 22-year-old rookie left-hander Matt Moore and two 20-something relievers in Tampa Bay's first-ever postseason shutout.

"It was very satisfying because Tampa has some great pitching over there, and pitching usually settles down a great offense," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "But we kept grinding and kept grinding, and, you know, I think we got our confidence back."

This time, the home team finally won a postseason game between the Rangers and Rays.

Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Monday in Tampa. Colby Lewis pitches for the Rangers against David Price.

Brewers 4, Diamondbacks 1: Yovani Gallardo could barely see the return tosses from catcher Jonathan Lucroy, losing them in the bright light filtering through the windows at Miller Park.

Imagine how the Diamondbacks felt.

Gallardo emerged from the shadows, outpitching Arizona ace Ian Kennedy as Milwaukee kept winning at home with a victory in their NL division series opener.

"It was tough for me seeing the ball coming back, just having the sun there in the background. I was just hoping Luc didn't throw one at my face," Gallardo, who knew the shadows would play a role late. "When you have the lead, for myself, I was just going to keep going out and be aggressive knowing little things like that."

Prince Fielder chased Kennedy with a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh inning, helping erase the stigma that the big slugger's playoffs would be anything like 2008, when he went 1 for 14.

Game 2 is today (1:30 p.m., TBS, KVNI 1080) at Milwaukee. Zack Greinke will start for Milwaukee against Daniel Hudson.

Phillies 11, Cardinals 6: Ryan Howard took a mighty cut, dropped his bat and admired the shot.

The big slugger didn't go down looking in a clutch spot this time, Roy Halladay overcame a shaky start and host Philadelphia beat St. Louis in the opener of their NL division series.

Howard shook off his season-ending strikeout last October in the championship series to hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in a five-run sixth inning, sending Citizens Bank Park into a frenzy.

"I left last year in the past," Howard said. "You can't let what happened last year affect this year. It's a fresh start."

Halladay retired his last 21 batters, and the NL East champions began their all-or-nothing postseason run with a comeback win.

Game 2 is tonight (5 p.m., TBS, KVNI 1080) at Philadelphia, with Cliff Lee pitching for the Phillies against Chris Carpenter, who is starting on three days' rest.