Predicting the outcomes of games is a good way to hear the Baseball Gods laugh. I remember remarking on the way to the ballpark that with Justin Verlander on the mound, we would most likely lose but at least get to see a well-pitched game. Neither prediction proved true.
The Tigers went right to work on Luis Mendoza in the first, scoring three on a single, a double and a home run. But then miracle of miracles, we got all three runs back in the bottom of the inning. Perhaps Verlander was suffering some temporary thing? Nope. In the bottom of the second we scored another four, playing solid station-to-station offense and batting around the order.
Alas, Detroit cut our lead to one run in the top of the third. After that things calmed down a bit, with both pitchers throwing shut-out ball for a couple of innings.
We widened the lead a smidge in the sixth as Jarrod Dyson drew an unlikely lead-off walk. Alcides Escobar grounded into what looked for all the world like a double play, but the umpire ruled Dyson safe at second. An intentional walk to Billy Butler turned out to be a mistake when Salvador Perez doubled in Dyson. And that was it for Verlander, sad victim of whatever voodoo curse Amy put on him.
The Tigers scored one in the seventh and one in the eighth (the latter a solo shot by Jhonny “Wrong H” Peralta. So the bottom of the eighth found us tied.
Not for long. Billy Butler singled, and no sooner did I mutter “pinch for him” then out came Lorenzo Cain to do just that. Cain stole second and scored on a double by Mike Moustakas.
If a four-run lead isn’t safe at the K, then the one-run lead we took to the top of the ninth was yet another edge-of-our-seats moment. Greg Holland, who now serves as our closer, announced his intention to keep things interesting by walking lead-off batter Austin Jackson. The runner advanced to second on a ground-out by Andy Dirks and then took third on a wild pitch. The Royals opted to intentionally walk Prince Fielder and try their luck with Delmon Young.
And that’s when things got interesting, assuming a bunch of football-ass nonsense can be called “interesting.” Young smacked a long foul to right, and out trotted Jim Leyland to claim it was actually a home run. Now, first base ump Tim Barrett had clearly been looking right at it, and in that location the foul pole helps make it an easy call. But no, we had to do the replay thing.
This points out a significant difference between the replay appeal in the NFL and the way our wonderful sport handles it: in football, there’s a penalty for appealing a call that turns out to have been right to begin with (the appellant loses a time out or some such). But here Leyland has no reason to not disrupt the flow of the game and ice our pitcher with some frivolous nonsense. If he’d been penalized an out for his bogus challenge, odds are he would have stayed in the dugout.
In any event, the outcome was the same. The call was upheld, and Young flew out to left on the next pitch. One more crazy game on the books.
The box score:
TIGERS (8) AT ROYALS (9)
TIGERS AB R H BI ROYALS AB R H BI
Austin Jackson 3 3 3 0 Jarrod Dyson 3 2 1 0
Andy Dirks 5 1 1 1 Alcides Escobar 5 1 2 1
Miguel Cabrera 5 1 2 1 Alex Gordon 5 2 2 2
Prince Fielder 3 1 1 2 Billy Butler 4 1 3 2
Delmon Young 5 1 1 2 Salvador Perez 5 1 2 1
Alex Avila 4 0 1 1 Mike Moustakas 5 0 3 3
Jhonny Peralta 4 1 1 1 Jeff Francoeur 4 0 0 0
Omar Infante 4 0 0 0 Eric Hosmer 4 0 0 0
Quintin Berry 4 0 0 0 Johnny Giavotella 4 1 2 0
*Lorenzo Cain 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 37 8 10 8 TOTALS 39 9 15 9
TIGERS 303 000 110 -- 8
ROYALS 340 001 01x -- 9
LOB--TIGERS 6, ROYALS 11. 2B--Prince Fielder, Andy Dirks,
Alex Gordon (2), Mike Moustakas, Salvador Perez (2).
HR--Jhonny Peralta, Delmon Young. SB--Austin Jackson,
Lorenzo Cain.
TIGERS IP H R ER BB SO HR
Justin Verlander 5 2-3 12 8 8 3 6 0
Darin Downs 0 1-3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brayan Villarreal 1 2-3 2 1 1 1 2 0
Phil Coke 0 1-3 1 0 0 1 1 0
ROYALS
Luis Mendoza 5 7 6 6 1 4 1
Kelvin Herrera 1 2-3 2 1 1 0 2 0
Tim Collins 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Aaron Crow 1 1-3 1 1 1 0 3 1
Greg Holland 1 0 0 0 2 1 0
WP--Brayan Villarreal, Greg Holland, Kelvin Herrera.
SO--Jhonny Peralta, Miguel Cabrera, Delmon Young (2), Alex
Avila (3), Quintin Berry (2), Andy Dirks, Jeff Francoeur
(2), Billy Butler, Alex Gordon (2), Alcides Escobar, Jarrod
Dyson, Eric Hosmer (2). BB--Prince Fielder (2), Austin
Jackson (2), Jeff Francoeur, Billy Butler, Jarrod Dyson (2),
Eric Hosmer.
LOCATION: The K
CONDITION: Dry
WEATHER: Warm, Clear
Buck seat: W (charity eye care)
Guard: Navy
Anthem: Ponderous
Umpires:
H: Cuzzi 1: Barrett 2: Gonzalez 3: Gibson Time: 7:10 Temp: 94
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