Game one of the 2013 MLB Playoffs didn’t go the Oakland Athletics way as the Detroit Tigers took advantage of Bartolo Colon struggling in the first inning and a questionable strike zone from Mark Wegner.
Max Scherzer who came in second in the American League in strikeouts to Yu Darvish kept the A’s off-balance for much of the night. He escaped his first jam in the second inning when Yoenis Cespedes tripled with one out, Josh Reddick got the opportunity to drive him in and wound up striking out and Stephen Vogt hit the ball hard, yet lined the ball right into the glove of first basemen Prince Fielder to end the inning.
The only other opportunity to get the crowd going came in the seventh when Brandon Moss reached on an infield single with no outs and Cespedes then homered to pull Oakland within a run. Scherzer settled down and recorded the final three outs to end his night.
Offensively for Detroit all three runs scored came in the first inning. Austin Jackson led the game off with a double, Torii Hunter got hit with a pitch, Miguel Cabrera lined a single up the middle to score Jackson, Prince Fielder grounded into a double play with Hunter scoring, Victor Martinez doubled, Alex Avila hit an infield single that just went under the glove of Daric Barton and Eric Sogard had a chance to make a play on it, yet it bounced into right field allow Martinez to score the third run and Colon got Omar Infante to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Another opportunity that presented a chance for the Tigers to score additional runs didn’t happen thanks to the arm of Josh Reddick who threw out Martinez easily from right field. Colon ended the first and third threat by getting Andy Dirks to pop out.
As for Wegner his strike zone was all over the place and there’s a graph of how bad it was. He mad questionable calls for both starters, yet it seemed that Scherzer got most of the favorable calls. With the one exception the at-bat with Cespedes in the second inning where there was a generous ball call, when it looked like a strike.
One of the most notable examples of the poor calls came when Alberto Callaspo who in 2013 was the hardest hitter in the American League to strike out. He wound up taking a called strike three to start the bottom of the eighth inning even though the pitch from reliever Drew Smyly was blatantly outside. That had an immediate effect on the inning as Coco Crisp drew a walk, so instead of having runners on first and second with no outs and Josh Donaldson at the plate, it was one on with one out.
According to an article from June of 2012 in a game between the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox Wegner missed 38 calls. Begging the question how come he’s umpiring in the playoffs? He also ejected former Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas in the same game he hit his 500th home run.
It’s the second straight game one between the team teams that a favorable strike zone went the Tigers way. Fortunately the A’s don’t have time to dwell on it as game two is on Saturday with rookie Sonny Gray taking on Justin Verlander.
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