Detroit’s offense was as bad as its been all season. Four hits entering the bottom of the 8th against Jeff Niemann, whose stuff strikes me as more of a rec. leaguer’s than a Major League pitcher, but Tigers hitters have loved making pitchers look better than they really are all season.
Luckily, Clete Thomas would have none of it and picked up his third hit of the ballgame in the 8th to knock Niemann out. Grant (Ed?) Balfour was brought in just as I heard the Black Eyed Peas start singing “Let’s Get Retarded” in my head.
After getting the first two outs, Balfour lost his control, walked Granderson, and along came Placido Polanco, the go-ahead run, to the plate. Balfour immediately fell behind 2-0 on Polly, to which Rod Allen said “was asking for trouble.”
On cue, Polly turned on an inside pitch and put it up into that wind that has been carrying balls out to left and sailed it just over the wall in left. 4-3 Tigers and an ensuing 80 second dance party!! (Also, Rod Allen nearly blew out my speakers as he yelped, “I TOLD YOU THEY’D BE ASKING FOR TROUBLE!”).
Then the Tigers turned to Fernando Rodney for the 9th, but he was not ready to pitch yet. Luckily, he was helped out by some trickery from Jim Leyland, who told Verlander to go out for the 9th and pretend like he was going to pitch. Anyone who knows baseball at all knew Verlander wasn’t going to start the inning — he was at 125 pitches already (just two less than his season high), he was sandbagging his warmups, and the most telling thing for me was that he had his post-outing Lips McGip in (chewing tobacco for those not up on the lingo). At the end of the warmups, Leyland then walked slowly to the hill to pull Verlander. A crafty move by the wily veteran manager to get his closer prepped. In college, our manager would always tell the catcher to fake an equipment malfunction in the dugout and take his time, which is also a good move because obviously you can’t start without your catcher. I digress.
Rodney then closed the door in what was a rather uneventful ninth. 1-base hit-2-3. It was Rodney’s 29th save in 30 opportunities this season. It helped Verlander pick up his 15th win of the season which is tied with CC Sabathia for the AL Lead.
Detroit now leads the Twins by 5 games in the AL Central, and if the Rangers hold their current 3-2 lead, the Tigers will increase the lead to 5.5 games. It’s looking more and more like Detroit will be headed to the playofs and it’s wins like today that are the difference maker.
Go Tigers!
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