The Tigers came into the weekend series with the White Sox with an outside chance of clinching the central division championship for the third straight year. Lets break down how the games played out:
Game 1: Tigers 12, White Sox 5.
Max Scherzer finally converted win number 20 as the offense exploded against spot starter Dylan Axelrod, scoring 7 runs in the first 3 innings, spotting Max to a commanding lead. The Tigers actually trailed 1-0 as the White Sox got on the board in the first inning when De Aza lead off with a double and advanced to third after a wild pitch allowed Ramirez to reach first base on strike three. Conor Gillaspie's sac fly scored the run but Scherzer was helped out by Ramirez as he tried to steal second and took off too early and was tagged out in the rundown. From there the Tigers took control, Axelrod just doesn't have good enough stuff to get the Tigers hitters out on any sort of consistent basis as the tigers tacked on the next seven runs to blow open the game. White Sox manager Robin Ventura intentionally walked Victor Martinez twice in the game, but he probably should have just walked him all night as Martinez homered and singled in his other at-bats. Every Tigers starter had at least one hit, Tori hunter lead the way with 4 hits and 3 runs driven in. Prince Fielder continued his torrid September where he is hitting .387 for the month, having reached base in every game but one. He has 7 doubles in 75 at-bats. While the offense was electric, the biggest story of the game goes back to Max's quest for the Cy Young. He has one scheduled start left to make against Minnesota with a chance to pick up his 21st win of the year against just 3 loses. If he keeps his era under 3.00 with the amount of strike outs he has racked up and with no other pitcher really taking the lead from him over the past 3 weeks as Scherzer labored to pick up his 20th victory, Max should be the odds on favorite to win the AL Cy Young award. Just last season there was a 20 game winner in each league that did not win the Cy Young as Jared Weaver and Gio Gonzalez both finished third in there respectively leagues. While 20 wins certainly doesn't guarantee you the Cy Young, this year however, it should be enough to get max over the top. at 12-3 Jim Leyland decided to empty his bench in the 7th and 8th innings.
Game 2: Tigers 7, White Sox 6.
Game of the year! I was going to bash Leyland for not bringing in Benoit in the top of the 9th to keep the game 3-0 with the heart of the order due up when he had him warm, but things turned out all right in the end. Had it only been 3-0, we most likely would have seen Addison Reed off the bat in the 9th and Nate Jones probably isn't out there to implode, so Leyland's decision paid off in hind sight. Good job Skip. First off, hats off to both Rick Porcello and Chris Sale, both starters were fantastic and efficient. The bullpens however, not so much. Jose Veras came in and gave up a run in the 8th and Bonderman relieved him and gave up three more in the 9th, staking the white Sox to a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th. In the 9th, Torii hunter lead off with a triple and came in to score after a Cabrera single. Fielder followed by singling to left then Victor Martinez doubled down the right field line, scoring Cabrera, 6-2 White Sox. Andy Dirks pinch hit for Tuiasosopo and took the first pitch he saw into the stands beyond the right field wall for a 3 run homerun. 6-5 White Sox. Addison Reed took over for Jones who gave up 5 runs on 5 hits and recorded 0 outs in the 9th. Reed proceeded to walk Infante, Avila and Jackson to load the bases. Torii Hunter's sac fly tied the game at 6. Miguel Cabrera was walked and Donnie veal came in and retired Fielder to end a wild 9th inning. Benoit and Alburquerque were great for the Tigers in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. Infante played the hero after walks to Kelley, Martinez, and Dirks loaded the bases, Omar hit a grounder off the glove of White Sox pitcher Jake Perticka allowing the run to score from third and the Tigers walked off 7-6 winners. Unbelievable comeback, great win for the Tigers. I was a huge Randy Johnson fan as a kid, and Chirs Sale is the closest thing I have seen to the Big Unit, mostly because he is left handed with that wicked slider. If Sale was throwing 98-99 with his fastball instead of 92-94, it would be scary. At the time it was just a nice play but when you look back at the result, Matt Tuiasosopo made a diving catch in left field to end the threat in the 7th inning, keeping the game within reach. Since the Boston meltdown, Alburquerque has been really good, not allowing an earned run in 6 innings spanning 6 appearances while striking out 7 and only allowing 3 base runners.
Game 3: White Sox 6, Tigers 3.
Just twelve days ago, Chicago starter Erik Johnson faced the Tigers in his second big league start of his career and was punished by one of the best offensive teams in baseball, giving up 6 runs and failing to make it out of the fourth inning. Apparently he is a quick study as he allowed just two runs over six and two thirds this time around. The Tigers put a lot of balls in play as Johnson only recorded one strike out, but he changed speeds effectively, located his fastball and got help from his usually suspect defense to pick up his second win since being called up in early September. It felt like the Tigers were sleep walking through this game, and really they were lucky to have taken this series as the play didn't seem sharp over the weekend. Infante committed his second error in two games and the usually reliable Austin Jackson misread a ball hit straight at him and the ball got over his head and scored two runs in the fifth to give the White Sox a 3-1 lead. A lot of damage was done in this series by former tiger Avisail Garcia as he upped his average from .276 going into the series to .289 leaving Detroit, having collected 7 hits, 5 RBI's and a stolen base. The tigers offense was quiet until Prince lifted off in the 4th inning to tie the score with a mammoth home run to left but Alex Avila was the only Tigers hitter to have any sustained success, going 3-3 with a double to add to his outstanding September numbers. The bullpen was uninspiring as Leyland decided to go with the leftovers after the 12 inning comeback win the night before, as Evan Reed and Darin Downs came in to pitch the final four innings as the lead expanded to 6-1 in the 7th. The Tigers had a chance in the 7th to cut into the 5 run deficit but Torii Hunter pinch hit and lined out with the bases loaded to end the threat. The offense tried to start another 9th inning rally as Brayan Pena and Infante lead off with back to back hits but the rally fell well short tonight. Anibal Sanchez wasn't as sharp today as he had been in previous starts but one thing I have noticed with him over his last few starts is that he is throwing to many pitches looking for the swing and miss, and if the hitter isn't fooled they simply take the pitch and work the count. Sanchez threw 99 pitches in 5 innings today, 125 in 6 and a third innings his last start. Those numbers equate to a 19.7 pitches per inning average, which is well over the 15-17 range for efficiency per inning. He hasn't been bad so we are being picky, but we have come to expect a great performance every time out from this tigers starting rotation.
Series notes:
- I was looking at the Beane Count on ESPN.com and it was pretty interesting that in both the National and American Leagues all five teams that will make the playoffs in each league were ranked in the top 6 in their respective leagues in the Beane Count. In the National league the team not making the playoffs is actually the 6th best team record wise, the Washington Nationals. In the AL however its the Minnesota Twins, who are third to last record wise in the AL, and have scored the second fewest runs with the second worst era in the league.
- Tigers pitching surrendered 11 walks in the 29 innings this series. That's nearly a walk per game higher then their season average of 2.8 walks per game allowed.
- Detroit pitching has also now given up 124 stolen bases, second most in the AL behind Boston. But they have by far the worst caught stealing percentage, throwing out a league worse 18% of attempted stolen bases.
- Tigers pitchers have now struck out 1353 batters, the AL record is 1383 and the overall record is 1404. They have a great shot, needing just 8.5 strikeouts per game over the final 6 games.
- Miguel Cabrera sat out game three on Sunday with a sore groin. He is listed as day to day. If the Tigers win the division, they wont start the playoffs until the 4th of October, thats 12 days for Miggy to get healthy.
- There were a lot of suspect calls this series. Jackson hit a ball that looked like Danks may have caught but was ruled a hit. Gillaspie was ruled to have beaten out a double play at first base but it looked like he was out on replay. Alexei Ramirez was in a hurry to turn a double play, missed stepping on second base completely but the runner was still called out. With how old fashion and stingy baseball is to change you would think getting the details correct would matter to them.
- Magic number is still 2.
Next up:
The Tigers finish the last week of the season on the road with three games at Minnesota and three games at Miami.
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