Tigers, A's head to decisive game 5.

Four games in and were still tied, heading back to Oakland for game 5.  I think most people thought that these two teams were very evenly matched going into the series and that the series was destined to go the distance, though many in Detroit must have been very worried about that becoming a reality half way through game 4.  Game 5 starters should be Verlander and Colon, one goes on, one goes home.  Lets break down the two games played in Detroit:

Game 3:  Oakland 6, Detroit 3.
Detroit had Anibal Sanchez on the mound, having split with Oakland on the road, looking to take command of the series at home.  Instead, Sanchez couldn't find his command as Oakland's bats got hot and the A's forced the Tigers to the brink of elimination in their home ball park.  The A's love hitting in Comerica park.  In late August, the A's scored 34 runs in 4 game set in Detroit and if it wasn't for a four run 9th inning in the series finale, Oakland would have swept the Tigers.  The A's power came up huge tonight, hitting three homeruns off Sanchez, who was the AL ERA king and only allowed nine home runs all season.  The A's started the scoring in the third, after Coco Crisp walked and stole second base, Cabrera couldn't stay in front of a hard hit ball off the bat of Cespedes and the error allowed Crisp to score from second base.  Oakland added to the lead in the 4th when Reddick took Sanchez deep, then Vogt tripled and was driven home on Coco Crisps sac fly, extending the lead to 3-0.  The Tigers offense all came in one inning, scoring three runs in an inning for the second time in the series, but those are the only two innings the Tigers have scored in, in the first three games.  That's 25 of 27 scoreless innings.  Jarrod Parker was solid outside of the 4th inning when Torii Hunter lead off with a single, then went first to third on Prince Fielder's base hit.  Martinez doubled home Hunter, before Peralta brought home the pair on base hit to tie the game at three.  Sanchez came back out for the 5th and for the third inning in a row the A's scored as Anibal gave up a home run to Moss, a single to Cespedes and a home run to Seth Smith and the Tigers were again down 3 runs.  In a lot of outings this season, Sanchez would have picked up a win if the Tigers gave him three runs, but today was a much different pitcher then the guy who won 14 games this season.  The Tigers offense grounded into two momentum killing double plays in the 5th and 6th innings and outside of the 4th inning, didn't have a runner advance past first the rest of the game.  Jose Alverez came in in relief of Sanchez after the Smith home run and pitched three scoreless innings, saving the Tigers bullpen for game 4 and beyond.  Leyland has taken heat for not bringing in Alverez to face smith with Sanchez having reach 100+ pitches, but Leyland has decided to back his players and staff in tough situations all season, win or loss.  Veras did a nice job working out of trouble in the 9th to record four outs without giving up a run.  Parker pitched five innings but Bob Melvin turned the game over to his bullpen despite Parker throwing just 73 pitches.  Oakland's bullpen has been a strength all year so I don't blame him.  Otero, Doolittle and Balfour came in to pitch four innings of shut out ball, though things got heated late, as Victor Martinez and Grant Balfour got into a shouting match in the 9th inning, the benches and bullpens cleared but cooler heads prevailed as no one was ejected, but both teams were warned.  Balfour has a warrior mentality on the mound and often talks and yells to motivate himself, but that act gets under peoples skin easily and with so much at stake, Martinez let the Oakland closer know he wasn't going to be intimidated. 

Game 4:  Detroit 8, Oakland 6.
The Tigers faced elimination at home in game four, and while many were calling for max Scherzer to start, Leyland had no intension of going away from Fister as his game 4 starter.  Fister got off to a rough start, giving up a leadoff triple to Coco Crisp, and a single to left by Lowrie drove home the first inning run, staking Oakland to an early 1-0 lead.  The Detroit offense was absent once again, going hitless through the first 4 innings.  Austin Jackson struggled early, striking out in his first three at-bats, bringing his strikeout total to ten so far in the series.  Oakland starter Straily doesn't really through that hard, 90-91 mph with his fastball, but the Tigers couldn't seem to catch up with it.  Fister held the deficit to just one until the 5th inning when Crisp singled and Lowrie once again brought him home, this time with a two run homerun that just sailed over the glove of a leaping Torii Hunter, stretching the A's lead to 3-0.  The Tigers needed offense in a bad way and Prince Fielder led off the 5th inning with the Tigers first hit of the game, a bloop single to left.  Martinez then singled to right and Jhonny Peralta took a 2-2 fastball deep and out to left to tie the game at 3.  It was the spark the Tigers offense needed.  Max Scherzer came in to relieve Doug Fister  in the 7th, Fister made it through six innings giving up just the three runs and kept the Tigers in the game.  Scherzer came in and quickly gave up the lead, as Crisp singled in Vogt, who lead off the inning with a single and was sacrificed over to second base.  Again the Tigers offense responded in the 7th inning as Victor Martinez hit a high fly ball the opposite way to right field off Doolittle, Josh Riddick went back to the wall and leapt to make the catch but two Tigers fans reached over the railing and interfered with the play.  The ball was well over the yellow home run line, but would Reddick have caught the ball without the fans interference, we will never know.  I personally think the ball would have hit the railing above his glove, but the fact the the umpires called it a home run on the field was huge when they went to replay because there was no way of being able to tell if he would have caught the ball or not to overturn the call.  Peralta kept the momentum going with a double past the diving Donaldson down the third base line and Andy Dirks came in to pinch run for Peralta, who was the offensive catalyst for the Tigers for both games in Detroit.  Avila struck out, Infante lined out, but Jose Iglesias walked bringing up Jackson with two outs.  Jackson fought off some tough fastballs and eventually was able to muscle an inside fastball over the second baseman's head into right field to bring Andy Dirks home from second to give the Tigers their first lead since game 1.  The Tigers took that 5-4 lead into the 8th when Max Scherzer loaded the bases with no outs and Jim Leyland's strategy looked to be backfiring in his face.  But Leyland gets credit for leaving Max out there, and on what might be the most important pitch of the Tigers season, Scherzer struck out Reddick on a 3-2 change up, low and inside to the lefty, on what would have been ball 4 to walk in a run.  Scherzer then struck out Vogt, and pinch hitter Callaspo lined a hard hit ball to Jackson in centerfield as Scherzer worked his way out of the bases loaded jam.  The Tigers would tack on some insurance runs in the 8th inning as a single-walk-walk combination loaded the bases and a wild pitch by Ryan Cook brought home the pinch runner Perez from third, then Infante doubled down the third base line to plate two more runs, as the Tigers now led 8-4.  Benoit came on to close the game in the 9th, gave up a single to Crisp, a single to Lowrie and a single to Cespedes to cut the lead to 8-6.  Benoit would strike out Seth Smith after a long at bat to close the game, sending the series back to the bay area.      


Series notes:

• We will see what happens in game 5 but Balfour may have awoken a sleeping giant at the end of game 3.
• Again we will see how the Tigers fair the rest of the way but that 8th inning by Max, especially the 3-2 change up to Reddick, could be history changing.
• If the Tigers win in Oakland it will be interesting to see how Leyland will set up the first two games of the ALCS.  JV would be the game three starter on normal rest with Fister in game 4, but will Max be ready to go in game 1 on Saturday night on three days rest after throwing 47 pitches or will Sanchez get the ball after a bad outing in game 3 against Oakland.  It obviously falls on Max, if the Tigers think he can give them 100 plus pitches, he's the guy, if not they go with Sanchez.
• I picked the Tigers in 5.  I'm sticking with it.