ALDS: Tigers force Game 5 with victory over A's

Published Tuesday, Oct 8, 2013 at 8:20 pm EDT
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DETROIT — After scoring six runs over the first three games of the American League division series, the Detroit Tigers came alive late in Game 4 on Tuesday, coming from behind to beat the Oakland A's, 8-6, and force a decisive Game 5 on Thursday night. Here's how it happened, as it happened...

Coco Crisp gets the A's off to a fast start, ripping Doug Fister's second pitch of the game into left-center field for a triple as converted shortstop Jhonny Peralta struggles to make a clean play in the gap. Crisp does not break for home on Josh Donaldson's shallow fly to right field, a decision that is vindicated when Jed Lowrie singles between third and short to bring home the game's first run. Fister avoids further trouble, but comes out of the opening frame having thrown 26 pitches.


It is not at all the start that the Tigers are looking for in an elimination game, and an impatient crowd unleashes a few boos when Austin Jackson strikes out against Dan Straily leading off the bottom of the first. Jackson's five-pitch at-bat represents half of Straily's work in the opening frame, as Torii Hunter strikes out on four pitches, then Miguel Cabrera flies out to the right field warning track on the first offering he sees.

Seth Smith leads off the second inning with a single right up the middleand then Fister airmails a pitch to the backstop to allow him to reach second base. It's Fister's 35th pitch already, and anytime Jim Leyland feels like calling to the bullpen to tell ace Max Scherzer to warm up, it would probably be a good idea. Smith moves to third on a groundout by Josh Reddick, and the Tigers bring the infield in for Stephen Vogt because they cannot afford another run scoring this early in the game. Vogt complies by tapping a grounder back to the mound. After a walk to No. 9 hitter Eric Sogard, Crisp flies out to the warning track in right field, letting Fister off the hook with the score still 1-0, but the righthander's pitch count at 50.

Fister's immediately unmanageable pitch count puts Detroit in a tough spot, but one that the Tigers' hitters can help the team to wriggle away from -- that is, if they wake up. Straily provides a gift by hitting Prince Fielder with a pitch — more accurately, Fielder leans into one -- but then Victor Martinez strikes out and Peralta bounces into a 5-4-3 double play to give Straily a nine-pitch inning.

Things get even worse for the Tigers in the third inning when Miguel Cabrera comes up limping after Josh Donaldson's infield single, but Fister rebounds by getting Lowrie to hit into a 3-6-1 double play and striking out Brandon Moss. It's an eight-pitch inning, and a much-needed one for Fister, whose pitches-per-inning rate dips under 20 -- just barely, but something that bodes well for his continued involvement in the game.

Fister's involvement in the game is irrelevant, however, if the Tigers do not start hitting. Making him throw 12 pitches in another 1-2-3 inning, even if it's his hardest-working inning fo the game, probably does not represent an awakening. The pattern continues in the fourth inning, as Fister works around a two-out double by Reddick, but Straily remains basically untouchable, retiring Jackson, Hunter, and Cabrera on a total of 10 pitches -- bringing his total for the game to 41.

Crisp gets a one-out single in the fifth inning, and two batters later, Lowrie hits a long drive to right field that sends Hunter racing to the wall. He times his leap perfectly, and it looks for a moment like he will re-create his catch from the 2002 All-Star Game, but the ball goes inches over his glove for a two-run homer, and it's 3-0 for the A's, which feels more like 30-0 the way that Straily has breezed through the first four innings.

Fielder ends Straily's dreams of a clinching no-hitter with a flare to left field about two steps out of reach for Yoenis Cespedes, and the Detroit crowd has its first opportunity all day to cheer. Martinez follows with a single between first and second base, and now there's really something cooking for the Tigers. And, in fact, something is cooking. Maybe it wasn't like 30-0 at all, because Peralta blasts a three-run homer to left field that ties the game, rather than cutting Detroit's deficit to 27. Straily avoids further trouble in the inning, but it's a fresh game now.


While the Tigers have newfound life, the earlier pitch-count issues are worth remembering. Straily has thrown 62 through five innings, compared to 87 from Fister. It's not a big deal for Fister, though, as he gets through the A's in order in the sixth, while Scherzer starts warming up in the bullpen.

Straily navigtes around a two-out single by Cabrera, and that's the cue for Scherzer to come in after Fister winds up with a quality start -- three earned runs in six innings. Stephen Vogt welcomes the 21-game winner with a single to right field, and then Sogard sacrifices him to second, giving the Detroit righthander an immediate challenge. Crisp gives the A's the lead back with a single.

After Straily exits, having struck out eight, Sean Doolittle comes in for the A's and immediately coughs up that Oakland lead, giving up a home run to Victor Martinez. Or maybe he doesn't, because there is a video review that shows a fan reaching over the railing in right field and blocking the ball from maybe landing in Reddick's outstretched glove. Upon further review, theh game is indeed tied again, 4-4, which is probably the right call because the ball was cleraly over the yellow line and there is no way to assume that Reddick would have made the catch.

Peralta doubles, and is replaced by Andy Dirks, who represents a defensive upgrade in left field the rest of the way. After Alex Avila strikes out, Omar Infante absolutely crushes a ball to center field, a screaming line drive that goes right into Crisp's glove, although he has to jump a bit. Doolittle then walks Jose Iglesias, giving Jackson a chance at redemption for his three strikeouts in the game and nine in the series.

Jackson goes to 0-2, and then he shatters his bat on a pitch on the inside part of the plate. The ball sails into right field, and all Reddick can do is deflect the short-hop forward as Dirks comes across with the run that gives the Tigers a 5-4 lead. Nine outs from being eliminated when after the seventh inning stretch, Detroit heads to the eighth inning needing only six outs to book a return trip to Oakland for a decisive Game 5.

Before Scherzer can get any of those outs, he walks Brandon Moss, then Cespedes doubles, and then he issues an intentional walk to Seth Smith. Scherzer goes to 3-1 on Reddick, but strikes him out swinging on a nasty pitch in the dirt that would have been ball four, but also is impossible to let pass. Then Scherzer strikes out Vogt with pretty much the same pitch on an 0-2 count. Alberto Callaspo pinch-hits for Sogard and slices a line drive to left field that lands just a few feet foul, taking about 40,000 collective years off lives in Detroit. Scherzer gets to 1-2, and towels wave, and noise builds, and Scherzer throws ball two. Towels wave again, noise builds again, and Scherzer misses low and inside. With the count full, the towel-waving, noise-building process repeats itself, and this time, Scherzer throws a good one -- Callaspo hits a line drive to center field that Jackson runs down, and the escape is complete. The Tigers move one inning closer to that return trip to Oakland.

Ryan Cook takes the mound for the A's in the bottom of the eighth and adeptly handles the unenviable task of facing Cabrera and Fielder before Martinez rips a single to right field. That brings up Peralta's replacement Dirks in an effort to grab an insurance run, and he hdraws a walk on a full count. Desperate to hold the Tigers' lead to one run, Bob Melvin calls to the bullpen for Brett Anderson. A walk to Avila loads the bases for Infante, andn then Anderson uncorks a wild pitch to bring home Hernan Perez, pinch-running for Martinez. That turns out not to matter so much when Infante hits a double that would have cleared the bases anyway. It's 8-4 Tigers, and their lineup slumber feels like eons ago.

Even though it is not a save situation, Jim Leyland calls on his closer, Joaquin Benoit, for the ninth inning. Crisp singles, but that is not a rebirth of drama now that it's a four-run game. Donaldson strikes out, but then Lowrie walks, and a nervous murmur buzzes through the crowd. Benoit settles that some by getting Moss to ground out to first base. Cespedes sends a two-run single to center, and the tying run comes to the plate, represented by Seth Smith. It takes eight pitches, but Benoit finally gets Smith to strike out swinging and extend the series to one more game.