The Tigers got incredibly lucky today with thanks to not one but THREE errors from Brandon Crawford, and some VERY successful at-bats, but man alive what a fun game.
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s take a look at how the game unfolded.
Lorenzen was on the mound for the Tigers and didn’t do too much to impress. Wade Jr walked to start the first inning, Estrada singled, then Davis got a one-out single to score Wade Jr. A Beaty groundout then scored Estrada, putting the Giants up 2-0 early. The Tigers went down in order in the bottom of the inning.
A one-out Bart single put a man on in the second then a Sabol homer scored them both and the Giants were ahead 4-0 which will always give me Game 1 of the 2012 World Series flashbacks. Kerry Carpenter got one back in the bottom of the second with a solo home run to kick things off.
Unfortunately the Giants weren’t messing around and took that run right back. Yastrzemski singled to start the third and a Davis home run scored them both. Giants up 6-1. Lorenzen gave up another walk and single in the inning but no additional runs scored. Tigers went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the inning.
The fourth was quiet for both teams. Onto the fifth and new pitcher Holton was on for the Tigers and managed to keep things quick with a single and a few fielder’s choice groundouts. Bottom of the fifth Baddoo got a one-out single, then a McKinstry double scored Baddoo. Crawford bobbled a toss (his first error of the game) allowing Haase to easily reach first base. Then shortly thereafter Crawford made another error allowing a pitch to just drift through his legs out to left field. What should have been a fielder’s choice allowed McKinstry to score and Haase to get safely to second, and the Tigers were further ahead.
The sixth and seventh went scoreless, though we did get a THIRD fielding error from Crawford, so really not his day.
Bottom of the eighth things got very interesting and fun. Maton singled, Greene walked, and then Javier Baez parked himself at home plate and had a LENGTHY at-bat which he eventually won with a perfectly placed double to left, scoring both Maton and Greene and making this a much closer.
Baez advanced to third on a nice flyout from Carpenter. A Torkelson base hit then scored Baez and… what’s this? A tie game? Baddoo stole second with two outs, to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. The Tigers weren’t able to manage the go-ahead, but they did tie things up at 6-6 which is not a sentence I thought I’d write today.
Lange came on for the Tigers hoping to keep things scoreless and get the Tigers to the bottom of the ninth to hopefully walk things off, and he did just that.
Haase got a walk to start things off, followed by two outs. Alas Greene couldn’t be the hero, but the game was headed for extras.
The tenth was quiet for both clubs. And the Tigers kept the Giants at bay in the top of the 11th, then for the second time in two nights the Tigers walked it off in the eleventh with Miggy at the plate.
Final: Tigers 7, Giants 6