September 2009

October Surprise Part 4: Bullpen Collapses in Game 3

As the Tigers and Twins square off for the biggest series of the year with the division title hanging in the balance, we continue our look back on the last great race in Tigers history: 1987 and the seven games against the Toronto Blue Jays in the season’s final 10 days. Today: Game 3.

Part 1 – Tigers and Jays Battle for ’87 Division Title
Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1
Part 3 – Game 2 Skips Away

American League East Standings: September 26, 1987

Team	Record	Pct.	GB
Toronto	95-59	.617	â€“
Detroit	92-61	.601	2.5

If the Tigers suffered any ill effects from the previous two games, they certainly didnâ€™t show it in the third game of the series.

Detroit pummeled Torontoâ€™s ace Dave Steib, tagging the right-hander for six runs on four hits in just 2.1 innings. Matt Nokes drove in six runs in his first two at bats: a first-inning two-run homer and a grand slam in the third.

The Blue Jays were having nearly as much fun with Detroit starter Walt Terrell. In his 2.1 innings, the Blue Jays came up with four runs on seven hits. The Tigers attacked five additional Toronto hurlers for a 9-4 lead in the fifth inning. Toronto wouldnâ€™t go away quietly, tacking on three more runs. Heading into the bottom half of the ninth Detroit clung to a 9-7 lead.

Continue reading “October Surprise Part 4: Bullpen Collapses in Game 3”

Game 156: Microcosm

ESPN highlights available here.

The Score: Twins 3 – Tigers 2, 10 innings

The Gist: Stop us if you heard this one: The Tigers had plenty of baserunners but a dearth of clutch hitters. Rick Porcello was lights-out for the Tigers over six-and-a-third innings but his offense made Nick Blackburn look like Bert Blyleven. And just like that, the Tigers’ lead is one game. Blackburn retired 12 Tigers in a row at one point as the offense hibernated.

The View: All year long I’ve been wanting to say that this team has no heart. But a team that spends the better part of four months in first place deserves the benefit of the doubt. Until now. Who cares that they rallied back from a 5-0 deficit against the White Sox three days ago? The Tigers had a chance today to make a statement — about the series and the season — and they did: “We can’t hit.”

The Quote: “[crickets]” — The Tigers’ offense.

The Stat: 100 – Joe Nathan‘s save percentage against the Tigers in 30 attempts.

Up Next: Twins @ Tigers – Game 2 Tonight – 7 p.m. ET

Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.41 ERA) vs. Brian Duensing (5-1, 3.33)

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October Surprise Part 3: Game 2 Skips Away

Part 1 – October Surprise: Tigers and Jays Battle for ’87 Division Title
Part 2 – Showdown in Toronto, Game 1

American League East Standings

September 25, 1987

Team	Record	Pct.	GB
Toronto	94-59	.614	â€“
Detroit	92-60	.605	1.5

Tigers left hander Frank Tanana had been in one divisional race in his 14-year career: in 1979 when he helped the California Angels win their first American League West title. In 1987, Tanana approached the twilight of his career but Toronto starter Jimmy Keyâ€™s best days were just dawning. Key had won 14 games in each of his first two years as a starter and in 1987 he would finish second in A.L. Cy Young voting, posting a 17-8 record and 2.76 ERA.

For the second straight night, the Tigers produced a two-run lead. In the Tigersâ€™ second, Chet Lemon doubled and Darrell Evans singled him home. Later, in the sixth, Kirk Gibson bunted for a base hit and took second on Keyâ€™s wild throw to first. Larry Herndon followed with a single to left scoring Gibson and giving Tanana a two-run cushion.

Tanana pitched one of his best games of the season throwing seven scoreless innings, yielding just five hits and a walk. Key was equally masterful in his 8.1 innings pitched. He scattered nine hits, allowing only one earned run and walking a single hitter. Going into the ninth inning the Tigers maintained a 2-0 lead.

Continue reading “October Surprise Part 3: Game 2 Skips Away”

October Surprise: Tigers and Jays Battle for ’87 Division Title

Over the next week, we’ll watch the Tigers and Twins play head-to-head to decide the American League Central.

While this plays out, let’s look back at the final two weekends of the 1987 season when the Tigers and Blue Jays squared off for seven heart-pounding, one-run games that would ultimately decide the American League East title.

Today, Part 1.

“I’m telling you, everything is going to come down to our seven games with Toronto.” — Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson, Sept. 21, 1987

Entering the 1987 season, little was expected of the Detroit Tigers. Just three seasons removed from a wire-to-wire championship season, the Tigers were considered mere also-rans in a division filled with potent lineups, solid pitching and the defending League Champions, the Red Sox.

Adding to an already challenging divisional landscape, the Tigers faced life without their All Star catcher and cleanup hitter, Lance Parrish. The Big Wheel rejected the Tigers’ two-year, $2.4 million contract offer and instead signed a one-year $800,000 deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.

That’s why in the first weeks of the 1987 season the story in baseball was not the Detroit Tigers. Hardly. The Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-0 start captivated the baseball world. After 13 games the Tigers had a less-imposing 6-7 record. Twenty games into the season Milwaukee had stormed to 18-2, four games ahead of New York, followed by Toronto (12-8), Baltimore (9-11), Detroit (8-12) and Cleveland (6-14).

Continue reading “October Surprise: Tigers and Jays Battle for ’87 Division Title”

Sept. 3, 2002: Andy Van Hekken’s Debut Gem

From Baseball-Reference.com:

On this date in 2002, Tigers lefty Andy Van Hekken, with a fastball topping out in the mid-80s, becomes the first American Leaguer to throw a complete game shutout in his debut since Mike Norris in 1975, and the first Tiger since Schoolboy Rowe in 1933. He stops Cleveland 4 – 0. The Holland, Mich., native was 5 – 0 at Toledo before his promotion.

The Tigers leadoff hitter that day? None other than Hiram Bocachica.

Sept. 2, 1970: Gene Lamont’s Big Debut

On this date in 1970, Tigers catcher (and current third base coach) Gene Lamont hit a home run in his first big-league at bat in a 10-1 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. The left-handed hitting Lamont hit his shot off Boston’s Cal Koonce, capping a 2-for-3 night.

Lamont, the Tigers’ first-round pick (#13) in the 1965 amateur draft, played five seasons in the big leagues, all with Detroit.

He appeared in 23 games from 1970 through ’72, 60 games in ’74 and just four in his final season, 1975. (According to his bio on the Tigers Web site, Lamont spent the 1973 season in the Braves organization.) He played in the Tigers’ minor-league system through 1977.

Final career line:

87 games
.233 average
4 HR
14 RBI
1 stolen base

Here’s how Lamont’s post-playing career came together, again from his bio on Tigers.com:

Prior to joining Jim Leyland’s coaching staff in Pittsburgh in 1986, he spent eight seasons (1978-85) as a manager in the Kansas City Royals organization.

If a guy’s not going to enjoy a long career in the majors, it’s nice to see them at least make a splash during their abbreviated stay.

P.S. On Sept. 2 three years later, the Tigers fired Billy Martin.