Morris had one of his better starts of late, seven innings pitched, three runs, eight hits and seven strikeouts, but the Boston trio of John Henry Johnson, Bob Stanley and Mark Clear held the Tigers’s offense in check.
The Tigers had bases loaded with two out in the ninth, but Ruppert Jones grounded out.
Miscellany
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Umpires: HP – Don Denkinger, 1B – Al Clark, 2B – Mike Reilly, 3B – Tim McClelland
The Tigers scored two in the first on a Chet Lemon homer and a — wait for it — Lance Parrish steal of home. They tacked on two more in the sixth then blew it open with five in the seventh.
Petry threw a complete game, allowing just the one run on a Rich Gedman solo homer with one out in the ninth.
This is another one of those “I was there” doubleheaders, sitting in the upper deck bleachers. When the Tigers won, my friends and I were reveling in the thought of, if Detroit swept, they would be 70-30 after 100 games. Alas …
Miscellany
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Umpires: HP – Mike Reilly, 1B – Tim McClelland, 2B – Don Denkinger, 3B – Al Clark
Ojeda shutout the Tigers for the second time in 1984 — the first was 1-0 on May 3 when he allowed six hits and struck out 10 — and this time he was even better. The lefty allowed just three hits in this complete game domination.
On the other side, Glenn Abbott was not good: 31/3 innings, 10 hits, a walk and four earned runs.
Rusty Kuntz led off the bottom of the first with a single and the Tigers would not get another hit until the seventh.
Another pitchers duel, this one between Dan Petry and Charlie Hough. I remember watching this one on Channel 4: Peaches threw 82/3 innings, allowing a mere four hits, walking one and striking out eight.
The one walk was to Wayne Tolleson to lead off the ninth. He got the next two hitters to pop out to short. With left-handed hitting Pete O’Brien coming up Sparky summoned Willie — to a chorus of boos.
Hernandez threw one pitch, and O’Brien popped out to short.
Dave Bergman batted leadoff and led off the first with a solo homer. The Tigers’ other run scored on a bases-load wild pitch.
The crowd booed me. All 38,000 of them, because they wanted Danny to get that shutout. I don’t blame them. They’re great fans and Danny is such a great guy. But the object is to win, not make friends.
Sparky, “Bless You Boys”
Miscellany
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Umpires: HP – Larry Barnett, 1B – Rocky Roe, 2B – Ken Kaiser, 3B – Dale Ford
You could file this one under “winning ugly.” The Tigers gave Glenn Abbott a 2-0 lead but he couldn’t hold it — he was pulled with one out in the third after giving up five runs on five hits.
Thankfully, Rangers’ starter Dickie Noles was worse: 42/3 innings, six hits, five walks and seven runs.
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