Petry pitched six and two-thirds, allowing seven hits and just one run. Aurelio López pitched the rest of the way, giving up just a walk and striking out four.
Miscellany
Venue: Royals Stadium
Umpires: HP – Larry McCoy, 1B – Nick Bremigan, 2B – Vic Voltaggio, 3B – Joe Brinkman
After seemingly years of being stymied by Dan Quisenberry, the Tigers got to him in the seventh inning — with an exclamation mark.
The Tigers trailed 2-0 and, with Quisenberry on the mound, the road winning streak again looked in peril … until a two-out grand slam by Alan Trammell as part of a five-run rally.
Alan Trammell (3 for 4), Johnny Grubb (2 for 3) and Chet Lemon (3 for 3) led the offense and Berenguer pitch a solid if not erratic six and two thirds. He gave up six hits and four walks. Bair pitched a scoreless two and a third.
The Tigers’ road winning streak marches on: 12 straight.
Miscellany
Venue: Royals Stadium
Umpires: HP – Vic Voltaggio, 1B – Joe Brinkman, 2B – Larry McCoy, 3B – Nick Bremigan
For the second straight day, the Tigers edge the Indians 6-5, but this one was a 12-inning affair.
Milt Wilcox started opposite Bert Blyleven. Milt went five innings, giving up eight hits and five runs.
The bullpen, Dave Rozema, Willie Hernández and Aurelio López, held the Tribe scoreless over the next seven. Blyleven pitched seven and a third yielding seven hits, five walks and struck out seven.
Dave Bergman led off the 12th with a double and Tom Brookens sacrificed him to third. Lou Whitaker singled to score Bergman with the go-ahead and eventual winning run.
Bergman and Alan Trammell each had three hits, and Johnny Grubb had two singles to go with three walks.
Miscellany
Venue: Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Umpires: HP – Jim McKean, 1B – Durwood Merrill, 2B – Dan Morrison, 3B – Marty Springstead
Time of Game: 4:20
Attendance: 16,125
Dave Gumpert #43
The Tigers signed 6′ 1″ righty Dave Gumpert on Nov. 4, 1980 as an amateur free agent out of Aquinas College in Grand Rapids.
He quickly moved up the ladder in 1981, starting in Single-A Lakeland, Double-A Birmingham and the Triple-A Evansville. In 1982, he appeared in 42 games for Birmingham and two for Evansville before getting the call to Detroit.
He pitched in five games for the ’82 Tigers, including one brief start on Aug. 8: getting just one out and giving up three runs on four hits, including a homer to Ernie Whitt.
His final line for 1982: Five appearances, two innings pitched, 13 batters faced, one start, one save, and a 27.00 ERA.
In 1983, he began the season in Evansville and was promoted in time to again face the Blue Jays, on May 30. Gumpert relieved starter Dan Petry with one out in the ninth and the Tigers trailing 4-0. He escaped the inning and the Tigers scored four in the bottom half to push it to extras. Gumpert was charged with two runs in the 10th and the Tigers lost, 6-4.
Gumpert appeared in 26 games for the ’83 Tigers, finishing with a record of 0-2, an ERA of 2.94 and a pair of saves.
He spent all of 1984 in Evansville, posting a 7-4 record with a 4.96 ERA. The Tigers released him at the end of Spring Training in 1985 and he signed with the Cubs a week later. His final numbers with Detroit: 0-2, 3.69 ERA, two saves.
Gumpert spent the ’85 and ’86 seasons in Chicago, before being traded to the Royals for his final big-league season in 1987.
I started to write today’s installment but stopped once I received this text from my friend John, who did the heavy lifting for me:
40 years ago today the Tigers almost lost their first road game of the 1984 regular season. At Cleveland Municipal Stadium in the bottom of the 9th inning with George Vukovich on 1st, Mike Fischlin on 2nd, and Broderick Perkins pinch hitting for Kevin Rhomberg, Perkins hit a long drive to right field off Aurelio López that went into the seats but was just foul by a couple of feet. Perkins went on to take a called third strike to end the game and give the Tigers a 6-5 win.
Chet Lemon went 4 for 4 with three RBI and a homer.
Miscellany
Venue: Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Umpires: HP – Marty Springstead, 1B – Jim McKean, 2B – Durwood Merrill, 3B – Dan Morrison
Umpires: HP – Dan Morrison, 1B – Marty Springstead, 2B – Jim McKean, 3B – Durwood Merrill
Time of Game: 3:06
Attendance: 8,497
Rick Leach #7
Here are seven things to know about Rick Leach, who went from start Michigan quarterback to Tigers first baseman.
He was drafted by the Tigers in the first round (13th) of the 1979 MLB June Amateur Draft from University of Michigan. He was previously drafted by the Phillies twice: in the 11th round of the 1975 draft from Flint Southwestern High, and in the 24th round of the 1978 draft from Michigan.
On May 6 in Oakland, Leach got his first big-league start: batting seventh and place first. He finished 0 for 1 that night, but with three walks. The following day, he got his first major-league hit, a single to left off Matt Keough that drove in Champ Summers.
Leach saw his playing time increase between 1981 and 1983, appearing 54, 82 and 99 games respectively. His best year was 1983: .248, three home runs and 28 RBI.
With Dave Bergman, Bárbaro Garbey and Darrell Evans all slated for playing time at first, the Tigers released Leach on March 24, 1984 — the same day of The Trade that brought Bergman and Willie Hernandez to Detroit. And he signed, with of all teams, the Blue Jays. (He appeared in only two games against the Tigers.)
Leach had his best years in Toronto. In five seasons, he batted .283, eight home runs and 95 RBI.
Both starters threw complete games, and only a Dwight Evans leadoff homer in the eighth spoiled another gem by Morris, handing him his first loss of the year.
Morris scattered five hits with eight strikeouts; Ojeda allowed six hits — all singles — and struck out 10.
A pair of two-run homers off Berenguer, one by Dwight Evans, the other by Jim Rice, gave the Red Sox a 4-0 lead in the third. Boston tacked on a run in the fifth to go up 5-0.
The Tigers scratched back with a run in the sixth and eighth, and then two in the ninth off Stanley.
Kirk Gibson went 4 for 5 with a double, triple and an RBI.
Dave Bergman had a 3 for 4 day and drive in a run.
Miscellany
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Umpires: HP – Rocky Roe, 1B – Larry Barnett, 2B – Dale Ford, 3B – Ken Kaiser
As most seasoned Tigers fans remember, the club’s leadership, or at least GM Jim Campbell — whose opinion was the only one that mattered — hated free agency. In fact,Campbell hated paying for his own free agent players and loved to trade them before their walk year. He certainly wasn’t going to spend on someone else’s players.
That changed in 1983 when Evans chose a Detroit offer which was, of course, lower than those of the Yankees, Giants and other clubs that tried to sign, or in the case of San Francisco, re-sign him. The allure of joining a team poised to win right away made Detroit the choice.
As we’ve covered, in his first game as a Tiger, April 3, 1984, Evans homered of the Twins’ Keith Comstock, a three-run jack, and Detroit was off to the races. A week later, on Opening Day in Detroit, he homered in his first Tiger Stadium at bat, an upper-deck blast off the Rangers’ Dave Stewart.
He’d hit only 14 more home runs in 1984, but quickly became a fan favorite. In 1985, he hit 40 homers, 29 in ’86 and then 34, at age 40!, in 1987. Even in 1988, his final year in Detroit, at age 41, he hit 22.
In five seasons with the Tigers, Evans hit 141 of his career 414 home runs. In 1989, he finished his career where it began: with the Atlanta Braves.
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