Among the four major professional team sports, having home field advantage arguably is most important in baseball. There are a host of reasons, but getting "last at-bats" is the biggest. Prior to the 2009 season, MLB used a coin flip to decide home field advantage in a one-game playoff scenario. Given the stakes at hand, that method seemed rather flippant -- no pun intended. The protocol was changed in 2009 to something more justifiable. The team which won the head-to-head season series between the two tied opponents would now be rewarded. By virtue of the Twins' 11-7 season record over the Tigers, the Metrodome became the venue, much to the delight of the Twin Cities faithful, many of whom had probably given up hope back on September 7, if not earlier.
The capacity of the Metrodome for baseball was just a shade under 56,000. Despite the fact that the playoff game was to be played on a Tuesday afternoon, my guess is that the franchise could have sold over 75,000 tickets that day. Priority went to the 2009 season ticket holders, and then to the new 2010 season ticket holders. After you figure all the big shots, celebrities, media members, league officials, glad-handing politicians and others with connections, that did not leave many ducats available for the hoi polloi, of which I was (and remain) a card carrying member. Although full of skepticism, I drove downtown early Monday morning, October 5, to take my chances in the ticket line. I was almost shocked when the ticket seller offered two seats high above home plate, three rows from the very top of the upper deck. Momma Cuandito and I, who had stuck with the Twins all season long, were going to be in the Dome for the big game. It turned out to be the best and most memorable baseball game of the hundreds I've attended.
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The Twins were very confident going into the winner-take-all duel. Heading into September, the Twins were only one game above .500. But their record over the last twenty games of the season was 16-4. If the Tigers had not managed to salvage the final game of their just completed series against the White Sox, the Twins would have become Central Division champs outright, thus obviating the need to settle the race with the one game playoff. The Twins were the hot team; the Tigers had staggered through a September swoon. Yet the Tigers were not unnerved by the Twins sprinting to a 16-4 finish. After all, three of those four losses were to none other than Detroit.
Mauer entered the game hitting .364, an average so lofty he could have gone 0 for 17 in Game 163 and still won the batting title over second place Ichiro of the Seattle Mariners. Porcello may have thought that it would be easier to pick off Span, a threat to run with 23 stolen bases, than it would be to get Mauer for the third out, especially since Mauer had driven a double to center field off Porcello in the first inning. Porcello's pick off attempt to get Span, who actually had only a tiny lead, was off target to the right field side of the first base bag. The burly Miggy could not corral the ball and it bounded away. As soon as the alert Tolbert saw the ball rolling on the ground away from Miggy, he easily trotted home with the Twins' first run. Luckily for the Tigers the errant ball caromed off Twins first base coach Jerry White; otherwise it would have gone near the Twins dugout allowing Span to advance to second (if not third).* This excitement got the capacity home crowd back in the game. Was Porcello coming unglued? Tigers pitching coach Rick Knapp paid him a visit on the mound to calm him. Whatever he said must have worked because the third inning ended uneventfully with a Mauer walk (probably one of those well known"intentional/unintentional walks") and a Kubel K.
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The next two and a-half innings, at least on paper, were relatively uneventful. However, that did not cause the crowd to simmer down. The fans lived and died with each pitch, just as they had during the World Series championship years in the Metrodome, 1987 and 1991.
Scott Baker needed only an impressively efficient 28 pitches to breeze through the fourth, fifth and sixth inning. During that stretch he had to face only one batter over the minimum of nine, allowing merely two base runners, one of whom was erased on a double play. Porcello was even more stellar in the fourth and fifth innings, striking out three of the minimum six Twins he faced. Porcello continued gliding into the bottom of the sixth, getting Cabrera to fly out and Mauer to whiff. But the third man to bat in the inning was Twins cleanup hitter Jason Kubel.
Going into the game Kubel was 8 for 11 against the rookie. In baseball parlance, Kubel "owned" Porcello. Kubes belted the second pitch he saw way over the right-center field wall for his 28th home run of the season, thus closing the Twins' deficit to 3-2. When Porcello issued a seven pitch walk to the next hitter, Michael Cuddyer, manager Leyland came out and sent the youngster to the showers.
Reliever Zach Miner was summoned from the pen to close out the inning. He did, but only after surrendering a single to Delmon Young and hitting pinch hitter Brendan Harris.
Little did we know at this point that the game was only half over.
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* The errant pickoff attempt by Detroit pitcher Rick Porcello in the bottom of the third inning resulted in one of the strangest rulings by an official scorer I have ever witnessed. The scorer correctly gave an error to Porcello for his poor throw because the Twins runner on third, Matt Tolbert, would not have scored had Porcello's pickoff throw been accurate. However, the strange aspect of the ruling is that Porcello was credited with a pickoff, and runner Denard Span was charged with being picked off -- EVEN THOUGH HE WASN'T. The ruling assumes that Span would have been picked off if only Porcello hadn't thrown the ball away. Span barely had any lead off first. There's almost no chance he would have been out, even with a good throw by Porcello and a quick grab 'n' tag by Miggy. You might call the ruling a "phantom pickoff."
The immediate reward for the victor of Game 163 would be a date in New York the very next day for the opening game of the American League Division Series ("ALDS") with the AL East Division champion Yankees. Thus, before even the first pitch of Game 163 was thrown, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and Tigers skipper Jim Leyland had to strategize to take into account that their respective pitching staffs might be called upon again less than twenty-four hours after the present game was completed. But both men knew that without winning Game 163, there would be no trip to New York; the loser's season would be over. They must win the game at hand.
Gardenhire chose Scott Baker to be his starting pitcher against the Tigers. Baker was a five year veteran, age 28, with a 2009 season record of 15-9 and an ERA of 4.36. As his statistics indicate, Baker was an above-average pitcher but not what you'd call an ace. (The Twins really had no ace.) Since June 1 of that season, though, he had managed an impressive 13 wins, one of which had been against the Tigers just five days before Game 163. Leyand chose young Rick Porcello to start for Detroit. Porcello's season record was practically the same as Baker's, 14-9 with an ERA of 4.04. Those 14 wins were the most of any rookie in the league. The kid was only 20, but he looked to be about 15. (Porcello was the second youngest pitcher ever to start a tie-breaker; the youngest was Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1946.) How would he hold up to playoff pressure?
It is typical among American sports publications to include in a playoff preview a position-by-position comparison of each team's starters. Excluding pitching, the Twins had a clear edge at just three of the nine spots, with Joe Mauer at catcher, Orlando Cabrera at shortstop and Denard Span in center field. The Twins' Michael Cuddyer at first base and Jason Kubel in right field were very solid players who were enjoying terrific seasons, but it would be hard to give them the nod over their respective counterparts, future Hall Of Famer Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez, who occupied the 3 and 4 slots in the Tigers batting order. Detroit second sacker Placido Polanco, sporting a .286 batting average, was clearly superior to the Twins' Nick Punto with his .228. I would rate the other three positions (third base, DH and left field) tossups, highlighted by two left fielders enjoying stellar seasons, Delmon Young of the Twins and Ryan Raburn of the Tigers. This Game 163 was going to be hotly contested, and like many baseball games, the team receiving the better pitching would most likely prevail.
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THE STARTING LINEUPS
Detroit Tigers Minnesota Twins
1. Curtis Granderson - CF 1. Denard Span - CF
2. Placido Polanco - 2B 2. Orlando Cabrera - SS
3. Magglio Ordones - RF 3. Joe Mauer - C
4. Miguel Cabrera - 1B 4. Jason Kubel - RF
5. Carlos Guillen - DH 5. Michael Cuddyer - 1B
6. Ryan Raburn - LF 6. Delmon Young - LF
7. Brandon Inge - 3B 7. Jose Morales - DH
8. Gerald Laird - C 8. Matt Tolbert - 3B
9. Ramon Santiago - SS 9. Nick Punto - 2B
Rick Porcello - P Scott Baker - P
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Two telltale signs that the moment might be too big for a young pitcher are loss of command of his pitches and an inability to find the strike zone. Nerves and adrenalin often combine to cause a pitcher to be erratic, so instead of throwing strikes to force the batters to put the ball in play, the pitcher starts giving up walks. To Baker and Porcello's credit, that did not happen in Game 163. Despite the youth of the two starting pitchers, each managed to get through the first two innings without yielding a run or even issuing a walk. Baker was immensely helped by a defensive gem courtesy of Twins shortstop Cabrera, who went to his backhand with one out in the second inning to snag a screaming liner off the bat of Brandon Inge, thereby preventing a runner on third from scoring. Porcello, the rookie, had to face only seven Twins to get the first six outs.
The third inning was a different story. Baker surrendered a one out walk to leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson, followed by a two out RBI single to Ordonez. Miguel Cabrera, nicknamed "Miggy," then lofted a two run homer over the center field wall on an 0-2 pitch. Perhaps Miggy, who had doubled in the second inning, was out to prove that he, not Mauer, should be the American League's MVP. Up to that point the Metrodome noise had been ear-splitting and the crowd was a sea of waving white Homer Hankies. Now, with Detroit suddenly up 3-0. the fans were momentarily somber. Many of them were aware that the Tigers' season record was a gaudy 55-30 when scoring the first run of the game. The Twins' flash to the finish in September seemed a distant memory. Yet, it was only the third inning; the Twins would have their chances.
The third inning was a different story. Baker surrendered a one out walk to leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson, followed by a two out RBI single to Ordonez. Miguel Cabrera, nicknamed "Miggy," then lofted a two run homer over the center field wall on an 0-2 pitch. Perhaps Miggy, who had doubled in the second inning, was out to prove that he, not Mauer, should be the American League's MVP. Up to that point the Metrodome noise had been ear-splitting and the crowd was a sea of waving white Homer Hankies. Now, with Detroit suddenly up 3-0. the fans were momentarily somber. Many of them were aware that the Tigers' season record was a gaudy 55-30 when scoring the first run of the game. The Twins' flash to the finish in September seemed a distant memory. Yet, it was only the third inning; the Twins would have their chances.
The Twins came back with a strange run in the bottom of the third. Twins third baseman Matt Tolbert, who was playing only because regular third baseman Michael Cuddyer was filling in at first for the injured Justin Morneau, hit a smash down the third base line. Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge, as gutty a player as there ever was in MLB, dove to his right to attempt to make the play. This was a valiant effort because Inge was playing on two badly injured knees which would require surgery less than a month later. Tolbert beat Inge's throw for an infield single. Then, following Punto's strikeout, Tolbert advanced to second on Denard Span's single to left. The next batter, Orlando Cabrera, hit a fly ball to right field, so deep that right fielder Ordonez had no chance to throw out Tolbert advancing to third after the catch. [Note: This is a situation which I discussed in my July 17, 2014 post (Arbitrary And Capricious Traditions) about some of baseball's peculiarities. In the boxscore, this play looks like a simple fly ball out, costing Cabrera a point or two on his batting average. In reality, his ability to advance Tolbert to third was invaluable.] The Twins, still down 3-0, now had runners at the corners with two out. Next up, Joe Mauer.
***
The next two and a-half innings, at least on paper, were relatively uneventful. However, that did not cause the crowd to simmer down. The fans lived and died with each pitch, just as they had during the World Series championship years in the Metrodome, 1987 and 1991.
Scott Baker needed only an impressively efficient 28 pitches to breeze through the fourth, fifth and sixth inning. During that stretch he had to face only one batter over the minimum of nine, allowing merely two base runners, one of whom was erased on a double play. Porcello was even more stellar in the fourth and fifth innings, striking out three of the minimum six Twins he faced. Porcello continued gliding into the bottom of the sixth, getting Cabrera to fly out and Mauer to whiff. But the third man to bat in the inning was Twins cleanup hitter Jason Kubel.
Going into the game Kubel was 8 for 11 against the rookie. In baseball parlance, Kubel "owned" Porcello. Kubes belted the second pitch he saw way over the right-center field wall for his 28th home run of the season, thus closing the Twins' deficit to 3-2. When Porcello issued a seven pitch walk to the next hitter, Michael Cuddyer, manager Leyland came out and sent the youngster to the showers.
Reliever Zach Miner was summoned from the pen to close out the inning. He did, but only after surrendering a single to Delmon Young and hitting pinch hitter Brendan Harris.
Little did we know at this point that the game was only half over.
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* The errant pickoff attempt by Detroit pitcher Rick Porcello in the bottom of the third inning resulted in one of the strangest rulings by an official scorer I have ever witnessed. The scorer correctly gave an error to Porcello for his poor throw because the Twins runner on third, Matt Tolbert, would not have scored had Porcello's pickoff throw been accurate. However, the strange aspect of the ruling is that Porcello was credited with a pickoff, and runner Denard Span was charged with being picked off -- EVEN THOUGH HE WASN'T. The ruling assumes that Span would have been picked off if only Porcello hadn't thrown the ball away. Span barely had any lead off first. There's almost no chance he would have been out, even with a good throw by Porcello and a quick grab 'n' tag by Miggy. You might call the ruling a "phantom pickoff."
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