Part I of this saga ended at the conclusion of the sixth inning. As I noted, this turned out to be the exact midway juncture of the game. But there is another aspect which makes the "intermission" well-placed, for it is the seventh inning where we as fans can sense the anxiety which the two managers felt heading into what they thought would be the last three innings. At least one of them was pulling out all stops.
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At the start of the seventh inning Detroit was clinging to a 3-2 lead. The Twins had knocked out Tiger rookie starting pitcher Rick Porcello in the sixth. By contrast, Twins starter Scott Baker had managed to survive six full innings, with a reasonable total of 84 pitches having been thrown. Although the losing pitcher of record at this point, Baker's six innings with only three earned runs earned him what has become known as a "quality start." That is a label created by modern media but scoffed at by old timers, like me. I mention it here to preface one tidbit: The Twins' record when receiving a quality start was a very impressive 37 games over .500. A good omen?
With the bottom third of the Tigers' batting order due up, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire decided to allow Baker to open the seventh. This decision surprised many observers because Gardy, like many skippers, usually preferred to bring in his relief pitchers at the start of an inning, not mid-inning with men on base. Having Baker start the seventh indicated that Gardy felt Baker could get three more outs. But when Baker walked the first hitter he faced, Brandon Inge, on seven pitches, Gardy had a change of heart and brought in the giant, six foot eleven reliever Jon Rauch. Rauch had only been a Twin since August 28, but was a key contributor during that brief span. In 16 relief appearances he'd compiled a 5-1 record, with a measly 1.80 ERA and 14 Ks over 15 innings. Rauch disposed of Gerald Laird on an infield popup, and got Ramon Santiago to fly out to center field where the super-athletic Denard Span ran laterally over 100 feet of turf to make the grab. Rauch was barely warmed up; he'd only thrown four pitches to get two quick outs, and the man Baker had walked, Inge, had not advanced beyond first base. Yet Gardy, as he was wont to do, decided to bring in a lefty, Jose Mijares, to face the Tigers' lead off hitter, the left-handed Curtis Granderson. No doubt Gardy was aware of Granderson's dismal .180 batting average against lefties.
The selection of Mijares did not come without baggage. In the final game of the Twins-Tigers series just five days before, Mijares was the instigator of an ugly dustup. Following a sequence of several brush back pitches by both teams, Mijares actually threw behind the back of Tiger shortstop Adam Everett. Throwing behind a hitter is an unforgivable no no among baseball's unwritten rules. His selection of Everett for a target was puzzling because (i) Everett was not that good a hitter, and (ii) the two men were teammates on the Twins toward the end of the 2008 season. Although there was no real bad blood between the Tigers and the Twins by the time Game 163 arrived, the thoughtlessness of Mijares was still fresh in the minds of the Tigers.
The first and fourth pitches from Mijares to Granderson were clearly within the strike zone, but home plate umpire Randy Marsh ruled them balls. Mijares looked like his blood was boiling as he stared Marsh down. But knowing he was under intense scrutiny -- is there any other kind?-- because of the Everett incident in Detroit, Mijares said nothing. Minnesota fans, ever quick to come up with conspiracy theories, may have figured Marsh was a closet Tiger fan. Catcher Joe Mauer, always Mr. Cool, went out to the mound to simmer Mijares down. In what might be called poetic justice or retribution by the Tiger faithful, Granderson stroked a sharp single to right on the seventh pitch he saw from Mijares, thereby moving Inge to third. The Tigers were on the verge of blowing the game open. Gardy popped out of the dugout and immediately signaled for the fourth Twins pitcher of the inning, Matt Guerrier, to enter. Ron Darling, the former New York Mets all-star pitcher who was the analyst on the TBS telecast, made a profound observation: "Ron Gardenhire is managing this seventh inning as if it were the ninth." Guerrier did his job, getting the Tigers' number two hitter Placido Polanco to ground into a forceout to end the threat, thereby making Gardy look like a genius. Another tidbit: 2009 would be the last season of Randy Marsh's highly regarded twenty-nine year career as a MLB umpire.
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Tiger manager Jim Leyland's decision to stick with relief pitcher Zach Miner to open the bottom of the seventh astonished a lot of the armchair bench coaches. Miner had bailed out starter Rick Porcello when the kid ran out of gas with two out in the sixth, but Miner had not looked sharp. After yielding a single to Delmon Young that inning, he hit Brendan Harris with a pitch before getting the final out. Still, Miner had only thrown a paltry total of six pitches to the three Twins he'd faced in the sixth, so Leyland figured he was good to go for the seventh.
The Twins had second baseman Nick Punto, with his skimpy .228 batting average, hitting in the 9- hole. Despite his stats, which included just one home run and thirty-eight RBIs, Punto was a gamer, a guy whom a smart pitcher could never overlook in a big situation. With the home team trailing 3-2 and down to their last nine outs, this certainly was a big situation. Punto led off the inning by proceeding to have what I judge to be the greatest at bat of the game, and arguably the greatest at bat of the season. Punto's nine (!) pitch at bat included fouling off three two-strike pitches before lacing a single to left field. The crowd sensed a rally; every Twins fan was standing and most were either screaming or at least waving their homer hankies. At that moment I tried to spot Leyland in the third base dugout. He was known to duck into the walkway to sneak a smoke every once in awhile. Not this time. There he was near the dugout steps, probably wondering if he should follow suit with Gardy's strategy of parading in relief pitchers to get through a single inning. Yep, here he came, walking stiffly toward Miner. All eyes were on Leyland's arm, waiting for him to signal for a new pitcher from the bullpen. Surely he would not allow the right-handed Miner to pitch to the left-handed Span. But that's exactly what he did, and guess what? Miner struck Span out on just four pitches. Would Gardy's decision not to have Span even try to bunt Punto to second cost the Twins this game? Lots of second-guessers sure thought so. Span had eleven of the Twins' fifty successful bunts that season. The man knew how to bunt!
Next up for the Twins was Orlando Cabrera, their 2-hole hitter. Cabrera was another late addition to the Twins' roster, having been acquired from the Oakland A's in late July. In 58 games with the Twins he was hitting an impressive .292, plus he was on a 15 game hitting streak. With one out the odds were better than 50-50 that Punto would now attempt to steal second base. The Twins often employed that scheme under Gardy's tenure when a batter (such as Span this inning) had failed to move a runner from first to second with nobody out. With the season on the line, would the Twins send Punto? Punto was a perfect 10 for 10 in stolen base tries, but to send him here would be an extraordinary risk with catcher Gerald Laird behind the plate. Laird had thrown out 42% of would-be base stealers that season. (33% is considered good.) We will never know whether the stealing gamble would have been attempted because Cabrera crushed Miner's first pitch, an 84 m.p.h. hanging curve ball, into the first row of the left field bleachers. I would have thought it nearly impossible for the noise inside the Dome to climb higher than it had been minutes ago when Punto walked, but sure enough, the decibel level spiked upward to an ear-splitting level. As Cabrera took his home run trot in his unique fashion, kind of listing as if he had a dislocated left shoulder, the Star Wars Theme blared over the speakers. The Twins, who had trailed ever since the third inning, were now on top 4-3. As seen through my binoculars, Leyland looked like he now needed something stronger than nicotine.
Mauer followed Cabrera with a single to right, and may have had his second double of the game if he hadn't lost his footing rounding first. That spelled the end for poor Zach Miner. Leyland used two more pitchers, Fu-te Ni and Brandon Lyon, to get the last two outs of the seventh inning without further damage.
At this juncture let's take a quick moment to reflect on the two managers' tactical seventh inning maneuvers. Both employed several pitchers, but the plans were not the same. My impression was that Gardy used four pitchers by design, whereas his counterpart, Leyland, used three pitchers by necessity. Part of my thinking is that going into the top half of the seventh, the Twins still had their starting pitcher, Scott Baker, in the game. There was little chance that Gardy was going to have Baker pitch much deeper. When he did yank Baker after the leadoff walk to Inge, Gardy had his right-left-right (Rauch-Mijares-Guerrier) middle relief triumvirate all ready to go, and he still had not been forced to use his two best relievers, Joe Nathan and Jesse Crain. By contrast, I believe Leyland had hoped Zach Miner could get his team three outs in the seventh. When Miner struck out the second batter he faced (Span), things looked "thumbs up" for Detroit. But the Tigers were ambushed by Cabrera's knocker -- only his fifth since July 31. Leyland was probably hoping to save his two best relief pitchers, Brandon Lyon and Fernando Rodney, for the eighth and ninth innings, but he also could not risk having the Twins add to their one run lead. That is why he brought in Lyon to get the final out, a tapper to the mound by Michael Cuddyer.
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Now with the slim one run lead and the Twins only six defensive outs away from the division title, Gardy had another decision to make. Should he insert his fastest player, fan favorite Carlos "Go Go" Gomez, into center field and move Span from center to right, or should he keep the defensive alignment as is? He went with the former, even though it entailed taking his starting cleanup hitter, right fielder Jason Kubel, out of the game. This decision played a huge role in the outcome of the game.
The Twins' 4-3 lead going into the eighth lasted exactly two whole pitches. Matt Guerrier, still in the game for the Twins, served up a juicy letter-high fastball to Magglio Ordonez, and as they say in hockey, Ordonez one-timed it ten rows deep into the left field bleachers. During his eight seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Ordonez had continually been a thorn in the side of the Twins. Now in his fifth season with the Tigers, there was no let up; Twins pitchers never solved the puzzle of how to pitch to this six-time All Star and former AL batting champion. The Metrodome crowd was stunned, disbelieving the game was now tied 4-4. When Guerrier walked two of the next three batters, Gardy was forced to do what he did not want to do, viz., bring in his super closer, Joe Nathan, before the ninth inning. Nathan would have to get at least five outs, two more than he was usually called upon to do.
The Twins' 4-3 lead going into the eighth lasted exactly two whole pitches. Matt Guerrier, still in the game for the Twins, served up a juicy letter-high fastball to Magglio Ordonez, and as they say in hockey, Ordonez one-timed it ten rows deep into the left field bleachers. During his eight seasons with the Chicago White Sox, Ordonez had continually been a thorn in the side of the Twins. Now in his fifth season with the Tigers, there was no let up; Twins pitchers never solved the puzzle of how to pitch to this six-time All Star and former AL batting champion. The Metrodome crowd was stunned, disbelieving the game was now tied 4-4. When Guerrier walked two of the next three batters, Gardy was forced to do what he did not want to do, viz., bring in his super closer, Joe Nathan, before the ninth inning. Nathan would have to get at least five outs, two more than he was usually called upon to do.
Nathan overpowered the two men he faced to end the eighth, stranding two Tigers on the bases. But, the Twins meekly went three up and three down at the hands of Lyon in the bottom of the eighth, failing to hit the ball out of the infield.
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Going into the ninth with the score knotted at 4 apiece, the Twins had to like their chances, even though momentum may have shifted with the Ordonez dinger. Not only did they have the advantage of batting last as the home team, but Nathan was practically in a league by himself as a closer. Entering the game he had 87 strikeouts in 67 innings, and his opponents' batting average was an abysmal .167. The Tigers' 9-hole hitter Ramon Santiago led off by nubbing a dribbler down the first base line. After fielding the ball, first baseman Cuddyer could do no more than dive at Santiago, hoping for a tag near the bag. He missed. Leyland wasted no time getting Everett into the game as a pinch runner. For any team in a similar situation, a bunt was in order, but especially for the Tigers who were second in the American league with 53 sacrifice bunts. Nevertheless, this was a predicament for Leyland because the following batter, Granderson, enjoyed tremendous prior success against Nathan, going 7 for 16 in his career. His last three at bats against Nathan resulted in a home run, a double and a triple. Would it be smart to have Granderson give himself up via a sacrifice bunt? Fortunately for the Twins, Granderson immediately fell behind 0-2, thus removing the bunt possibility. Unfortunately for the Twins, Granderson fisted an inside fastball into short right field for a single, moving Everett to third with nobody out. Nathan was now in a bona fide jam. He emitted one of his patented, puffed, oral exhales, not unlike that of a horse. This was a circumstance he'd faced many times before -- the world of a closer. What he really needed was a strikeout.
The third man to bat in the inning was Placido Polanco, the hardest Tiger on their roster to strike out. In 676 plate appearances in 2009, Polanco had only struck out 46 times, although one of those times was in the first inning of this game. Two dramatic things then happened. For the second time in this game, Polanco got caught looking at a called third strike for the first out. Then the Twins' nemesis, Magglio Ordonez, scalded a screaming line drive caught by shortstop Cabrera, who immediately threw to first to double off the shocked Granderson. It may not have been pretty, but reliable Joe Nathan got the job done.
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One little ol' run in the bottom of the ninth would send the Twins into the ALCS against the Yankees. Punto, putting together another excellent at bat -- his second in a row -- drew a ten pitch walk from Brandon Lyon, who was still in the game. Once again the crowd was stoked, reaching what seemed to be a state of delirium as Denard Span stepped to the plate. I would venture to guess that every fan watching, whether on television or inside the Dome, absolutely knew Span would be bunting. Of course that's what we'd all assumed, incorrectly, when Span batted in the seventh. This time Span got the bunt sign and delivered a perfect 1-4 sacrifice. Now with a runner in scoring position (Punto on second) and only one out, a single from any one of Minnesota's 2-3-4 hitters would end the game. But as luck would have it, the defensive play of the game was about to occur.
Leyland brought in his closer, Fernando Rodney (a future Twin), to face the momentary hero from the seventh inning, Orlando Cabrera. Rodney was a fireballer with one unusual statistic: His ERA in non-save situations was four and a-half runs higher (6.69) than in save situations (2.15). This was a non-save situation due to the tie score. Would Game 163 play out true to form?
Cabrera drilled Rodney's first offering in between third baseman Inge and shortstop Everett. In a do-or-die effort Inge drove to his left and miraculously managed to glove the ball on the second bounce, then threw a dart to first to nip Cabrera for the second out. This play would have made a perfectly healthy Brooks Robinson, probably the slickest-fielding third baseman ever to man the hot corner, extremely proud. The fact that Inge was playing on two bum knees made the play one of the most heroic I have ever seen. Chip Caray, the TBS play-by-play man, blew the call by exclaiming, "Inge saved a run." No, Chipper, he saved the game. Punto certainly would have scored the walk-off run if the ball had eluded Inge's desperate dive.
Rodney issued an intentional pass to Mauer to put runners on first and second, but the inning came to an end when Carlos Gomez, the defensive replacement inserted by Gardy after Cabrera's seventh inning homer, tapped into a force-out. The ninth inning was in the books. We were still tied at 4.
These two evenly matched teams had played 162 games only to finish with identical 86-76 records. Is it any wonder they'd need to go extra innings to settle Game 163?
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