October 3: White Sox 5, Tigers 1
If you weren’t convinced that Jim Leyland thought this game was a must-win, you had to be sold when he pulled his starter after 1 1/3 innings… when he allowed just one run.
Alfredo Figaro found himself in a jam in the second. The inning started with a titanic Carlos Quentin shot, and grew worse when he found the bases loaded and one out after a walk, a single, a double-steal and a Brent Lillibridge walk.
Then, he found himself out of the game. Leyland might’ve set the record for earliest LOOGY appearance when Fu-Te Ni relieved Figaro to face Scott Podsednik. It almost worked, but Podsednik’s grounder to second proved too hot for Placido Polanco to field cleanly. A fielder’s choice made it a 2-0 game, and it gradually slipped away from Detroit despite Leyland’s best overmanaging.
Just like Friday, it was steady as she goes for the Sox starter. This time, it was Freddy Garcia, who baffled the Tigers with his assortment of junk. Miguel Cabrera looked particularly out of sorts, failing to hit a ball out of the infield and striking out with Garcia failing to crack 90.
To illustrate the contrast in fortunes, Alex Rios barely muscled the ball out of the infield — and ended up driving in the Sox’s final three runs.
One day after Carlos Guillen mis-slid and missed a lazy fly toward the line, Magglio Ordonez did the same. It gave Rios an RBI double. He then muscled a pop-up over Polanco’s head for a run-scoring single off Ryan Perry in the eighth, and gave the Sox an insurance run with a fly that dropped in front of a hard-charging Curtis Granderson in the ninth.
Cabrera did have a chance to make it interesting in the eighth beforehand. Trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers knocked Garcia out of the game with a double and a single, putting runners on the corners in the process. Ozzie Guillen called for Tony Pena, who allowed an RBI single to Polanco before getting Magglio Ordonez to line out to Alexei Ramirez.
Pena won the battle, getting Cabrera to ground into an easy 6-4-3 double play that dashed the Tigers’ hopes. Matt Thornton closed it out for the non-save, dropping the Tigers into a dead heat with the Twins leading into the final day of the season.
Two items of note:
*The Sox stole six bases in six attempts.
*Quentin homered, doubled, nearly homered, and was hit by two pitches.
Record: 79-82 | Box score | Play-by-play
