Thursday, April 10, 2014

Game of the Day (4/9/14)

Tigers 7, Dodgers 6 (10), featuring a pitching matchup of Josh Beckett for LA and Anibal Sanchez for Detroit. Eight offseasons ago, back when Beckett was a star and Sanchez was a prospect, they were traded for each other (among other things). Things have changed quite a bit for both pitchers since that November 2005 trade; Beckett is more or less washed up at this point, while Sanchez led the AL in ERA last year.

Detroit pushed the game's first run across in the top of the first inning, as Ian Kinsler singled with out one, stole second, saw Miguel Cabrera walked behind him, stole third, and scored on Victor Martinez's sacrifice fly. Dee Gordon led off the bottom of the inning with a single, but was thrown out stealing; Carl Crawford then hit a ground-rule double and moved to third on a wild pitch, and Hanley Ramirez walked to put runners at the corners. Adrian Gonzalez struck out looking, but on strike 3, Ramirez stole second and Crawford stole home. (I assume this was a double steal with Ramirez breaking first, especially because he ended up at third due to a Martinez throwing error - incidentally, with this game being in the NL team's park, Detroit's normal DH was catching; I bet his eventual "140 games at DH, 9 games caught" line will be pretty historically unique. Anyway, I have to work off of an assumption here because MLB.com does not have a video highlight posted of a run-scoring double steal, which is not great.) Andre Ethier followed with a single that sent Ramirez home with the go-ahead run.

With two outs in the top of the second, Alex Gonzalez reached on a Gordon error. With the pitcher's spot coming up, this would typically not be an issue. But Sanchez hit a fly ball to deep right center, and Matt Kemp got a bad enough jump to allow it to fall in for a game-tying RBI double. The Dodgers mounted a swift response in the home half of the inning, as Juan Uribe singled, advanced to second on a passed ball by Martinez, and took third on a groundout. That brought Beckett to the plate, and for the second time in the inning, a pitcher came through with the bat - Beckett laid down a squeeze bunt to bring Uribe home and retake the lead. That bunt would prove to be the best thing about Beckett's day, however; after two quick outs in the top of the third, Martinez singled, Austin Jackson hit a ground-rule double, and Nick Castellanos launched the first home run of his career to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead.

The offenses finally slowed down at this point. Sanchez was perfect in the third and fourth, while Beckett worked around hitting Rajai Davis in the top of the fourth. Beckett was pulled in the fifth, and Brandon League immediately allowed singles to Cabrera and Martinez, then walked Castellanos one out later to load the bases. Tyler Collins grounded into a double play to squander the opportunity.

Sanchez allowed a two-out Crawford double in the fifth, but nothing else (partly because League was allowed to start the inning hitting for himself). League managed a hitless sixth, as did Detroit's Drew Smyly. The Tigers then extended their lead in the top of the seventh against Jamey Wright; Kinsler led off with a single, and moved around to third one out later on a wild pitch/error combo (with the error coming from catcher Tim Federowicz). Martinez was intentionally walked, and Jackson followed with a sac fly to make it a 6-3 game.

Uribe led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, but pinch hitter Justin Turner hit into a double play. The top of the eighth, pitched by Paco Rodriguez, went similarly, with Collins getting the leadoff hit before being doubled up; the difference is that this hit was the first of Collins's big league career, which is nice. Smyly, staying on the mound for a third inning, was spotless in the eighth, while Paul Maholm worked around a Davis single in the ninth thanks to yet another double play ball.

Joe Nathan took over for the save opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, and immediately served up a solo homer to Adrian Gonzalez, bringing LA within 6-4. Nathan then walked Ethier and Kemp and allowed a Uribe single to load the bases with nobody out. Yasiel Puig came up as a pinch hitter and struck out, but pinch hitter Scott Van Slyke managed an RBI forceout, and Gordon followed with a single that scored Kemp with the tying run. Nathan finally ended the inning by retiring Crawford, sending the game into the tenth.

Victor Martinez had an adventurous day behind the plate; he had a passed ball, a throwing error, and three steals against him in four attempts (although two of those were on the same play). It was a rather clear demonstration of why the Tigers DH him whenever the DH is available. Leading off the tenth inning, he proceeded to show why they catch him in NL parks instead of benching him altogether; he hit a 2-2 pitch from Kenley Jansen over the right field fence for a go-ahead solo homer. Jackson and Collins later singled, but were both left on; Joba Chamberlain, Ian Krol, and Al Alburquerque combined on a scoreless bottom of the inning to finish off the Tiger victory. (Interestingly, in the bottom of the tenth, Martinez was moved from catcher to first, Cabrera from first to third, and Alex Avila came in behind the plate. It's a bad sign when moving Miguel Cabrera to third to put someone else at first is a defensive upgrade.)

This game had five rallies to tie or take the lead in its first five half-innings, including a run-scoring double steal, an RBI double by a pitcher, and a squeeze bunt by the other pitcher. Unsurprisingly, that pace proved unsustainable, but they picked it up again in a wild bottom of the ninth before the game finally came to its conclusion. The relatively tame middle innings limit the overall score to an extent, but a 4.56 WPL (8th-best of the year so far) is unquestionably a highly-watchable game even without the unusual nature of some of the individual plays.

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