Tigers miss division title in historic fashion
Detroit 1st since 1901 to miss playoffs after a 3-game lead with 4 to play
 | Curtis Granderson hangs his head after being thrown out in a double play. The Tigers lost Tuesday's game, 6-5, in 12 innings. |
Jamie Squire / Getty Images |
 |
Latest tweets from the HBT guys
|
For more MLB musings, check out Hardball Talk. |
 | Video: Baseball from NBC Sports |
 Manuel praises Halladay Jan. 27: Phillies manager Charlie Manuel thinks Roy Halladay is the best pitcher in the league and says it would have been nice to have him in his pitching rotation this upcoming year. |
MINNEAPOLIS - Misplayed flyballs, poor baserunning, squandered at-bats. Jim Leyland’s team made a season’s worth of mistakes, all in one game.
The Detroit Tigers put a fitting end to a historic collapse by committing every blunder imaginable in a 6-5, 12-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins on Tuesday night in the AL Central tiebreaker.
Trying to win their first division title since 1987, the Tigers held a seven-game lead on the Twins on Sept. 6. But they limped to an 11-16 finish that made them the first team since 1901 to miss out on the playoffs after holding a three-game lead with four to play.
They had countless chances — in the last month and in this one-game playoff for the Central crown — to put away the Twins and they blew every one of them.
“We had it won maybe four or five times, easily,” second baseman Placido Polanco said. “We came out after 162 games and we had our chances and didn’t get the key hits. We got nothing.”
The Tigers had the bases loaded with one out in the 12th, runners at the corners with nobody out in the ninth — and still somehow came up empty both times.
In the 12th, Brandon Inge appeared to be hit on the billowy part of his jersey by a pitch from Bobby Keppel. Leyland came out for a brief argument and Inge seemed set to head to first base, but plate umpire Randy Marsh told the manager to go back to the dugout and told the batter to get back in the box.
Inge hit a bouncer up the middle and Twins second baseman Nick Punto made a nifty stab and throw home to get Miguel Cabrera. Keppel then struck out Gerald Laird swinging to end the inning, setting up Alexi Casilla’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the inning.
In the ninth, the Tigers had Adam Everett on third base and Curtis Granderson on first with nobody out against Joe Nathan. Polanco struck out looking and Granderson’s lean off of first base allowed shortstop Orlando Cabrera to double him off first base on a line drive to end the inning.
“That’s a mistake,” Granderson said. “There were a lot of them made today.”
The Tigers took a 5-4 lead with a double by Inge in the 10th, only to have Ryan Raburn give it back in the bottom of the inning with an unnecessarily aggressive play on a sinking liner from Michael Cuddyer.
Rather than try to protect the lead and keep the ball in front of him for a base hit, Raburn went for the “SportsCenter” highlight and attempted a sliding catch. The ball squirted past him and rolled all the way to the wall, allowing Cuddyer to make it to third, a Dome triple if there ever was one.
“It was one of those unfortunate things that happened,” Raburn said. “I was right on it until it went in the lights.”
Cuddyer scored on a single by Matt Tolbert, though Raburn atoned for his miscue later in the inning by throwing out Casilla at the plate to prolong the game.
Rookie Rick Porcello was strong in the start for the Tigers, but his errant pickoff attempt in the third inning allowed Tolbert to score the Twins’ first run of the game.
The Tigers’ 7-2 victory over the Twins at Comerica Park on Sept. 30 gave them a three-game lead with four to play, getting about as close to wrapping up their first division title since 1987 as a team can get.
But they dropped the first two games of the final series of the season to the floundering White Sox at home, allowing the Twins to tie them atop the division and setting up this thrilling 163rd game of the season.
“This game,” Raburn said, “is always going to be in the back of our minds.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM BASEBALL |
 Baseball Section Front |
| Add Baseball headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links