[PLAYOFF] Detroit Tigers(85-76) @ Minnesota Twins(85-76)

[Garrett67]

Leyland needs to go. I'm not really sure if its him or if he is too influenced by his fat buddy on the bench.
They were all losers in Pittsburgh and they're all losers now.

Polanco should have played that game last week.

Porcello should have remained in the game.

Laird can't hit

They cannot score the guy on 3rd, they have proven that time and time again.

They just piss me off ! (again).

The Tigers were in first place since May....... wow!

Did I mention that Leyland needs to go?

And I agree with you Kle about Rayburn and his inability to jump 3 inches to catch that ball. That is the exact same thought I had when the play happened. I immediately thought about that great play Granderson made leaping over the wall and here is Rayburn jumping like he was wearing cement shoes.
Perhaps he lost the ball in the roof? Who knows ...

[Senser81]

1.) How is it that Zach Miner is the first player out of your bullpen in a must-win game? When he's the exact same pitcher as Porcello, just with weaker location on his pitches? Not to mention pulling Porcello at the first sign of trouble anyway when he was, for the most part, having his way with the Twins.

I agree that Porcello was yanked at the first hint of trouble. I think, due to the earliness of yanking Porcello, there was probably no way the Tigers bullpen could hold a slim lead for over 3 innings. If I were Leyland, I would have utilized Verlander from the bullpen at some point. And, if I were going to yank Porcello with so many innings left in the game, I would have planned on having Verlander come in and pitch at that point. As it stood, Leyland probably should have replaced Rodney with Verlander at the end of the game.

2.) Raburn. I fucking hate you Raburn. Yea, yea, I know, he threw a guy out at home. But they're most likely not in that situation if Raburn stays on his feet. There's absolutely no reason to leave your feet for a ball when there's nobody on base, you're up by a run, and there's nobody out. Absolutely no reason. You field that on a hop, and it's a single. There's no reason to make that play. Oh, and how bout actually leaving your feet for that homerun ball? The ball cleared the fence by literally six inches, and your stupid ass could barely get your glove above the 7-foot wall or whatever it is.

I think its too much to ask him to rob the HR ball. I don't mind Raburn for charging in on Cuddyer's ball. What was weird is that Raburn totally miscalculated. He actually slid under and to the left of the ball. The ball went over his mitt. Had he ran in correctly, he could have caught the ball at waist-level with no sliding involved.

3.) How in GOD'S NAME do you not pinch-hit Avila when Laird is up with the bases loaded? You have to be kidding me. Leyland is the coach of this team...we are fans. Could any of you honestly tell me that Laird ever had a CHANCE to put a ball in play? We've seen it for 162.5 games before that at-bat. How does Avila not come in right there? How does Leyland not pretty much know what is going to transpire in that at-bat?

In general, I think both managers started playing little games with their lineups much to soon in the game. Gardenhire taking out Kubel, easily their 2nd best hitter, and putting in Gomez was terrible. It allowed the Tigers to walk Mauer whenever they needed it. It was just dumb luck that Gomez got a hit and scored the winning run.

I don't have a problem with Leyland leaving Laird in. It WAS a horrible at-bat, because Keppel couldn't throw a strike and a walk would bring in a run...yet Laird swung at everything.

5.) If no Seay, why is Perry not in the game either right after Porcello, or after Rodney throws an inning or two? There's absolutely no reason to leave Rodney out there for 3 innings when he hasn't come anywhere close to throwing that much in a game this season.

I guess Rodney had been awful the latter part of the season, and even when he's on he still has control problems. IMO, he didn't pitch badly but he did lose the game, giving up hits to the Twins two worst batters. I think Leyland gambled by leaving Rodney in so long, but I don't understand why Leyland would gamble when you have Verlander in the pen.

6.) I have to mention the umps. How terrible. I realize it was bad on both sides, but it affected the Tigers a lot more. That slider to Polanco wasn't even CLOSE! You can't even use the "it's too close to take" excuse because it wasn't even at that point! And missing Inge getting hit? Come the fuck on.

This is my unbiased view. I think Randy Marsh had a tight strike zone, but in the first half of the game he was squeezing Baker and letting Porcello nibble on the corners. But, after Nathan came in, Marsh's strike zone totally expanded and Nathan got a few borderline calls. I don't know if it was Nathan's reputation or what, but it did appear that Nathan got calls which Baker didn't. There was a strike call on the Twins' Cabrera in the 11th which wasn't even close, but it was only strike two IIRC.

As to Huff and Inge getting hit by pitched balls, I thought it was funny how both players had their jerseys grazed. I also thought it was strange that Marsh said Huff was hit by the ball, because it appeared from that angle there was no way he could see what happened. He would have been blocked by Mauer's body. I thought Marsh had a better angle on the Inge pitch.