Oct 8, 2013; Detroit, MI, USA; Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland (10) before game four of the American League divisional series against the Oakland Athletics at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Tim Fuller-USA TODAY Sports
In 2006 when the Detroit Tigers decided that they needed a veteran manager I was excited to get Jim Leyland. He had won a World Series title with the Florida Marlins, now the Miami Marlins, and worked well with Dave Dombrowski in the past. Well it is now 2013 and I have bashed both Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski more than most. I am not saying I am wrong to critique either one of these gentlemen, however tonight at Coamerica Park brought back wonderful memories of 2006 when Jim Leyland could do no wrong.
In a game that would make even the most veteran of managers nervous Jim Leyland pulled all the right strings.
It started with the decision to once again put controversial choice Johnny Peralta in the lineup. I will admit up to this point the only life this team had shown was the pissing contest Victor Martinez and Grant Balfour got into yesterday. But that all changed when Johnny Peralta came to the plate with 2 on and no outs in the bottom of the fifth and with one mighty swing of the bat he tied the game with a homerun.
Before the game Jim Leyland said that if it was necessary he would bring in Max Scherzer in the seventh inning if he was needed. This was controversial in Tiger forums because some fans wanted Max to start the game on short rest. I was not one of these, the Tigers have one of the best starting pitching rotations in Baseball and you should not mess with that unless you feel like Max on short rest would be better than Doug Fister on normal rest. Leyland was right again and used Max to start the seventh inning after the A’s had once again driven up the starters pitch count passed 100 pitches. In the top pf the seventh inning Max showed why short rest starts are dicey situations by giving up Coco Crisps third hit of the day which drove in the 4th run of the game for the A’s.
In the bottom of the seventh Victor Martinez once again at the heart of a controversy when he hit a deep fly ball to right and Josh Reddick jumped up to try to catch the game tying homerun only to have a fan grab it just before it would have landed above his glove. The umpire’s reviewed the homerun and confirmed that it was indeed a homerun. The Tigers scored 1 more run in the seventh followed by 3 more in the eighth, which brought the score to 8-4. Joaquin Benoit came in the ninth gave u 2 runs to make it 8-6 and then settled down to close out the game and bring the series back to Oakland for a decisive game 5. These are the type of games where I am glad Jim Leyland is our manager because his decisions proved the difference in the most exciting game of the series so far.