推 leddy:關鍵時刻投出最好的伸卡球就夠了 10/04 17:01
Tigers blow big chances to score in early innings
October 4, 2006
Email this Print this BY JON PAUL MOROSI
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER
Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez tags out Tigers outfielder Magglio Ordonez after he tries to steal third in the second inning of the American League Division Series on Tuesday. Ordonez had gotten on base with a double. (KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press)
NEW YORK -- The first runs of this American League Division Series were on the basepaths, ready for a Detroit bat, big or small, to drive them in.
Chien-Ming Wang, the young New York starter, had surrendered a Magglio Ordonez double and Carlos Guillen walk to start the second inning on Tuesday night.
The Tigers, in need of some validation after a lost weekend against Kansas City, had a grand opportunity to silence 56,291 spectators at Yankee Stadium and announce their collective return.
At that moment, Detroit manager Jim Leyland opted to hit-and-run. Wang is a sinkerball pitcher who yields many more ground balls than fly balls, so Leyland banked that Pudge Rodriguez might drive a ball through the infield.
The strategy seemed sound. Still, it failed.
Rodriguez swung and missed at the 1-0 pitch, and Ordonez was thrown out at third base, as the potential game-changing rally vanished. The Tigers never recovered in an 8-4 Game 1 loss.
"Hit-and-run, you've got to swing no matter what," Rodriguez said. "That ball would have hit my back knee. It was a tough pitch.
"You throw a 96-, 97-m.p.h. sinker, at your back knee, it's tough to hit."
Rodriguez had hoped to hit the ball to the right side, but that was virtually impossible on a pitch that hard and that far inside.
Afterward, Leyland called it "the best sinker he threw all night." And it could not have come at a worse time for Detroit.
The Tigers had clearly sensed the moment's importance. Gene Lamont, the third base coach, whistled toward Rodriguez and pulled him aside before he stepped into the batter's box. The reeling Wang, meanwhile, conferred with his catcher, Jorge Posada.
Rodriguez squared around to bunt on the first pitch, then pulled back. It was a ball. Leyland later explained that the bunt attempt would draw in the corner infielders and make the hit-and-run more effective.
Good thinking. Bad result.
Wang's sinker bit viciously toward Rodriguez as he swung. He swung over the top of it. Ordonez, who is not fast, was out by several feet. The crowd roared.
The move's failure made the Tigers look anxious. It also seemed to revive Wang's confidence. He struck out Rodriguez with a 96-m.p.h. fastball and retired Craig Monroe -- on another routine grounder -- to end the inning.
Later, Detroit surged with a three-run fifth that featured Monroe's solo home run off Wang. The game became close enough that Ordonez batted twice -- unsuccessfully -- as the tying run. Yet, the momentum-turning hit never arrived.
"We battled," Marcus Thames said. "We had chances."
The series of events demonstrated that there are two ways for the Tigers to win games in this series. One is to play for big innings and hope that their rallies somehow trump the Yankees' inevitable bounty. The other is to bunt, hit and run, hoping that one run here and there will be enough to win behind an otherworldly pitching performance. Leyland's early approach on Tuesday suggested that he had opted for the latter course.
Detroit had another grand chance in the third inning, when Thames led off with a double. Brandon Inge, the next hitter, would have done well to poke the ball to the right side and enable Thames to advance. It was the same task he had in the 11th inning on Sunday, when a single through a drawn-in infield would have delivered the AL Central.
But that ball never came. And neither did this one. Inge leaned forward, rolled over another sinker and grounded meekly to third.
Later in the third, Placido Polanco, the put-it-in-play par excellence, came up with men on the corners and one out. He choked up an inch or two on his bat and prepared to push the game's first run across.
Again, though, Wang enticed a ground ball to the left side. Derek Jeter ranged to deep shortstop, scooped up the ball and spun the inning-ending double play.
New York's five-run inning followed. The Tigers had no suitable reply and were left to regroup for Game 2.
"We've got to find a way," Thames said. "We've just got to find a way."
Contact JON PAUL MOROSI at 313-223-4097 or jmorosi@freepress.com.
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