Bad-luck double play coming before Miguel Cabrera homer costs Tigers
A half-inning before the Baltimore Orioles blew Game 1 of the American League Division Series wide open, the Detroit Tigers had something cooking. Unfortunately for them, it was only a bad-luck double play that prevented Miguel Cabrera from being able to tie the score, or even put them ahead, with one swing.
Down two runs in the top of the eighth, Ian Kinsler worked a walk against right-hander Darren O’Day and tried to put himself in scoring position by stealing second base with Torii Hunter batting and Cabrera on deck. On a 2-2 pitch, Kinsler took off and appeared to have the base stolen, but Hunter hit a line drive — right at shortstop J.J. Hardy — who with minimal effort threw back to first to easily double-up Kinsler.
Tough break. And it got even tougher, because on the next pitch, Cabrera stroked a solo home run to right-center, bringing the Tigers within a run. Of course if the double play doesn’t happen, it’s impossible to say for sure that Cabrera hits a home run with a man or two aboard. O’Day would try to pitch him differently with runners on, certainly.
Regardless, it would be the closest the Tigers came, because the Orioles scored eight runs in the bottom of the eighth and won going away 12-3.
The running play with Kinsler and Hunter looked like the old hit-and-run, like Sparky Anderson used to call frequently when he managed the Tigers once upon a time. But the call for Kinsler to run didn’t come from the bench, manager Brad Ausmus said:
Kinsler corroborated what Ausmus said. Via MLB.com:
“That’s a guy that you can run on, and it’s a good opportunity to run right there,” Kinsler said. “Just bad luck.”
As Ausmus pointed out, it’s unusual for a player to hit a line drive right at a defender, like Hunter did. That part was bad luck for sure. The problem with Kinsler calling his own number there — with a 2-2 count — is that Hunter definitely would be swinging at a strike, which he got. Also, with Kinsler running, the right side of the infield opened up with second baseman Jonathan Schoop covering the bag. On a planned hit-and-run, if Hunter had a head’s up, he could have tried to hit the ball the other way.
Kinsler either needed to go earlier in the count, or the Tigers needed to put on an actual hit-and-run. Sparky would have loved it. Instead, they ran into some bad luck. But they’re also not totally blameless.
If the Tigers could have changed how the top of the eighth inning went, who’s to say the bottom half wouldn’t have gone better, and perhaps they come away with a victory? Hitting into the double play, though, probably killed their chances to win right then and there.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter!
