In this day game after a night game, Skipper Leyland rested several of his regulars. Brad Penny's own throwing error led to four White Sox unearned runs in the second inning.
The Tigers stayed close, though, and the score stood five to two with but one inning more to play.
Anyone who turned the game off at this point should have known better, because lately something good always happens when it's most needed.
Leyland sent up a succession of pinch hitters against Sox reliever Chris Sale. Peralta struck out. Raburn homered (5-3 Sox). Ordonez walked. Inge was announced.
Sox manager Ozzie Guillen brought in his righty closer, Sergio Santos. The left-handed hitting Alex Avila lurked on the bench. Guillen, however, chose Santos vs. Avila (.301) over Sale vs. Inge (.203).
Avila, who was getting the day off, homered to tie the score.Put it on the board ... YEEEEEEESS !!!
By now, you knew they were going to win it.
In the bottom ninth, the Sox moved Juan P. Air to third with the winning run. Phil Coke got AJ Pierzynski to ground into a double play and send the game into extra innings.
Still with the script, Victor Martinez doubled in the tenth, Will Rhymes ran for him and scored on Carlos Guillen's single, and Valverde struck out the side to post the save.
Now they look like this --
-- and the march continues. For the first time since 1984, and only the second in my lifetime, the Tigers are flattening all opposition on their way to post-season glory. (So this is how it felt to be a Yankee fan in the 50s, and a Braves fan in the 90s.) In 1987 they came from three out in the last week to with the East, and they backed into the 2006 World Series as the wild card after folding down the stretch.
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