|
On a gray October afternoon in Detroit, with the rain falling just lightly enough to play ball, the Tigers and Rangers renewed acquaintances from last year’s Wild Card series — only this time, the script was flipped.
Last October, it was Texas that swept Detroit aside.
Today… it was Detroit that drew first blood.
“And a pleasant good afternoon to you wherever you may be,” as Troy Fleming stepped in, already having the look of a man ready to carve his name into a ballgame. And carve he did.
Texas struck first — a single run in the top of the first — the kind of early tally that makes the visiting dugout sit a little taller. But Detroit, oh Detroit, answered like a team eager to rewrite history. In the bottom half, Santiago Velasquez came up with two aboard and one out. Velasquez, the designated hitter, not known for many words, let his bat speak with a clean, sharp single into center field… and two Tigers crossed the plate. It was 2–1 Detroit, and they never looked back.
And then came Troy Fleming.
It was one of those days when the baseball must have looked as large as a harvest moon. Two doubles — both with two outs — and each one carving just a little more hope out of the Texas bullpen. He scored twice, he drove in two, and with every step around the bases, the 48,789 fans who had braved the drizzle seemed to warm just a little more beneath their ponchos.
By the end of the third inning, Detroit had piled up eight runs — four in that inning alone — and the Rangers were left trying to steady themselves against a Michigan wind blowing in from left field at ten miles per hour, as if even nature was pushing back against them.
Texas fought — to their credit they fought — scoring in the fourth, in the fifth, and again in the eighth… but every time they closed the door, Detroit quietly opened another window. A single here, a sac fly there, a double stitched down the line like a tailor finishing a uniform.
And speaking of tailoring, T. Wesley, Detroit’s starting pitcher, worked through 7 and 2/3 innings with the kind of determined, blue-collar grit this city knows so well. He threw 148 pitches — not a misprint — and seemed to grow stronger, not weaker, when a 19-minute rain delay interrupted the proceedings in the sixth.
There was even a bit of Wild West drama: in the eighth inning, Ruben Guzman of Texas was tossed out after arguing a strike call. And like the weather, the mood soured briefly, then drifted away on the breeze.
When the final out settled into a glove, the Tigers had taken Game 1 of the Wild Card series, 9–5. A rematch of last year’s sweep, and this time the Tigers are hoping to take the brooms out of the closet.
And as the fans filed out into a damp Detroit afternoon, one could almost hear the old refrain:
“In baseball, as in life, there’s always another chapter waiting to be written.”
Tomorrow, they’ll write the next one at Comerica Park.
|