And so it ends for the Detroit Tigers this year. Ciao, auf wiedersehen, sayonara, arrivaderci, au revoir, and catch ya down the road. The fat lady has not only sung her tune but, like Elvis, she's left the building. It's over.
Ironically enough, as Julio's kid brother Jose Iglesias was swinging at air for strike three to complete the final out -- Torii Hunter stood in the on deck circle awaiting his turn at bat. And that seems to be pretty much the story of his baseball career. Hunter's been a very good player for a long time during his stints with a few major league teams, but he never made it to the World Series. Then again, it's tough to shed tears over a guy that's enjoyed the life of luxury that comes with being a major league baseball player for a couple decades, and probably has $100 million or so in the bank -- but he's a nice guy, and it would have also been nice to see him get to the Big Dance at least once. Alas, perhaps some things just aren't meant to be.
Nevertheless, the Tigers were living on borrowed time. There were many throughout the year that said their batting line-up was a regular Murderer's Row. Just one problem. When the playoffs started, they turned into the Bowery Boys. Throw in a shaky bullpen and, save for their stellar starting pitchers doing yeoman's duty to keep things from getting out of control, the Tigers likely shouldn't have got by the Oakland A's in the ALDS. It continued against a far better team in the Bosox. Hey, no matter how you slice it and dice it, if a team can't hit and score runs when the pressure is on -- their margin of error becomes razor thin. Tick, tick, tick.......
And that's exactly how it finally went down against the Red Sox. They've got a fearsome line-up as well, and it was just a matter of time before a bomb went off in the Tigers' faces. Actually, the final score of 5-2 was misleading. It could and probably should have been much worse.
Dustin "Muddy Chicken" Pedroia, the 2nd baseman of the the Bosox, hit a towering shot over the "green monster" in Fenway Park's left field for an apparent 3-run homer. It's going, going.... foul by about a foot. Jonny Gomes of Boston launched another rocket estimated at 440+ feet that would have been a home run in any other stadium. But it hit the 37 foot tall wall a few inches from the top in deep left-center field to bounce back for only a double.
Once again, Tiger manager Jim Leyland appeared clueless. With two Boston runners already on base and David Ortiz waiting to bat -- the Marlboro Man opted to leave starting pitcher Max Scherzer (who had already thrown well over 100 pitches) in to face him. Ortiz had a .389 lifetime batting average against Scherzer, and wasn't he the same guy that dinged the Tigers for a grand slam a few games back? If the TV folks knew that -- then Leyland sure as heck should have too. Bad move, but as luck would have it, Ortiz would merely fly out.
Then, when Scherzer appeared to be back in control -- incredibly -- Leyland gave him the hook for a relief pitcher. Who promptly served up another grand slam to put the game pretty much out of reach, and get the aforementioned fat lady warming up.
In the end, though likely a favorite to win the AL Cy Young award, Scherzer gets tagged with the ultimate loss and the Tigers turned puddy-tats go back to Motown to clean out their lockers for another year.
But you know what? Justice has been served in a way. While the playoffs can certainly be a crap shoot -- over the course of the entire season, the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals had the two best records, and I dare say the two most complete teams.
It's only fitting they should bump heads in the upcoming World Series.
Like David Ortiz said in the post-game celebration at Fenway --- bring it on.
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