Tigers' collapse complete; Twins win in 12 innings
Alexi Casilla, who was thrown out at the plate on a poor tag-up in the 10th inning, came through with the winning hit in the 12th, a soft, bouncing single to right field that brought Carlos Gomez sprinting home for a 6-5 victory over the Tigers in what now was not the last baseball game at the Metrodome.
The Twins, who were seven games behind the Tigers in the American League Central early last month, advance to the playoffs to face the Yankees, starting in New York on Wednesday night.
The Tigers finished 86-77, unable to get into the playoffs despite holding at least a share of first place for most of the season. Tonight, with the loss in Game 163, is the first time they've been out of first since May 9.
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Tigers all year weaknesses...
Who to Blame
Why wouldn't he stay in Detroit! he obviously likes his situation here. So stop babbling about our manager here and worry about yours in Seattle.
Who to Blame
TOM:KEEP DRINKING THAT LEYLAND KOOL-AID, IF YOU WOULD HAVE FOLLOWED THIS FORUM & THE SEASONS GAMES YOU WOULD FIND ALL THE BLUNDERS HE HAS MADE SINCE 2006, FOR YOU TO MEDICATE YOURSELF WITH THIS BARFING TOXIC MIXTURE YOUR PUKING SHOWS A LOT OF PEOPLE ON HERE THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE f YOUR TALKING about, have a nice x-mas & check the forum & the games sometime in the future so you will be better armed to discuss the tigers Manager of the year.
Who to Blame
No one is to be blamed. It was a hard-fought close game and either team could have won it. Jim Leland is an outstanding manager; any team would be lucky to have him. I don't understand why he stays in Detroit.
Who to Blame
Although the players are the guys who choked with runners in scoring position game after game, Leyland should take the brunt of the blame on this collapse.
Figaro starts Saturday?
Laird allowed to swing on 3-1 with bases juiced? Leyland had a great hitting catcher fall into his lap in August. Instead of playing and developing that raw talent, Leyland benches Avila more than he plays him. Laird calls a good game, throws out 40% of attempted base stealers...yeah, yeah, yeah whatever. You have to hit to win. How many Tiger fans believed that Laird would come through in the top of the 12th with the bases juiced? Would you have felt better if Avila was given a chance to drive in some runs? Instead of developing talent, Leyland suppressed it.
Leyland out thinks himself in a game that is easier to coach than any other major sport.
Did Leyland ever step up in the locker room and challenge the guys or did he just sulk like he does in his postgame interviews? I am so sick of this "these guys are professionals" and never need to be challenged approach. Athletes at any level can respond to motivation provided by a coach. Leyland just dwidled his thumbs and acted as if they already clinched.
The players stunk up the joint down the stretch and don't deserve to be in the playoffs. Too often coaches get praised for success and take blame for failure. In this case Leyland deserves the blame. He just got in the way. It's pretty simple Jim. Let your best players play and stay out of the way.
Tigers collapse complete
Winning managers don't take out a guy batting .500 in last three weeks for a 2nd year kid hitting .240, then top it off with throwing your closer out there for a THIRD inning. Will someone please tell the manager that the guy named Raburn is not an outfielder.
Tigers Lose
Please get us a stinking bullpen!!! And a couple of hitters that can hit over .270!!! We might win even more games AND make the playoffs instead of choke!
It is really hard being a Tigers fan.
This game epitomize the Tigers whole season.
Nothing left to really say. I remember a caller on a Detroit sports talk show saying that the Twinkies would chase the Tigers down and they did just that.
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