Motown sweeps Jays in opening series

Saturday  August 16 at the Sky Dome

The 84 Tigers and 93 Blue Jays opened the KOD10 season with a Saturday afternoon game in the Sky Dome.  Jack Morris and Al Leiter would open the season.  Morris started well, retiring the first 12 Jays he faced.  The Tigers opened the scoring in the third when Sweet Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell had back to back one out singles.  With two out, Lance Parrish drove home Whitaker.  In the sixth, Barbaro Garbey lead off with a single and moved to third on Darrell Evans' single.  Garbey scored on Kirk Gibson's sacrifice fly.  With two outs in the books, Tom Brookens singled.  Whitaker loaded the bases when he was safe on second baseman  Roberto Allomar's error.  Trammell walked to force in  the third run of the game and Larry Herndon singled home Brookens, but Whitaker was cut down at the plate.  The Blue Jays finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Tony Fernandez' triple drove home Devon White who had singled.  Morris was still cruising in the 7th when it all left him.  Jon Olerud had led off the frame with a double but Morris got the next two batters.  After Ed Sprague  singled home Olerud, Pat Borders went yard with the first homer of the season to tie the game.  Morris left and the score remained 4-4 until the top of the 12th.  With two out, Chet Lemon singled and Gibby (Kirk Gibson) drove him to third with a single of his own.  Blue Jay reliever Mark Eichhorn was overly concerned with Gibby's speed and, in an attempt to pick him off, threw the ball away.  Lemon slid home head first beating the throw from Olerud.  Dave Rozema was the winner and Duane Ward took the loss.  Tigers 5  Blue Jays 4

Sunday August 17  at the Sky Dome

In the first, Jose Guzman issued walks to Trammell and Gibson and Trammell scored on Parrish's single.  But the Jays came right back and tied the game off Dan Petry in the bottom of the frame.  A one out walk to Fernandez resulted in a run when, with two out, Olerud tripled.  In the third, White led of with a triple and came home on Fernandez' ground out.  In the fifth, White led off with a single, stole second and third and scored on Paul Molitor's two out single.  The Tigers cut the lead to one in the 6th when Evans led off with a double and scored on Rupert Jones' two out single.  Trammell led off the 7th with a single.  Mike Timlin struck out the next two Tigers but singles by Evans and Lemon tied the game.  Again the teams treated the fans to their money's worth as the game moved into extra innings.  They went into the 14th and Eichhorn again came on for the Blue Jays.  After opening the inning with walks to Trammell and Gibson, Lance Parrsh double home Tammell.  Evans' sacrifice fly scored Gibson and Lemon's double plated Parrish.  Bergman singled home Lemon to round out the scoring.  Doug Bair earned the win with 2.2 innings of work.  Eichhorn took the loss.  Tigers 7  Blue Jays 3

Monday August 18  at Tiger Stadium

The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the first off starter Milt Wilcox.  Fernandez singled with one out, moved to third on Olerud's single and scored on Molitor's ground out.  But the Tigers came right back with three of their own in the bottom of the frame off Jays starter Pat Hentgen.  And it only took three hitters.  Whitaker singled, Trammell tripled and Gibson drove a low inside fastball into the right field upper deck.  In the third, Alomar walked, stole second and went to third when Parrish's throw went nto centerfield.  In the fourth a walk to Dave Bergman and singles by Howard Johnson, Trammell and Gibson produced two runs.  A solo home run by Evans in the 7th gave the Tigers a four run lead.  Aurelio "Senor Smoke" Lopez came in to pitch the 8th but the work of the previous two days showed.  John Olerud led off with a double.  With one out, he came on a single by White and white went to second on the throw to the plate.  He probably would have ended up there anyway as the Tiger pitchers showed no ability to hold Blue Jay runners, allowing 8 stolen bases in the series.  White scored on Darnell Coles' single and Ed Sprague tied it with his first homer of the season.  For the third game in the row, the two teams would go into extra innings.  In the bottom of the 11th, Trammell led off with a walk.  Gibby made a bid to end the game but his drive to deep center was hauled in by White.  Parrish singled and Evans was intentionally walked to load the bases.  With the infield in, Blue Jay reliever Dave Stewart went after Chet Lemon and struck him out for the second out of the inning.  With lefty Dave Bergman coming up, manager Justin Ryan went back to his bullpen and summoned lefty Tony Castillo.  Tiger manager Crash Davis (not Costner, the other one) countered by sending Rusty Kuntz to the plate for his at bat of the season.  Kuntz worked the count full and then ended the game by taking a fourth ball outside and low.  Willie Hernandez earned the win with three perfect inings of relief.  Scott Brow took the loss.  Tigers 7  Blue Jays 6

Tuesday August 19  at Tiger Stadium

Finally, a game that ended in the ninth, and finally, a starter with a victory.  The Tigers scored first in the bottom of the second on Darrell Evans' second homer of the season  In the top of the third, Sprague and Alomar singled.  Rickey Henderson moved them up with a bunt.  Molitor then got his third rbi of the series via a ground out, plating Sprague.  The Jays took a lead in the fifth when Molitor, tired of driving in runs with ground outs, hit his first homerun of the season.  In the 6th, with one out, Parrish singled.  Evans followed with a walk and Lemon drilled a shot to the outfield that scored Parrish, with both runners moving up on the throw to the plate.  Bergman was intentionally walked, but Rupert Jones spoiled the strategy by bouncing an opposite field single past a diving Tony Fernandez to score two runs.  Molitor cut the lead to one in the 7th with his second homer of the game.  The Tigers got that back in the bottom of the 7th when Whitaker led off the inning with his first homer. HoJo drove home another run in the 8th with a sacrifice fly.  Juan Bereguer got the win, and Doug Bair got the save with 3 innings of work.  Blue Jay starter Todd Stottlemyre took the loss.  Tigers 6  Blue Jays 3

--submitted by Tom “Crash” Davis--