Tigers fall to Indians in close game
Offense comes up empty in clutch situations
DETROIT -- Less than a week into his first season with the Indians, he's
already given another team reason to call him Aaron Freakin' Boone.
To Alan Trammell, though, it's hard to call Boone a Tiger killer after the
chances his team had to strike back.
"The opportunities we had, we didn't cash in," Trammell said after Friday
night's 4-3 loss to the Indians at Comerica Park. "We gave them a couple of
runs and it cost us."
Boone's tiebreaking two-run homer in the eighth inning ended up being the
difference, but the Tigers had a chance to tie the game later. Three times,
Detroit had the bases loaded with two outs against Cleveland relievers. The
one run they scored in those situations came on an RBI walk, and they came
within a ball of tying the game that way, too, as some of the same fans who
booed Bobby Higginson on Opening Day chanted his name Friday.
It was the kind of game the Tigers think they could see plenty of times
against the Indians this season.
"Last year we had some good games," Rondell White said. "When they come in,
they mean business."
Friday's battle came down to a draw until Boone stepped to the plate against
Urbina. The last game-deciding home run Boone hit was in the 2003 ALCS,
earning him a special place alongside Bucky Dent in Red Sox lore.
Travis Hafner had just worked a nine-pitch at-bat into a one-out single
against Urbina, who fired one fastball after another before Hafner hit his
changeup. Three pitches later, Boone took a 1-1 fastball and lined it over
the fence in left.
Urbina's fastball has been gaining velocity and life since the start of a
dominating performance in Spring Training, when it was clocking in as high as
94 miles per hour on the stadium radar gun. Yet Boone's homer marked the
third time Urbina had been scored upon in as many games this season, though
the run he allowed Thursday against Kansas City was unearned.
"Nobody's going to be perfect," Trammell said. "I think it's a little
premature to really make any assumptions at this point."
A half-inning later, Boone had the Tigers rallying. His second error in as
many games put leadoff batter White on base. Another error, this one when
Jhonny Peralta tried to flip the ball to second base for a force out, put
another runner on base. After Brandon Inge singled to load the bases,
Trammell ended the day off for Carlos Guillen, putting him to the plate as a
pinch-hitter against David Riske.
Riske fell behind on a 2-0 count to Guillen but recovered to strike him out
on a high fastball.
"I thought it was the right thing to do," Trammell said. "It just didn't work
out."
Riske then fell behind on a 3-1 count to Omar Infante. He drew a high strike
call from home plate umpire Paul Schreiber, but missed inside on the full
count to drive in White.
That brought up Higginson and brought on the chants.
"Bob-by! Bob-by!"
Higginson, starting for the second consecutive game in place of flu-stricken
Magglio Ordonez, heard them. Some of them came from fans who were booing
Higginson an inning earlier when he grounded out to first.
"I really think there's a lot of people still behind me," Higginson said.
"They're waiting for me to come around and break out."
He was a pitch away from at least breaking the Indians lead. Riske threw
three consecutive balls out of the strike zone to Higginson before finding
the plate. On a 3-1 pitch, Higginson thought he had his pitch to hit and went
after it. The pop up to left ended the threat.
It was a pitch Higginson was beating himself up over after the game, though
he acknowledged he wanted to be aggressive with a 3-1 count.
"I probably should've taken it, waited for another one," he said. "But you
don't have much time. It kind of started in there and ran off to the corner.
Even if [Schreiber] had called it a strike, I still would've had another
pitch. But it probably wasn't the best pitch to swing at."
The chants subsided. "If I would've gotten a hit, it would've been great,"
Higginson said, "and I would've maybe had some more people on my side. But
since I didn't, then maybe I'll lose a few more."
It was dramatic theater from a rivalry that has had more than its share of
close games over the last few years but not the significance to match until
this season.
"I have a feeling we're going to battle each other all year," Trammell said
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