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KEY STAT
9 extra base hits by Detroit.
KEY PLAY
Wilson Betemit home run in the first inning. This was key because a day after hearing "he ain't right" out of Jim Leyland's mouth, Betemit was really quite right after all.
KEY THOUGHTS
Detroit just wasn't content with a nice lead tonight. An 8-2 lead became a 9-6 final. Youch. On the bright side, Jose Valverde recorded his 48th save in 48 attempts. So I guess some good came of it.
Daniel Schlereth avoided too much trouble pitching in relief of Max Scherzer in the sixth. Phil Coke made up for that in the seventh, giving up all sorts of hits and two runs as well.
Positives: Delmon Young. Well, let's make that Delmon Young at the plate. Delmon Young in the field was, well, Delmon. He nearly made a "nice" catch at the wall but he dropped it. (Now before Twins fans out there snicker too much, let's just remember that Ryan Raburn would have batted the ball over the fence. Or else he would have dropped it, too, like he did with an easy fly ball to right field today.) Like I said, DY Jr made up for it at the plate. An RBI single in the first, a two-run homer in the fourth, three hits overall. A good showing.
Miguel Cabrera went 2-for-5 with a HR to extend his batting average to 343. (Fun/pointless fact: When I lived in Detroit, that was the middle three digits of our phone number!) And of course Victor Martinez had two hits as well.
The Tigers have 94 wins.
OTHER STUFF
The Rangers are about to have 95 wins because the Angels apparently aren't going to give their home fans a lot to cheer about in the final series of the year. Thanks, Anaheim.
Boston and Tampa are still tied for the AL wild card.
Atlanta and St. Louis are tied for the NL wild card.
There is one game left in the season.