DETROIT — On a day Yankees managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner took public his dissatisfaction with the organization’s farm system, a one-time Yankees prospect helped keep another high-payroll, high-expectation team alive by busting out of a deep postseason slump.
And really, if any doubt lingered the Tigers are the ultimate winners in the high-impact, three-team trade that went down in December 2009, you probably can eliminate that now.
Austin Jackson, used by general manager Brian Cashman to acquire Curtis Granderson from the Tigers in that deal, delivered a seventh-inning, broken-bat, RBI single Tuesday to lift Detroit over the A’s, 8-6, in a thrilling American League Division Series Game 4 at Comerica Park. The Tigers scored three more runs in the eighth, and Max Scherzer, whom Detroit acquired from Arizona in that same deal, threw two innings of high-wire relief, escaping a no-out, bases-loaded situation in the eighth, to preserve his own win and send this series, now tied at two games apiece, to a winner-take-all Game 5 Thursday in Oakland.
“You don’t even know,” Jackson said, when asked to describe his relief. “I was just happy that it fell. Looking over in the dugout and seeing how pumped up they were for me, it just kind of gave me chills a little bit. [I was] just happy to get it done in that moment.”
The 26-year-old Jackson, completing his fourth season as the Tigers’ starting center fielder, has been a multi-tool asset, yet there’s no mystery as to his weak spot: He strikes out a lot. He has 614 regular-season whiffs in 2,304 at-bats — that’s more than one every four at-bats — and through three trips to the plate Tuesday, he was 1-for-14 with 10 strikeouts in this series, including three strikeouts in this game.
With Victor Martinez having tied the score at 4-4 with a leadoff homer in the seventh off A’s reliever Sean Doolittle that rightfully survived an instant-replay audit, returning Biogenesis client Jhonny Peralta doubled to left field and was replaced by pinch-runner Andy Dirks. Al Avila struck out, Omar Infante lined out to center field and rookie Jose Iglesias walked, bringing up Jackson.
The right-handed hitter fell quickly into an 0-2 hole, and you figured you knew what was coming. Not quite. After fouling off a pitch, Jackson shattered his bat on a 96 mph Doolittle fastball and sent it the other way to right field — not strong enough for it to stay in the air. Instead, it fell in front of helpless A’s right fielder Josh Reddick, and Dirks motored home for the go-ahead run.
“I was just trying to relax,” Jackson said, “just trying to calm myself down and take some deep breaths up there and not get down on myself. … [I] was able to get another fastball in the zone and put it in play.”
“Hopefully that gets him going,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “As you know, he’s struggled in this series a little bit, but sometimes that’s the magic that gets a guy going.”