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DETROIT — Beads of sweat dripped from Phil Coke’s forehead following a very nervous ninth inning in which he was asked to save a must-win for the Tigers.
Standing in front of his Comerica Park locker after he induced Mike Napoli to ground out with two runners on and seal a 7-5 ALCS Game 5 victory over the Rangers, Coke delivered a message that might be hard to understand from a math standpoint.
“We are in a better position than they are because we are used to having our backs to the wall,” the former Yankees reliever who was the closer because the Tigers were without setup man Joaquin Benoit and closer Jose Valverde due to recent heavy workloads.
The Tigers beat the Yankees in a decisive Game 5 in the ALDS and were nine innings away from going home when yesterday’s game started. Now, thanks to a large dose of luck, Justin Verlander’s gutty seven-plus innings and Coke’s successful, if nervous ninth, the Tigers are still trailing, 3-2, in the best-of-seven affair, but at least breathing.
Game 6 is tomorrow night in Arlington where Derek Holland goes for the Rangers and Max Scherzer starts for the Tigers.
A Game 7 is slated for Sunday night.
The luck surfaced in the sixth when Miguel Cabrera hit what appeared to be a double play ball from C.J. Wilson to third baseman Adrian Beltre with the score tied, 2-2.
Beltre was in position to field the ball behind the bag and start what would have been a 5-4-3 double play. But the ball hit the front of the base and bounced high over Beltre’s head and scored Ryan Raburn, who had singled, from first for a 3-2 lead. Victor Martinez followed with an RBI triple and Delmon Young slugged his second homer of the game and fifth of the postseason.
“I don’t know, it’s tough to say,” Cabrera said when asked if he believed the grounder was a double play ball. “You are hoping for a bobble or something. I was lucky.”
Since the hits were a single, double, triple and homer it was a natural cycle and the first time accomplished in the postseason (1,319 games).
Suddenly, a pitching showcase between Verlander and Wilson had some air.
Raburn added the fourth Tigers home run in the seventh for a 7-2 lead. But when Verlander’s 133rd pitch, a career high that was clocked at 100-mph, was hit off the left-field foul pole by Nelson Cruz for a two-run homer, the Tigers began to sweat.
Manager Jim Leyland vowed before the game he wasn’t going to use Benoit or Valverde. Instead he hoped Verlander and Coke would be enough.
So, with the lead shaved to 7-4 and one out in the eighth, Leyland summoned the left-handed Coke who was 3-9 with a 4.47 ERA in 48 regular-season games (14 starts). Coke responded by retiring two straight batters before the nervousness started in the ninth.
After getting the first two batters, Coke gave up a double to Josh Hamilton, an RBI single to Young and walked Beltre.
That brought Napoli to the plate and Coke just missed with the first pitch.
“I thought it caught the corner but (the umpire) said, no,” Coke said. “You feel the, ‘Uh, oh and the O My God.’ But I got more of the plate with the next pitch and got the ground ball.”