Sports

Kelly’s sac fly gives Tigers 2-0 lead in ALDS

HUG IT OUT! Don Kelly hugs and lifts Prince Fielder in celebration after he hit the game-winning sacrifice fly in the Tigers’ 5-4 victory over the Athletics in Game 2 of the ALDS in Detroit. (MCT/Landov)

DETROIT — Don Kelly, the Tigers’ all-purpose utility man who has played every position in the field in his career, added two more listings on his resume yesterday.

Hero. And weight-lifter.

The 190-pound Kelly, who was designated for assignment in August but stayed with the Detroit organization, drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning sacrifice fly to give the Tigers a 5-4 victory and a 2-0 ALDS lead over the A’s yesterday at Comerica Park. He also gave Detroit a chance to sweep the series in Oakland, the site of the final three games. After Kelly did all of that, he hoisted 275-pound teammate Prince Fielder after the winning run scored.

“That was just straight adrenaline.” Kelly said of lifting Fielder.

“Not surprised,” said Fielder, who had been intentionally walked by A’s losing reliever Grant Balfour in the game that had ups, down, turns, twists, errors, wild pitches, everything — including a reliever, winner Al Alburquerque, kissing a baseball. “Whenever Kelly gets fired up, he does things. I’ve seen him run into the bleachers. He’s fine.”

Not as fine as the Tigers. After Alburquerque came on to get the final out in the scoreless top of the ninth, retiring Yeonis Cespedes, on a comebacker (kissing the ball before flipping it to first), the Tigers delivered the decisive score.

With one out, Omar Infante singled before Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera delivered his third hit of the day, a single, to set up first and third. Fielder was intentionally walked. And then Kelly, who did not even know he was on the playoff roster until Friday, drove an 0-1 fastball to right.

“You’ve got to relax. The game is on the line, 45,000 people going nuts you have to try to relax and try to calm down,” Kelly said. “Those are the moments you live for. You have to calm yourself down.”

So he came through leaving the Tigers one win from advancing.

“Up two? Yeah, we got a good shot,” Fielder said.

But there was no overconfidence.

“No man, you can’t feel too good,” Cabrera said. “You never know what’s going to happen. The A’s have got a lot of energy and never give up.”

Neither did Detroit yesterday, despite Oakland claiming the lead three times: 1-0 in the third on a Cespedes RBI single, 2-1 in the seventh on a Cliff Pennington RBI hit and then 4-3 in the eighth when Tigers reliever Joaquin Benoit wild pitched one run home and then was tagged for a solo homer by Josh Reddick, who had fanned three times against Tigers starter Doug Fister. Fister allowed just two runs and six hits over seven innings. He also struck out eight.

“You just got to move on,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “If you let it stick in your craw then you won’t be prepared to the best of your capabilities on Tuesday [Game 3]. So you’ve got to let it go.”

Could be hard, especially with the way the A’s allowed the Tigers to claim a 3-2 lead in the seventh.

With two on and two out, Cabrera lofted a fly to shallow center where Coco Crisp, playing deep, charged in — and in and in. Finally, Crisp got in position and tried a basket catch, but the ball hit the heel of his glove, bounced up, around, then tantalizingly eluded the center fielder’s barehanded stab. The two-run error scored Austin Jackson and Infante.

“The other guys picked me up after that error,” Crisp said. “I had a good read on that ball. I was playing deep. Came in, it was a judgment call, try to catch it like that or try to slide into it. I felt I should have made the catch. It would have been nice to get that second-effort catch, too.”

After Benoit wild-pitched one run home and surrendered Reddick’s shot, the wild pitch reared its head in the bottom of the eighth when reliever Ryan Cook wild-pitched in the tying run.