He shocked the Yankees fans at least. Scott Proctor walks two in ninth, and faces Craig Monroe with two out. He launches the first pitch into the net over monument park to bring the Tigers back from the brink of a sweep and give Detroit a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the ninth. His 23rd home run of the season matches his career high, and 13 of the 23 have come with men on base.
Update: Todd Jones get the Yankees in order in the ninth, and the Tigers complete the 5-3 win. With both Chicago and Minnesota trailing in their games, the Tigers have a chance to extend their AL Central lead by 1/2 game over both with the split.
Monroe just missed a tying HR by about a foot in the 7th, so it was great to see him pull it off in the 9th.
Hopefully, this will spark the Tigers to break out of their recent 6-14 slump and make a string finish.
This, along with Farnsworth’s blown save against the Tigers earlier in the year, makes it clear just how valuable Rivera is to the Yanks.
In theory I agree that getting the three outs in the ninth inning should be no different from getting any other three outs, but somehow it is clear that Rivera is better at getting the last three outs than anyone else the Yanks throw out there.
So far in 2006, in 17 of Mariano’s 58 games, he’s delivered more than 3 outs: 6 games with 4 outs, 3 games with 5 outs, 7 games with 6 outs, and 1 game with 9 outs (May 30). For 11 years he’s been much more than
a 3 out pitcher, but ESPN won’t tell you that. (He has no
games or so-called ‘saves’ of less than 2 outs, unlike others).
So that would make Paulie Baseball’s HR gift-wrapping a blown save by Mo that much more impressive then, huh?
Wow, that Monroe really impresses me. he has decent power number but just an “average” batting average, so to speak. but he comes thru in the clutch. i think 17 of his 23 homers have come 7th inning or later ? more than Abreu had ever done with the Phils. When Abreu was being scouted by the Tigers, i always hoped Monroe would be the trade bait.