Dan Petry started and gave up two runs in the third and fourth innings before being pulled. Bill Scherrer, Doug Bair and Willie kept the Jays scoreless the rest of the way.
A pair of clutch three-run homers put the Tigers over the top. They scored four in the eighth to tie it — thanks to Kirk Gibson‘s homer off Doyle Alexander — and three on Dave Bergman‘s three-run shot in the 10th to win it. Bergie was 4 for 5 on the night.
Miscellany
Venue: Exhibition Stadium
Umpires: HP – Dave Phillips, 1B – Steve Palermo, 2B – Rick Reed, 3B – Jerry Neudecker
The Tigers had no answer for Orioles starter Mike Boddicker, though he gave them plenty of opportunity: six hits and six walks. He also struck out six.
Sparky had zero patience for Rozema, pulling him after facing just four batters in the first, giving up two runs and getting one out. Bill Scherrer got the Tigers out of the inning.
Then, righty Roger Mason made his major-league debut, pitching the final eight innings allowing two runs on five hits, while striking out six.
Detroit cut the 2-0 deficit in half when Nelson Simmons — making his major-league debut — singled home Johnny Grubb for the Tigers’ only run.
Miscellany
Venue: Tiger Stadium
Umpires: HP – Nick Bremigan, 1B – Vic Voltaggio, 2B – Larry McCoy, 3B – Joe Brinkman
‘Twas the final day of the 1984 All-Star Break and the Tigers prepared to start the second half with a four-game series against the Twins at the Metrodome.
So, let’s look at a game from this date in another season: 1977.
Record: 38-46 — 6th place, 10.5 games behind Boston
Highlights
The Blue Jays tagged Tigers starter Dave Roberts with five runs in the top of the first. Detroit answered with a run of their own in the first, and another four in the second to make it 5-5 heading to the third.
Rusty Staub led the Tigers’s 10-hit attack, with a two-for-three night — including a second-inning three-run homer — and four RBI.
Sept. 22: He entered the game against Boston with bases load and two out in the bottom of the ninth, and got Dwight Evans to hit into a 1-3 ground out. Noles earned the save.
Sept. 25: Facing the Blue Jays, he pitched 11/3 innings, allowing a hit, a walk and a run. The Tigers lost 3-2.
Sept. 27: Noles’ final Tigers appearance came in a huge, season-saving Tigers win. Doyle Alexander pitched the first 102/3 innings, and four relievers covered the final 21/3. Noles was the fourth; he entered with two out in the bottom of the 13th and they tying run on first. He got Barfield to hit it to shortstop for a force out at second. Tigers won 3-2 and that was it for Noles in Detroit.
On Oct. 23, 1987, he was returned to the Cubs. That’s a 32-day Tigers career. But given the mayhem of those final 10 days of the 1987 season, those were pretty good days to be with Detroit.
Rained out. It was a scheduled off day in Boston, odd for a Saturday, but it was there in case of a Fenway Park rainout on the Red Sox’s Opening Day.
But, the next two games were washed out and added to a brutal August return to Boston.
The Tigers won’t play again until April 18. The final two games in Boston were washed out, and the first game of the next series, against the Royals in Detroit, was postponed.
The final weekend of the 2009 season is here and the Tigers are in position for the American League Central title. Twenty-two years ago tonight the Tigers started the final season with the A.L. East in their sights. Here’s part seven of our series.
American League East Standings: October 2, 1987
Team
Record
Pct.
GB
Toronto
96-63
.604
–
Detroit
95-64
.597
1
Of all the scenarios facing the Tigers for the final weekend, one was the most cut and dried: sweep the Blue Jays, win the division.
Game one of the decisive series took place on a cold Friday night. A crowd of 45,167 witnessed a rematch of the previous Sunday, Doyle Alexander and Jim Clancy.
The Jays scored first in the top of the second on Manny Lee’s three-run homer to right-center. In the bottom of that same inning the Tigers scored two runs of their own on a Chet Lemon single and a home run by rookie outfielder Scott Lusader.
As the Tigers and Twins wrap up the biggest series of the year with the division title hanging in the balance, we continue our look back on the last great race in Tigers history: 1987 and the seven games against the Toronto Blue Jays in the season’s final 10 days. Today: Game 4, the final game in Toronto.
American League East Standings: September 27, 1987
Team
Record
Pct.
GB
Toronto
96-59
.619
–
Detroit
92-62
.597
3.5
As the Tigers arrived at Exhibition Stadium for the series finale, they knew what was at stake. The chances of coming back from four-and-a-half game deficit in less than a week bordered on the absurd. If ever there were a must-win game, this was it.
The Tigers turned to Doyle Alexander to stop the bleeding. Toronto looked to right-hander Jim Clancy to bury the Tigers’ fading division title hopes.
Nelson Liriano led off the home half of the first with a single to right and promptly stole second. Eventual league MVP George Bell drove in Liriano for Toronto’s first run. Though he baffled the Jays for the next eight innings, Alexander and the Tigers trailed 1-0 heading into the top of the ninth.
Over the next week, we’ll watch the Tigers and Twins play head-to-head to decide the American League Central.
While this plays out, let’s look back at the final two weekends of the 1987 season when the Tigers and Blue Jays squared off for seven heart-pounding, one-run games that would ultimately decide the American League East title.
Today, Part 1.
“I’m telling you, everything is going to come down to our seven games with Toronto.” — Tigers Manager Sparky Anderson, Sept. 21, 1987
Entering the 1987 season, little was expected of the Detroit Tigers. Just three seasons removed from a wire-to-wire championship season, the Tigers were considered mere also-rans in a division filled with potent lineups, solid pitching and the defending League Champions, the Red Sox.
Adding to an already challenging divisional landscape, the Tigers faced life without their All Star catcher and cleanup hitter, Lance Parrish. The Big Wheel rejected the Tigers’ two-year, $2.4 million contract offer and instead signed a one-year $800,000 deal with the Philadelphia Phillies.
That’s why in the first weeks of the 1987 season the story in baseball was not the Detroit Tigers. Hardly. The Milwaukee Brewers’ 13-0 start captivated the baseball world. After 13 games the Tigers had a less-imposing 6-7 record. Twenty games into the season Milwaukee had stormed to 18-2, four games ahead of New York, followed by Toronto (12-8), Baltimore (9-11), Detroit (8-12) and Cleveland (6-14).
Dan Dickerson was quick to point out that Justin Verlander’s shutout on Thursday was the first by a Tigers pitcher at Fenway Park since Doyle Alexander blanked the Red Sox in 1987. (Thanks to a tip from Fungo contributor Doug Hill, we went scrambling for the details.)
The Tigers were a half-game out of first place on Sept. 23, 1987, for the finale of a three-game series against Boston.
Alexander, who blanked the Red Sox a week earlier, 3-0 at Tiger Stadium, faced off with lefty Bruce Hurst and was untouchable.
He allowed singles to the first two batters he faced, Ellis Burks and Marty Barrett, and a two-out walk to Spike Owen in the second and that was it.
Alexander got two runs in the second and one each in the fifth and sixth. Tom Brookens drove in a pair and Alan Trammell knocked home one in the win. (The fourth run was scored on an error.) The Tigers moved on to Toronto for a grueling four-game series for ages against the Blue Jays.
Of all the scenarios facing the Tigers for the final weekend, one was the most cut and dried: sweep the Blue Jays, win the division.
The Tigers turned to 
Over the next week, we’ll watch the Tigers and Twins play head-to-head to decide the American League Central. 
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