Saturday, August 25, 2007

Guillen Hits Walk Off at 3:30 AM

The scheduled starting time for Friday's game was 7:00 PM. 8 1/2 hours later, Carlos Guillen hit a 3 run walk off homer in the 11th inning to beat the Yankees 9-6 at 3:30 AM on Saturday morning. After a four hour rain delay, 22 year old Andrew Miller faced 45 year old Roger Clemens who had won a Cy Young award before Miller was born. Neither pitched well and the game was tied 6-6 after 5 innings.

Great relief work on both sides kept the game going into the 11th. For the Tigers , Tim Byrdak, Jason Grilli, Bobby Seay, Fernando Rodney and Chad Durbin combined for 6 2/3 scoreless innings in perhaps the best relief effort of the year for the Tigers. Rodney was particularly impressive pitching 2 scoreless innings including striking out Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada in succession in the 9th.

The Tigers had some missed opportunities leaving 2 men on in the 9th and 3 men on in the 10th but they finally broke through in the 11th. There were 2 out and nobody on after Placido Polanco of all people got picked off first. However, Sean Casey and Magglio Ordonez (who had 4 hits in the game including a 2 run homer) singled leading up to Guillen's blast.

The other hitting hero, besides Guillen and Ordonez, was Curtis Granderson who went 4 for 6 including his 20th and 21st triples of the year. Granderson became the first Tiger with 20 triples since Ty Cobb in 1917 and the first Major Leaguer with 21 triples since Lance Johnson in 1996.

It was a long long night but it was a game for the ages and definitely worth staying up for.

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