The Detroit Tigers defeated the Oakland Athletics 3-1 on Friday night behind recently acquired righthander Doug Fister, who threw eight solid innings. The victory clinched the AL Central title for the Tigers, their first division championship since 1987, when they won the old AL East. (Detroit's 2006 World Series appearance came when they won the AL Wild Card.)
Tigers Clinch AL Central Title; Athletics Try To Upstage Detroit’s Big Day
But the home team nearly upstaged this event, the first division clinching of 2010, with several wacky occurrences, some of which were planned, some not. SB Nation Bay Area runs down all the events of the evening:
Star Wars Night might have been the impetus for some interesting events for the evening. Before the game, a couple was married behind home plate. That seems cool enough. However, just to make things a little more interesting, Coast Guard Lt. Luke Peterson is on a treadmill attempting to run a marathon before the completion of the game...
Peterson got a bit of help this evening as the stadium lights near the infield went out, leaving the infield in darkness.
When the lights came back on after a 16-minute delay, Detroit right fielder Don Kelly hit a home run, his fifth of the season, off Trevor Cahill to give the Tigers the breathing room they needed with the 3-1 lead. Fister allowed just three Oakland hits, all singles, in his eight innings, and Jose Valverde, despite giving up a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth to Coco Crisp, finished the game for his 45th save in 45 chances this season.
The Tigers will now turn their attention to postseason seeding. They are currently ranked second in the American League with 88 wins, two games ahead of the Rangers but just 2.5 games behind the Yankees for the AL's best record. Since the wild card winner is likely to come out of the AL East and thus cannot play the East champion (likely the Yankees, although New York is just 3.5 games ahead of the Red Sox), the Tigers would wind up playing the wild card winner if they finish first or second among division winners. If they finish third, they'd likely face the Yankees (or the Red Sox if they win the AL East) with the wild card winner playing the Rangers.
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