Jim Leyland did his darnedest to empty his bench in the eighth. And it worked.
Tigers empty bench, draw even with A’s in similar fashion
To start them off, Delmon Young drilled a solid base hit to center and Jhonny Peralta laced a liner just out of Cliff Pennington’s reach into right field. Both were replaced by pinch-runners (Don Kelly and Danny Worth), and Andy Dirks bunted them over, although he almost turned that into another base hit. Pinch-hitter Quintin Berry (for Avisail Garcia) whiffed on strike three, then against the next batter Ryan Cook’s wild pitch bounced into the stratosphere, scoring Kelly not unlike the way Cespedes tied the game in the top half of the inning.
But unlike Josh Reddick’s mammoth homer, Alex Avila (yes, another pinch-hitter) watched strike three whiz right by him. To the ninth we go.
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