Detroit Tigers Come Back To Win #95, Start Playoffs At New York Friday

The Tigers needed to win tonight's game to have a chance at home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They also needed the Angels to beat the Rangers. They made good on the first part of the deal, even after falling behind 3-0 to the Indians. Rick Porcello pitched six decent innings tonight, giving up three runs on just five hits. The Tigers got one in the 4th, 2 more in the 6th to tie it at 3-3.
Ryan Perry gave the lead back in the 7th and the Tigers tied it back up at 4-4 in the bottom of the inning. Jhonny Peralta was the hero in tonight's game hitting the game-winning home run in the bottom of the 8th on the first pitch he saw from Vinnie Pestano. As I'm driving home from work, I hear Jim Price and Dan Dickerson go on and on about how Pestano has dominated right-handed hitters this season. How he has faced 126 righties and only gave up 14 hits so far. I'm thinking, "we've got him right where we want him". Jhonny didn't disappoint, and deposited the very first pitch from Pestano into the left field seats to give the Tigers a 5-4 lead. Jose Valverde pitched the 9th to earn his 49th save in 49 attempts. He gave up one hit to make it a little more exciting than most of us would want, but struck out Jim Thome and Astrubal Cabrera to end the game.

The Tigers needed to win and for the Texas Rangers to lose tonight to grab home field advantage for the first round of the postseason. Instead, the Rangers beat the Angels 3-1 and will face the winner of the wild card race, which is still to be determined as of this writing.

Detroit will start the playoffs in New York on Friday night at 8:37. Justin Verlander will start for the Tigers against the Yankees. The game will be on TBS.