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Friday, Sep. 15 7:05pm ET
Teams tie AL record by using 42 players | |||||
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DETROIT (AP) -- Jimy Williams was determined to use just about every player he could to keep the Boston Red Sox in the wild card race. In Boston's 7-6 win over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night, Williams used 24 players and Phil Garner countered with 18, as the teams tied an AL record by using 42 players. Cleveland and Oakland had already won before the Red Sox-Tigers marathon ended after nearly four hours, but Williams insisted that he didn't notice the scores on the right-field wall in Comerica Park. "I didn't have time," Williams said. "I was crossing out too many names. You have to take care of your own. That's all you can do because we're playing a good team over there." Scott Hatteberg hit a tiebreaking single in the ninth inning to keep Boston two games behind Cleveland in the AL wild card race. The Indians won 11-1 at New York. The Tigers saw a 6-4 lead in the eighth vanish. Jason Varitek and Midre Cummings both had pinch-hit RBI singles to tie the game in the eighth. Troy O'Leary and Dante Bichette started the inning by drawing walks. Nomar Garciaparra hit a leadoff single against Nelson Cruz (5-2) in the ninth and went to third on Troy O'Leary's hit. One out later, Hatteberg singled up the middle through a drawn-in infield against Todd Jones. "He tried to sneak a fastball past me and I was just able to get it back up the middle," said Hatteberg after seeing four-straight sliders. Rod Beck (1-0) pitched a perfect eighth. Derek Lowe worked the ninth for his 35th save in 40 chances. "We looked like we had never seen a breaking ball when Beck was out there," Detroit manager Phil Garner said. "We scored runs and we had the ballgame, but we just gave it right back to them with those two walks (in the eighth). And on the flip side, we won't take walks. You'd think that after all of these games our games would start to realize the advantage of taking walks." Tim Wakefield and Steve Sparks started in a battle of knuckleballers, but neither factored in the decision. Wakefield pitched five innings and gave up three runs -- two earned -- five hits and three walks while striking out six. Sparks gave up four Red Sox runs on six hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. Garciaparra began Boston's three-run second with a ground-rule double. He scored on Brian Daubach's single and Trot Nixon hit a two-run single to left. Detroit cut its deficit to 3-2 in the home half. With two outs, Deivi Cruz struck out but reached first on a wild pitch and Damion Easley singled. Brad Ausmus hit an RBI single and Easley, who aggressively was advancing to third, came home on a throwing error by center fielder Carl Everett. The Tigers tied it in the third when Juan Encarnacion scored on Bobby Higginson's double. Boston took a 4-3 lead in the fifth on O'Leary's single, which scored Jose Offerman. Easley prevented a second run in the inning when he knocked down Dante Bichette's single and threw out Garciaparra, who was trying to score from second, at home. Detroit tied it in the home half. Deivi Cruz hit a leadoff double and scored on Ausmus' groundout. Juan Gonzalez hit a tiebreaking homer in the Tigers seventh. "He hit the stew out of it," Garner said. The 448-foot drive to left-center off Jeff Fassero was Gonzalez's 21st of the season and his first to clear the fence at Comerica Park since June 17. He had an inside-the-park home run on Sept. 2. Easley hit an RBI single with two outs in the seventh to give Detroit a two-run cushion, which wasn't enough. Detroit, which is 8½ games behind the Indians in the wild card race, are all but mathematically eliminated with 16 games remaining. "We just want to put a kink in these guys' plans," Hal Morris said. "My feeling is, if we're not going to make the playoffs I don't want any of the teams we're playing to make it either." Game notesThe last time two AL teams used 42 players was when Oakland and Kansas City played on Sept. 20, 1975. ... The 3:49 game marked the longest nine-inning game for the Tigers this season. ... Garciaparra's 48 doubles rank second in the AL. ... Cruz's 46 doubles are the most for a Tigers player since 1950. ... Wakefield and Sparks also pitched against each other on Aug. 28, 1999, but neither got a decision during that outing, either. | ALSO SEE Baseball Scoreboard Boston Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS Seattle 10 Baltimore 2
Boston 7 AUDIO/VIDEO   Scott Hatteberg gives his opinion on who is the team's MVP.wav: 93 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 Scott Hatteberg is happy to contribute when he gets the chance.wav: 116 k RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6 | |||||