The Pressbox

Thank you, Placido Polanco.

Polanco’s bloop single in the ninth inning - his fifth hit of the game - saved the Detroit Tigers from one of their most frustrating losses of the season Wednesday night.

The Tigers had a four-run lead several times during the game, but their bullpen kept giving it back. When Boston took a 9-8 lead in the top of the ninth and had closer Jonathan Paplebon coming to the mound, it looked like the Tigers were destined for another loss.

Sure, Detroit got a couple of breaks with a fluke infield hit and an error to start the ninth, but Ivan Rodriguez executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, Curtis Granderson hit the ball to the right side to get the tying run home, then Polanco delivered.

The game quickly went from a devastating loss to the kind of win that can spark a team. The Tigers certainly need some sort of spark.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 8:51 am and is filed under Baseball, Tigers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.