Victory pains Tigers
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Ninth-inning rally muted by Polanco's separated shoulder
By Tom Gage
The Detroit News
August 16, 2006
BOSTON -- Some victories come with a price tag attached. The cost of this one was a damaged second baseman.
The Tigers won an extremely tough game Tuesday night, defeating the Red Sox, 3-2, with a run in the ninth. But they face the future without Placido Polanco, who suffered a separated left shoulder while making a diving catch to save a run in the seventh.
Polanco is headed for the 15-day disabled list because of the injury, the severity of which the Tigers will know more about today.
Omar Infante is the heir apparent at second base -- and the Tigers already have announced that Ramon Santiago will be recalled from Toledo to take over Infante's role as the extra infielder.
"You don't replace a guy like Polanco, obviously," manager Jim Leyland said, "but this is one of those things that, after you digest it, you talk to your club a little bit about it.
"We just have to go forward. We'll have no excuses."
It was a strange mix of emotions after the game in the Tigers' clubhouse. They had so much to feel good about, with the way they won -- yet so much with Polanco's loss to also feel bad about.
"They played their hearts out," Leyland said. "There's nothing more you can say about it. They played their hearts out."
And their hearts weren't broken. A walk and two singles in the ninth off Mike Timlin produced the winning run, followed by another Todd Jones 1-2-3 save -- all of that after Jeremy Bonderman outpitched Curt Schilling.
"Like I said, the one thing you have to do is pitch good when you face those guys and go up against a pitcher like Schilling," Leyland said. "Or you have no chance."
Bonderman gave them more than a chance.
"If I could start a major league team with five starting pitchers, he's on my list," Schilling said. "He's definitely one of the top two or three pitchers in the game."
It says everything about how strange a game this was, however, that Pudge Rodriguez caught the first out of the bottom of the ninth while playing second base for the first time as a major leaguer.
A second baseman batting sixth, in fact.
Instead of a catcher batting third.
Rodriguez learned before the game that he'd been moved down in the lineup from third to sixth. He took the news in stride.
"I'm a player, an every-day player, and I just go out there and do my best," he said. "It doesn't matter if I hit first, third, ninth, 10th, 11th, 13th, 14th, whatever, I just do whatever they want me to do.
"As long as we're winning games, that's all that matters."
Playing second base didn't faze him, either.
"I haven't done it since I was a kid," he said, "but I've done it."
The Tigers led 2-1 when Polanco was injured. Trailing until the top of the seventh, they went in front on Sean Casey's two-run double following singles from Carlos Guillen and Rodriguez, whose hit broke an 0-for-18 drought.
With a runner on second and two out, Polanco ranged into shallow center to haul in Doug Mirabelli's bid for a tying single. After the catch, however, Polanco landed on his left shoulder and stayed on the ground for several minutes in considerable pain.
"I heard something and felt something," Polanco said. "It was kind of loud. When I heard it, I knew it wasn't good. I just hope it's not as bad as I think it is.
"It'll be frustrating not to be playing, but this is one of those things you can't control."
The Tigers went from one setback to another -- from Polanco's injury in the seventh to David Ortiz's tying single off Wilfredo Ledezma in the eighth, but won anyway.
Guillen worked Timlin for a leadoff walk in the ninth, Casey singled him to third with one out and Craig Monroe's fly ball near the line in right field was mishandled by Wily Mo Pena for a tie-breaking single.
"He probably tried to do everything a little too quick and couldn't handle it," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said of Pena.
Then along came Jones, calm as can be, to close it -- with second-baseman Pudge catching one of the outs, of course. |
