DETROIT — The fans at Comerica Park were afraid to
get excited.
Jose Valverde had shown them Saturday night that his early season struggles
weren't over, and now he was making another save situation into an adventure.
The Tigers still led by two runs, but the White Sox had runners on first and
second with A.J. Pierzynski at the plate with only one out.
Valverde induced Pierzynski to hit a soft liner to Miguel Cabrera at third for
the second out, but the drama wasn't over. Valverde immediately fell behind
Gordon Beckham 3-0, causing the 39,558 fans to hold their breath as they stood
in anticipation of the final out.
It wasn't simple — Beckham thought he had drawn ball four on the next pitch —
but Valverde threw three consecutive strikes to end the game for a 3-1 victory.
"It's never easy,” Valverde said. “ I'm doing my job. It's like every save
I've done in my life. Go out there, throw my pitches and get my save."
The loss completed a bizarre hat trick for Valverde. After getting the win when
Jhonny Peralta's homer ended the first game of the series, Valverde took a loss
and a blown save when Adam Dunn hit a two-run homer in the ninth on Saturday.
With Sunday's save, he became the first pitcher since 2008 to get a win, a loss
and a save in a three-game series.
The chaos is a far cry from last year's 49-for-49 season.
"Yesterday, I don't do my job," the Tigers closer said. "Today,
I do my job. Yesterday is over already. Same for last year. Last year is over.
When our team is winning, I have to get my save. Doesn't matter how I do
it."
While Valverde's ninth-inning dramatics got people's attention, the most
important part of the game was Rick Porcello bailing out Detroit's anemic
offense. Porcello only yielded just one run — another homer by Dunn - in his 6
1/3 innings.
"A guy hitting a solo homer in the first inning isn't the end of the
world," Porcello said. "We had a lot of ball game left, and with our
offense, one run is nothing to worry about."
Porcello might have been overly optimistic, given Detroit's offensive
struggles, but the Tigers did score three times on solo homers by Austin
Jackson, Prince Fielder and Andy Dirks.
Fielder's third-inning homer was a 435-foot shot that hit George Kell's name
behind the right center-field stands, but he's learned not to take anything for
granted.
"I was running, because this is a big place, so I'm never sure that the
ball is going out," Fielder told FOX Sports Detroit's Shannon Hogan after
the game. "I knew I got all of it, though."
Dirks' homer came in his first game hitting second in the order, where he has
replaced slumping Brennan Boesch.
"I don't really think about it," Dirk said of the lineup switch.
"I just get in the box and do my business. I'm keeping the same
approach."
Dirks also thinks people are worrying too much about Detroit's offense, which
has only scored 12 runs in the last four games.
"You're not going to score nine runs a game, no matter how good you are,"
he said. "Baseball's a tough game, and you are facing good pitching every
day. We're getting hits, but we're not stringing them together. That's
baseball."
NOTES: The Tigers optioned reliever Brayan Villarreal to Triple-A Toledo
after the game to make room for Doug Fister. Fister is scheduled to start
Monday in Seattle after recovering from a strained rib-cage. ... Jackson led
off the first with a homer for the sixth time in his career. ... The win was
the 1,602nd of Jim Leyland's career, tying him with Fred Clarke for 16th in
major league history.
