Tigers drop series opener to Giants in long, ugly night at Comerica
DETROIT -- It was a long, ugly night at Comerica Park.
By the time Detroit's 8-2 loss to the Giants ended at 12:38 a.m., most of the starting lineup was already heading for bed and only a few hundred fans were staying for the post-game fireworks show.
"When I took our starters out after the eighth inning, I told them to go home," Brad Ausmus said. "With another game coming up in 12 hours, I wanted them to go home and get some sleep."
Tigers starter Rick Porcello did stick around to talk to the media, even though his night had been finished for more than four hours. Porcello allowed six runs on 10 hits in three innings.
"Everything I threw up there tonight got whacked," he said. "I threw good pitches, and they got hits, and I threw some bad pitches, and they got hits on those. I felt fine, and my stuff was pretty good, but they just took advantage of everything they got tonight."
Porcello said he wasn't distracted by the odd game, which started on time even though it was clear that a line of heavy thunderstorms was going to hit the area within an hour.
"I don't even think about that -- I prepared like it was going to be a regular game and I was going to be pitching seven or eight innings," he said. "The weather is going to do what it does, and you can't worry about that."
Detroit almost got a break because of the rain -- it was 6-0 when the game was stopped at the end of the third inning, and for much of the lengthy delay, it appeared that the rain was going to make further play impossible. That would have meant the game would have been restarted from scratch as part of a doubleheader on either Saturday or Sunday.
"There was some discussion about calling it off, because the radar looked really bad, but that's up to the umpires," Ausmus said. "Even when we went back out there, we were expecting more rain in about 45 minutes, but it cleared up and we finally got it in."
The Tigers dodged a bullet just before the rain when Porcello was hit in the right heel by a Brandon Crawford liner. Porcello immediately crumpled to the ground, but was able to stay in the game after some treatment from head athletic trainer Kevin Rand.
"It's sore, but it is going to be fine," he said. "It got me right at the top of my heel, just below the ankle, but it isn't going to be a problem."
Moments later, though, the Tigers lost head groundskeeper Heather Nabozny to a knee injury. Nabozny was injured while the grounds crew was trying to put the tarp on the field in heavy rain and strong winds. A gust of wind flipped the tarp up, knocking Nabozny to the ground.
She stayed on the field, holding down her section of the tarp, but was unable to walk off the field without assistance. The team said that she had an MRI done on her right knee -- the results were not immediately available -- and that she would be sidelined indefinitely.
Even with Ausmus sending his veterans home early, the players on both teams will be returning to the park about eight hours after they left. That could mean a low-scoring game, especially with aces David Price and Madison Bumgarner on the mound. Game time is 1:08 with a national broadcast on FOX.
