Tigers-Twins finale turns heated late - 10/01/09

Tigers-Twins finale turns heated late
Tempers flare in ninth inning after plunkings

By Jason Beck / MLB.com

10/01/09 4:35 PM ET

DETROIT -- What was hoped to be a division-clinching celebration for the Tigers ended up a long and heated Thursday afternoon for both them and the Twins, whose benches cleared after a trade of hit-by-pitches flared up tempers to cap an already emotional series in an 8-3 Twins win.

The incident adds further drama to an American League Central race that will now continue into the regular season's final weekend.

Nate Robertson's third-inning hit-by-pitch to Denard Span started a series of inside pitches. Minnesota starter Scott Baker hit Marcus Thames with a fourth-inning pitch and threw a breaking ball high and inside in the fifth, drawing a stare back out to the mound from Thames.

The Twins were comfortably ahead in the bottom of the eighth, when reliever Jose Mijares threw a pitch behind Tigers shortstop Adam Everett. Home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez warned Mijares and Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who came out to argue the timing. Once Hernandez ejected him, Leyland's third ejection of the season, Leyland had his say with him as well as first-base umpire and crew chief Randy Marsh.

Marsh made a controversial call in the seventh inning that Ramon Santiago took off too early from first base on right fielder Span's catch in foul territory. Replays suggested Santiago timed the play correctly.

Once the Tigers took the field for the ninth inning, reliever Jeremy Bonderman threw a first-pitch fastball inside that hit the inside of Delmon Young's right knee, dropping Young to the ground in pain. Hernandez immediately ejected Bonderman, then did the same with catcher Gerald Laird once he started arguing.

Young got back up and started pointing and shouting to his own dugout as the benches emptied.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

As fired up as the Tigers got today, I can see a CWS whippin by the Tigers coming up! Leyland is fired up, Laird, Bonderman are hot, and the rest of the team seem even more determined to see that the Twinkees never see the light of day (considering they will be playing in a dome, and to see daylight, they would need to get to the playoffs). I think the Tigers will take out their frustrations on Chicago! As long as KC wins one (Greinke should beat them), and the Tigers win one of three, the Tigers are champs.

Posted: 6:06 p.m. Oct. 1, 2009
Twins mad at own pitcher after beanings

FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES

Delmon Young started screaming at Minnesota Twins teammate Jose Mijares on Thursday at Comerica Park.

Mijares threw behind former Twin Adam Everett in the eighth inning of Minnesota’s 8-3 victory, and Detroit’s Jeremy Bonderman hit Young on the right knee with the first pitch of the ninth.

Detroit’s Marcus Thames and Minnesota’s Denard Span had been hit by pitches earlier in the game.

After spending a moment on the ground in obvious pain, Young got up, slammed his helmet to the ground and started screaming at Mijares in the Minnesota dugout. Both benches cleared, but the players only milled around after they realized that Young wasn’t about to charge the mound.

“Trust me, Delmon wasn’t at all upset with the Tigers,” Span said. “He knew what was going to happen, and he was angry at our teammate. I probably would have felt the same way if I had been the first batter up in that inning. I don’t know what was going on with our pitcher there.”

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was angry, saying he already had spoken with Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

“I want to make this perfectly clear — our pitcher lost his cool and threw a pitch behind one of their players, and you don’t do that,” he said. “We told them that we screwed up, and that we know they did what they needed to do, and that it is over. I talked to Mr. Leyland, and I told him that.”

Mijares declined comment, as did Leyland, who was ejected after an argument with plate umpire Angel Hernandez after Mijares’ pitch behind Everett.

Bonderman and Tigers catcher Gerald Laird were immediately ejected after the pitch that hit Young.

Laird said he had never seen a player react the way Young did to being hit by a pitch, and Twins catcher Mike Redmond agreed.

“I’ve seen players get angry with their own pitcher in that situation before, but I’ve never seen it happen on the field,” he said. “I understand why he was angry, and I understand why Leyland was upset.”

I can see a CWS whippin by the Tigers coming up!

Like they have a choice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

they have to - -the Tigers let the Twins hang around when they coulda put them away. Go Tigers!!!

msgol wrote:

they have to - -the Tigers let the Twins hang around when they coulda put them away. Go Tigers!!!

Well, so much for that!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twins angry at teammate’s ‘selfish act’

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports Oct 1, 11:30 pm EDT

DETROIT – Delmon Young was furious. He writhed on the ground, his knee swelling from the 93-mph fastball that just ricocheted off it. When he stood up, he slammed his helmet. He wanted an explanation. Young turned toward the culprit. He jabbed his index finger through the air, took the heavy-footed steps of a man intent on delivering a beatdown and readied himself to charge and maim the responsible party.

Who sat in his own dugout.

Yes, it was that sort of a day at Comerica Park, the kind where the Minnesota Twins staving off elimination from the postseason comprised the third most interesting nugget of the day. Obscuring the Twins’ 8-3 victory Thursday that kept the Detroit Tigers from clinching the American League Central was first the hullabaloo created by an Internet-age whodunit – whether Twins catcher Joe Mauer had two days earlier stolen signs and passed them along to teammates, as alleged by a fan in his own Zapruder-like account of the incident. Mauer said no. The Twins denied it. The Tigers were dubious. The fan is sure he’s right.

By the afternoon, once the Mauer tumult died down, a new issue was bubbling, one far more toxic to a team trying to pull off a monumental comeback and still two games behind Detroit with three to play. Young believed that Tigers pitcher Jeremy Bonderman hit him in retaliation for a 94-mph fastball Twins rookie reliever Jose Mijares threw behind Adam Everett the previous inning … because he was mad the Tigers were stealing bases when trailing by six runs. Every Twin, in fact, from manager Ron Gardenhire down to the 25th man, faulted Mijares for Young’s throbbing knee. So when Young melted down, they stopped him – though if Mijares took a wayward fist to the jaw, no one would have blamed Young.

“I knew somebody was going to have to wear it,” Young told Minneapolis-area reporters. “You can’t throw behind one of their players … and expect nothing to happen. …

“He needs to pay attention to how baseball’s played.”

The postgame vitriol toward the 24-year-old Mijares was remarkable in its unanimity. Twins shortstop Orlando Cabrera said Mijares apologized. Others hadn’t heard any contrition. Either way, it wasn’t sufficient. Because of Mijares, a blowout evolved into an ugly situation that could have turned disastrous.

“It was a selfish act on his part,” Cabrera said. “Because as a team we’re here to win ballgames. We’re not here to get into fights or hit people.”

Both benches cleared as Young hobbled around. Home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez already had thrown out Tigers manager Jim Leyland for arguing. Now Bonderman was gone, and catcher Gerald Laird – who earlier in the day told Yahoo! Sports that the Twins are “really good at stealing signs” – mouthed off to Hernandez and got booted, too. No one wanted to fight, really, but an ill-timed word here or a machismo-filled posture there could have caused something benign to degenerate.

Tempers cooled. Young remained in the game and never got to Mijares, teammates ensuring they stayed away from each other. The Twins were apologetic for causing the mess. Gardenhire intimated as much to Leyland.

“We told him we screwed up,” Gardenhire said. “They did what they had to do, and it’s over with. They did the right thing.”

Only in baseball, mind you, is intentional retaliation via speed-limit-busting projectile hitting flesh deemed the right thing. Young praised Bonderman, in fact, for keeping the beaning on the lower half of his body. In the midst of such barbarism – one man ravenously going after another wearing the same uniform – the teams themselves stuck by a code.

As they fought for a playoff spot, their mutual respect played out in the oddest manner.

“It’s hard for me to believe we just played the biggest game of the year and won, and I’m sitting here having to describe what happened,” said Twins catcher Mike Redmond, who apologized to Everett – a Twin last season – after Mijares buzzed him. “I don’t really know what to say. It’s up to him to figure out what he’s thinking.”

Mijares changed quickly after the game and escaped the clubhouse without talking to reporters. Outfielder Carlos Gomez said he offered to translate for Mijares, a Venezuelan who speaks limited English, but Mijares “felt so bad he didn’t want to talk.”

“On the plane,” Gomez said, “he told me he’s going to say he’s sorry. I hope they listen. I’m not a veteran, but I know you have to forgive.”

It’s easier to do so knowing Mijares has a 2.05 ERA in 68 games as a left-handed specialist, and that the Twins almost certainly will need him this weekend against Kansas City. Detroit’s magic number remained at 2, meaning they simply need to win two games against Chicago to clinch the division. Or win one and hope the Twins slip Saturday against Zack Greinke. Or back in by watching Minnesota lose a pair.

Should the White Sox sweep the Tigers and the Twins take two of three, a one-game playoff awaits Tuesday at the Metrodome, hosting its final baseball before the opening of Target Field next spring. The Twins don’t want this to be the dome’s last hurrah.

Which means they’ll have to take Gomez’s pleading and get past the Mijares snafu and the sign-stealing farce, then hope the Tigers’ fade reaches epic proportions. Should be easy for most. Except the guy limping off the plane.

“Gotta understand and learn how to play the game,” Young said. “It’s not the minor leagues up here.”

No, it certainly isn’t. In the minors there are no YouTube conspiracy theories and no games that will draw more than 40,000 people in an afternoon, no days like the wacky, wild Thursday that nearly redefined Twin killing.

Jeff Passan is a national writer for Yahoo! Sports.

Well, personally, I'm kinda glad Bondo hit Young. Justice served again.