2012 DETROIT TIGER SCHEDULE AND RESULTS

Party to the Max: Tigers sweep way to Series
Behind Scherzer, four homers, Detroit claims 11th AL pennant

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/18/2012 11:31 PM ET

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DETROIT -- As devastating was Max Scherzer's changeup was on Thursday, it was nothing compared with the curveball that the Tigers threw the rest of baseball to get to the World Series.

"This team," catcher Gerald Laird, "has been battle-tested."

The same Tigers team that battled until the final week of the season to pull ahead for good in the American League Central never trailed in the AL Championship Series. The team seemingly built to slug its way to the top, only to struggle to find its offense, pitched its way there instead.

It wasn't that the Tigers completed an ALCS upset of the Yankees with an 8-1 win in Game 4. Many believed they had the pitching to outlast the Bronx Bombers coming into the series. It's the way they dominated the series that was the surprise.

They're just the fourth team in Major League history to sweep a best-of-seven series without trailing. Not even Jose Valverde's ninth-inning collapse in Game 1 put them down.

The Yankees scored four runs off Valverde in that series-opening rally. They scored just two runs in the next three games.

Delmon Young, who was named the ALCS MVP after going 6-for-17 with two homers, drove in as many runs (six) as the Yankees scored in the series.

"You have to give a lot of credit to our pitchers," center fielder Austin Jackson said. "They didn't really give them a chance. They kept going out and making great pitches and getting outs and keeping them off the bases. That definitely gave us a chance offensively."

For close to five months, Detroit looked like one of baseball's underachievers. For one month, the Tigers played playoff-type baseball to get into the race. For two weeks, they played some of the stingiest baseball in postseason history.

"It was tough," first baseman Prince Fielder said. "I don't know what happened, or else I would've tried to make it happen earlier. But it started to click."

It all culminated in one magical evening and a flat-out mismatch. Once Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta hit two-run homers in a fourth-inning surge that built a 6-0 lead and chased Yankees ace CC Sabathia, the rest of the game became a celebration for the crowd of 42,477 who could make it after Wednesday's rainout.

At that point the Tigers were pulling away in the fourth, and the Yankees didn't have a hit off of Scherzer, who had only a Fielder error and an Ichiro Suzuki walk on his record.

After three games of hearing what the Yankees were doing wrong, the Tigers punctuated their sweep by doing nearly everything right. It was no contest.

"To be honest with you, people kept asking me the whole series about how the Yankees were struggling," catcher Alex Avila said. "That's not the way I look at it. When I look at the paper and I see all the home runs and RBIs and the averages, you have to attack them. You can't concern yourself about that, as long as you win the game. That's still a pretty good team."

They ran into some incredible pitching, punctuated by the return of the dominant Scherzer. Once he sent down the side in order in the fifth, having picked up a 6-0 lead, he had struck out nine of the first 16 batters he faced. Save for the velocity, he looked more like the midseason co-ace who led the big leagues in strikeouts for much of the summer.

"I was really just trying to keep it as relaxed as possible," Scherzer said. "For me, I was the one who lost last year in Game 6 of the ALCS, so I just used that as motivation. Just to have a chance and if I ever had a shot to pitch well in the ALCS again, I would do it. And sure enough I was able to do it and we're going to a World Series."

Said Laird: "It was just like, 'What do I want to put down now?' because he was just executing every pitch."

Eduardo Nunez's triple on Scherzer's first pitch of the sixth inning took care of the no-hit bid, and Nick Swisher's double two batters later broke up the shutout. Nothing, however, was going to break up the Tigers' celebration.

Scherzer finished with 10 strikeouts over 5 2/3 innings before another Peralta home run and a Jackson solo shot padded the margin.

Add that to the zeros they had already posted, and the Tigers' rotation owns a 1.02 ERA, seventh lowest in a single postseason. No team has a lower ERA playing more than five games in a postseason.

As much as the Yankees struggled, it wasn't just them.

"That's a team that I have so much respect for, because they can strike at any time with a home run," manager Jim Leyland said. "That's how they beat you, and we were able to shut that down. So we were very lucky in some ways, fortunate in some ways, and we played awful good. I don't want to take any credit away from my team. We played awful good."

Out by out, the Tigers were counting down. So were the fans. Drew Smyly, Octavio Dotel and Phil Coke shut down the Yankees over the final 3 1/3 innings, the last two by Coke.

"When Prince caught that [final] ball was when I could finally relax," Jackson said.

They were that worried. The way they pitched the whole series, the way they hit when it counted, it was never that close.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Verlander, Tigers not themselves in Game 1

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/25/2012 2:30 AM ET

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SAN FRANCISCO -- The smirk on Justin Verlander's face as Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones slowly ambled to the mound in the third inning seemingly said plenty. He had just watched an Angel Pagan infield double off the third-base bag, then a Marco Scutaro two-out single after back-to-back 98-mph fastballs had been fouled off. As he put it, the wheels weren't coming off.

The "wow" Verlander mouthed after the very next pitch, sent by Pablo Sandoval over the left-field fence for a two-run home run -- the second of Sandoval's three homers on the night -- said the rest.

This was supposed to be the mismatch for Detroit to take command of the World Series early on the road, or at least counteract the rust on its bats from five days off since the end of the American League Championship Series. As Verlander watched the Giants pull away early toward an eventual 8-3 Tigers loss, sending him toward his quickest non-weather-related exit since 2009 and his roughest postseason outing since his rookie season of 2006, it looked like a nightmare.

The Panda tore into the Tigers on Wednesday night, and by the time Detroit could answer, it was far too late to avoid their first deficit in a series this postseason.

"Extremely impressive," Verlander said of Sandoval's historic performance. "I wish I hadn't contributed."

In the grand scheme of the Series, it isn't nearly a nightmare. Unlike Verlander's 2006 World Series opener, when the Tigers struggled against Cardinals rookie starter Anthony Reyes, this was a loss on the road and a Tigers rotation that runs deeper than Verlander. As bad as Wednesday's loss looked, a win in Game 2 on Thursday night (7:30 p.m. ET air time on FOX, 8:07 ET first pitch) would still regain home-field advantage for Detroit with three games awaiting at Comerica Park, where the Tigers haven't lost this postseason.

The Tigers were 4-4 during the regular season after Verlander losses. A win this time would give them the road split most teams would take.

"Is it disappointing? Yeah," Verlander admitted. "Would you like to have won Game 1? Absolutely. But I don't know if you guys have been watching, but the three guys behind me have been doing pretty daggone well as well. It's not the end of the world by any means. I think we feel confident every day. There's nobody in there hanging their heads at all."

If the Tigers are going to even the series, however, they're going to have to play a better all-around game. For all of the bad fortune that came the club's way on Wednesday, Detroit didn't help its own cause much, either. Whether those five days off were a factor was a pressing question.

The Tigers scrimmaged against their instructional league players for two days, and they pitched and hit against each other. They did everything they could to keep their timing against live pitching and hitting. The end result suggests it didn't much matter.

"I think we played all right," Miguel Cabrera said. "We had five days off. I was thinking it's going to be a little tougher, about routine plays, about playing the game right. But it was all right.

"To this point, we have to give a lot of credit to San Francisco, because they were aggressive -- they swung early in the game and they scored a lot of runs early. I think we did everything to win the game, but they played better. They hit better."

The Tigers have seen early damage off Verlander before, notably during an August stretch when the Royals and Angels both jumped on his early pitches for big opening innings. In those cases, however, Detroit traced it back to Verlander needing to pick up his fastball from the get-go.

This wasn't a case of too little velocity. The Giants got to Verlander on command, extending at-bats with foul balls -- 30 of them -- until it was too late. San Francisco worked Verlander in a way no team had since the A's fouled off 33 of his pitches in a September meeting at Comerica Park. In so doing, the Giants bolstered their reputation as a solid contact-hitting team, a fact the Tigers knew well coming in.

"When he doesn't have a typical game to what he normally throws, it's fastball command more times than not," catcher Alex Avila said. "I've seen those nights before. There's times when obviously you manage it and still win a game and still pitch well doing it. We just weren't able to make the adjustment, and Sandoval hurt us."

Sandoval's first-inning drive to right-center field was the first home run Verlander gave up on an 0-2 pitch all season, and just the fourth of his seven-year Major League career. Verlander wanted to make him chase a high heater and left the 95-mph offering too close.

Verlander retired six in a row after that and came within a diving catch by Gregor Blanco of a tied game. Blanco's grab turned what could have been an RBI double by Cabrera into the end of a third-inning threat.

Pagan's well-placed double in the bottom of the third left Cabrera standing in disbelief as the ball rolled toward left field and Pagan kept on going into second.

"I was like, 'Uh-oh,'" Cabrera said.

It was the two-out spark that ignited the top of the Giants' order.

"It's a shame that starts a big rally like that," Verlander said.

Scutaro fouled off back-to-back full-count heaters before his liner up the middle plated Pagan. It also brought up Sandoval, whose 2-0 count brought out Jones.

"I asked him what he's doing out there," Verlander said. "He told me just to slow down a little bit. I told him, 'Well, all you did was get the crowd riled up.' We just had a little it of a laugh."

The next pitch was the fastball expected by Sandoval, whose opposite-field poke over the fence in the left-field corner put San Francisco clearly in command.

The early run support, Cabrera said, was the difference for Giants starter Barry Zito, whose 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball quieted the Tigers' offense in a way other finesse lefties, such as Kansas City's Bruce Chen, had done in the regular season.

"I think after that, [Zito] came with a lot more confidence and made some good pitches, controlled the count," Cabrera said. "I think that was the difference in the game. I think we battled, battled good, making him throw some pitches, but in this game, they scored a lot of runs and we don't have control over that."

Verlander, who had allowed two runs on 10 hits over 25 1/3 innings this postseason, left having allowed five runs on six hits over four innings. When Danny Worth pinch-hit in the top of the fifth, it marked Verlander's quickest exit for reasons other than weather since June 16, 2009, when the Cards chased him after four innings in St. Louis.

"I think you can pretty much sum it up, when you use five pitchers in a game that Justin Verlander starts, that's not good tonic," manager Jim Leyland said. "That usually doesn't work too good. I think momentum is your next day's pitcher."

That's usually the slogan when Verlander is the next day's pitcher. For once, the Tigers are hoping it holds for the following day.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Held to two hits, Tigers face two-game hole

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/26/2012 2:00 AM ET

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Doug Fister took what looked like a crushing blow in the form of a line drive off his head and acted like nothing had happened. He just kept on playing, much to the amazement of those who saw Gregor Blanco's liner, which landed in center field.

Now, once again, it's time to see whether these Tigers can do the same. This time, it's on the biggest stage of their lives.

"The thing is, we have no choice," Prince Fielder said. "We're 0-2. You can't wish it to be gone."

The Tigers felt like they played well enough to come out of AT&T Park with a split in the World Series. They knew Fister pitched well enough. After Thursday's 2-0 loss to the Giants in Game 2, they're still halfway to watching their championship dreams end.

The Tigers are going back to Comerica Park, where they owned the second-best home record in baseball during the regular season and are 4-0 this postseason. But they're going there with the teeth of the Giants' rotation -- Ryan Vogelsong and Matt Cain -- awaiting them. At least those two are right-handers, rather than another round of lefties that have flummoxed them for most of the season, but that's not not much consolation.

"We've been playing must-win games most of the season," said Justin Verlander, who needs a Detroit win sometime this weekend to get another chance at San Francisco in Game 5. "We played them and won when we had to, so ... we've got to win."

The last eight teams to jump out to a 2-0 World Series lead have gone on to win it. The 1996 Yankees were the last to overcome such a deficit, winning four straight after dropping the first two games to the Braves at Yankee Stadium.

In a season like the Tigers have had, a 2-0 deficit in a seven-game series should seem like nothing. They were trailing the American League Central-leading White Sox by three games with 15 games to play before finally rallying, and they had to bounce back from a walk-off loss in Game 4 of the AL Division Series to beat the A's in a decisive Game 5. They won five straight starting with that game before running into these Giants, who have gone from potential elimination in both the National League Division Series and NL Championship Series to a couple of wins from a title, thanks to their current five-game winning streak.

In that sense, Game 2 seemed like the latest addition to the script. In another sense, it seemed like another night of the baseball Gods working against Detroit.

"I don't think we lost," Fielder said. "I think we just got beat."

If not for Hunter Pence's eighth-inning sacrifice fly, it would've been the first World Series game in which the winning team didn't record an RBI. It also would've been the first game in the Fall Classic since 1962 that came down to a run-scoring double play, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

It'll go down as the latest game in which the Tigers have struggled to hit a left-handed starting pitcher; they hit just .253 off lefties in the regular season. In that sense, Madison Bumgarner's seven innings of two-hit ball, which included eight strikeouts, were a continuation of Barry Zito's gem in Game 1.

"Let him off the hook? We had two hits," Delmon Young said. "I don't know what hook you're talking about."

And yet both hits provided a reminder of why these last two nights were agonizing, and why they felt like the Tigers could've earned a split.

The first came from Young, whose ground ball just inside third base followed Fielder's plunking. Young's drive bounced off the fence down the left-field line behind the bullpen mounds in foul territory as Fielder was rumbling into third, where he got the wave home from third-base coach Gene Lamont.

As both Lamont and manager Jim Leyland admitted, it was an optimistic call that became clear once the ball caromed to Blanco. Yet it was a close enough play that it took a catch-and-swipe motion from catcher Buster Posey to retire Fielder.

"Swipe tag," Fielder said. "Nothing you can do. Tip your cap."

Said Lamont: "If I had to do it over, I would have held him. But we haven't really been scoring runs, and I got overly aggressive, I guess."

It was one of those nights for Fielder, whose fourth-inning fly ball sent Blanco to the warning track in left to run it down, just two pitches after third baseman Pablo Sandoval robbed Miguel Cabrera of a hit. Those plays followed Detroit's only hit outside of Young's double, a leadoff infield single from Omar Infante.

Fister shrugged those off, just as he had the Blanco drive that hit him in the second inning. Fister not only stayed on his feet after that liner but fired back, retiring 12 consecutive Giants from the second inning into the sixth and carrying a scoreless gem into the seventh.

Fister didn't get his deficit until he was out of the game following Pence's single leading off the seventh.

With Jose Valverde's availability to close limited and Phil Coke now looking at late-inning duty, Leyland admitted his bullpen situation impacted his decision to go with rookie lefty Drew Smyly. Smyly may have shown his jitters with a walk of Brandon Belt, but his look at Blanco's sacrifice-bunt attempt as it died inside the third-base line was out of the lefty's control.

"Where that bunt is, he's going to be safe," Smyly said.

With the bases loaded and no outs, and with Smyly struggling to throw strikes in relief, the Tigers were willing to concede a run, playing their infielders back in the hopes of avoiding a much bigger inning. Better one run, Leyland's thought went, than two. That much went as planned, as Brandon Crawford grounded into a double play to break a scoreless tie.

"I felt we had to take our best shot to come out of it with one run," Leyland said, "because if we don't score, it doesn't make any difference anyway."

The way this game went for Detroit, it was moot. The way the Tigers' season has gone, it was another shot to take.

"I don't think they're getting any breaks," Leyland said. "I think they've earned everything they've got. Up to this point, they've outplayed us."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Stagnant offense has Tigers' backs to wall

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/28/2012 2:10 AM ET

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DETROIT -- Justin Verlander likes to say the Tigers have been playing must-win baseball since September. Now, for just the second time this postseason, that's not an exaggeration.

The Tigers won when they had to in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the A's. Now, they'll need four wins in a row, something no team has done in World Series history, if they're going to realize their championship dreams.

"I don't go home imagining being down 0-3 in the World Series," Prince Fielder said, "but it is what it is now. We've got to go play hard."

With a few variations, that was pretty much the common theme after a second straight 2-0 loss to San Francisco on Saturday night in Game 3 put Detroit on the brink of elimination. No rah-rah speeches, no team meetings, no rituals. Just play, just like the club did when it was trailing the first-place White Sox in the AL Central in mid-September.

Only the 2004 Red Sox have overcome a 3-0 deficit in a best-of-seven series. That was in the AL Championship Series. Teams up 3-0 are 23-for-23 in winning the World Series and have pulled off a sweep 20 times.

The Tigers know the odds.

"You're talking about sacrificing a chicken or something? We're not going to do that," Delmon Young said. "We're just going to come in here and hope for the best and try to get some early runs. That's what they've been doing against us."

And that's the crux of it. It's must-win baseball. It's also must-hit baseball. The Tigers are going to have to do the latter to accomplish the former. If they don't, the autumn chill that settled over Comerica Park will turn to winter cold with a title still a dream.

Verlander, scheduled to start a potential Game 5 on Monday, won't be able to do anything about it unless Detroit beats Giants ace Matt Cain on Sunday night. Neither of the Tigers' other two starters has been able to do anything about it, either.

Detroit has gotten 13-plus innings with three runs allowed from Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez over the past two games and has a pair of 2-0 losses to show for it.

"We got tremendous pitching effort," manager Jim Leyland said, "but we've been shut out for 18 innings, so it's pretty hard to win a game."

The Tigers are the first team to be shut out in back-to-back World Series games since the 1966 Dodgers, who were blanked three straight times to complete a four-game sweep. That team owns the World Series record for fewest runs scored in a World Series with two. Detroit heads into Game 4 with three.

For a team that hasn't led all series, the Tigers have a right to feel like they're playing close baseball. Their pitching isn't far off from what they delivered in an ALCS sweep of the Yankees. The results have completely swung.

"They've pitched us just like Oakland did, but we haven't hit all playoffs," Young said. "We've just been fortunate enough that the other teams haven't been hitting, either."

The Tigers battled their way to a division title with a torrid stretch run from Miguel Cabrera and an offense that manufactured runs when it needed to, from dropping sacrifice bunts to taking an extra base on a hit. They tried aggressiveness in Game 2 and paid for it. They tried to set up the big hit on Saturday but never found it.

"You don't really manufacture a lot with the big guys in the middle," Leyland said. "You let them whack away at it. Maybe I need to be a little more creative."

Detroit put the sellout crowd of 42,262 at Comerica Park on its feet in two of the first three innings, placing runners on first and second with one out twice. Both times, Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong put fans back in their seats by inducing inning-ending double plays -- one from Fielder, the other from speedy outfielder Quintin Berry.

"I feel like I killed that inning for us," Berry said.

The same fans were roaring in the fifth after back-to-back singles from Alex Avila and Omar Infante and a walk by Austin Jackson loaded the bases with one out. They were on their feet with a 2-1 count to Berry, the Tigers' unexpected midseason sparkplug.

What followed was Vogelsong's best stretch of the night, back-to-back high fastballs to send down Berry swinging at both before back-to-back fastballs to Cabrera, who received trophies for this year's Triple Crown feat and the AL Hank Aaron Award before the game. The first fastball to the AL MVP Award front-runner hit the inside edge, right where Cabrera usually drives pitches out to left. The second was elevated enough by Vogelsong to tempt the batting champion.

"It looked like he climbed the ladder a little bit," Leyland said, "and sometimes that's the pitch that you do pop up."

As Cabrera's pop fly fell into shortstop Brandon Crawford's glove, the fans fell in turn. The mid-40s temperatures downtown might as well have been sub-freezing for the Tigers, who fell to 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position for the Series.

"He's been so good at that all year," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Vogelsong, "and that's what makes him such a good pitcher, a quality pitcher."

Vogelsong allowed five hits and four walks over 5 2/3 innings and has given up three runs on 16 hits over 24 2/3 innings this postseason. His 1.05 ERA is the lowest by a starter over that many innings in a postseason since Orel Hershiser in 1988.

Yet take away the run total, and Sanchez outpitched him, striking out eight over seven innings of six-hit ball, including six called third strikes. In the end, two second-inning runs, set up by a Hunter Pence leadoff walk and a wild pitch that moved Pence to third base with one out, were Sanchez's downfall.

With a full count and his pitcher needing a strikeout of Gregor Blanco, Avila set up down and away for a slider. Sanchez got the pitch down, but it was just enough over the plate for Blanco to golf it to the out-of-town scoreboard in right-center field for an RBI triple.

"It was probably a little more middle of the plate than you want, but still, he hit it -- you're talking about like this," Avila said, not much space between his index finger and thumb. "That's hard to explain right there."

Anibal Sanchez caught Hector Sanchez looking for the strikeout he needed, but Crawford's sinking liner dropped in front of a charging Jackson in center field for another run.

The 2-0 cushion on Saturday was insurmountable. The 3-0 series cushion is now the Tigers' concern.

They've got to win. They've got to hit.

"Everybody's playing hard," Fielder said. "Everybody's prepared. We just don't get to write the script. It's not working out right now. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll come out and get a win."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Tigers' scrappy effort ends in heartbreak
TO BE UPDATED

By Jason Beck / MLB.com | 10/29/2012 12:27 AM ET

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DETROIT -- The Tigers needed a miracle to get back into the World Series. They had to settle for a teeth-chattering nail-biter on their way out. It was at least better than going out with a whimper.

On Sunday night, Detroit matched its runs total from the first three games of the World Series combined and got more scoreless innings from its bullpen than in those first three games, but it wasn't enough. Once Marco Scutaro punched a single off Phil Coke to drive in Ryan Theriot with two outs in the 10th inning, the Giants had what they needed to send the Tigers to a 4-3 loss in Game 4 to complete a World Series sweep.

"I mean, I'm a little bit flabbergasted, to be honest with you," manager Jim Leyland said. "In both of those series, I never would have thought that we would have swept the New York Yankees, and I never would have thought that the Giants would have swept us, but it happened."

It was a disappointment to many of the 42,152 who braved the rain and cold at Comerica Park hoping to see the Tigers last at least one more game. It was agony for them as two Jhonny Peralta drives died at the warning track in a tied game, and as Jeremy Affeldt struck out the middle of Detroit's lineup -- Miguel Cabrera, Prince Fielder and Delmon Young -- with the potential go-ahead run on base in the eighth inning.

It was not, by any count, boring. For at least one evening, the fight many wanted to see from a Detroit team that had outlasted the A's in the American League Division Series before sweeping the Yankees in the AL Championship Series came out in droves.

In the end, the offensive struggles that many predicted would doom the Tigers proved to be their downfall. It just happened a month later than many expected, eventually ending an amazing run for a team that stood three games out of a playoff spot with 15 games left in the regular season.

"Like I said before the game in my office, if somebody told me in Spring Training that we would be in the World Series, I would have had to say, 'I'll take that,'" Leyland said. "It was kind of a weird way that we got there, because we were a little inconsistent all year. Then we played pretty good when we had to to get the division, and we obviously played pretty good through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

"We got to the World Series, and we just sputtered offensively."

With winds gusting toward right field, all three Tigers runs came on home runs in that direction. Cabrera's third-inning fly ball with two outs kept taking Hunter Pence farther and farther back before the right fielder ran into the fence.

With that, the Tigers not only ended their streak of consecutive scoreless innings -- accumulating since the ninth inning of Game 1 -- at 20, they took their first lead of the series, building a 2-1 advantage. Detroit starter Max Scherzer took that lead into the sixth inning, fanning eight Giants along the way, before Buster Posey's two-run drive down the left-field line defied the winds and snuck inside the foul pole for his first home run of the Series.

That San Francisco lead lasted two outs. Young answered in the bottom of the inning with an opposite-field shot for his club-record eighth postseason homer in a Detroit uniform.

From there, the bullpens traded big outs, from four consecutive strikeouts from Affeldt to four strikeouts over two innings by Coke.

After all of those home runs, San Francisco finally ended it with a couple of short singles. The first came from Theriot with a blooper into right field for a leadoff single in the 10th. The second came from Scutaro, whose sinking liner fell just in front of center fielder Austin Jackson as Theriot charged around third.

Sergio Romo sent down the Tigers in the ninth. Once he got a called third strike on Cabrera, Detroit's October run was officially over.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. Read Beck's Blog and follow him on Twitter @beckjason. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.