Archive for the '1984 Diary' Category

August 26, 1984 Tigers 12, Angels 6 (86-45)

Kirk Gibson had a monster day, going three for four, scoring three, and driving in two on two solo homers. Marty Castillo went three for four as well, also scoring three times and hitting a solo shot himself. And Chet Lemon had the blow that set the stage for the win, as he hit a grand slam in top of third.

Milt Wilcox cruised to his fifteenth win, going six innings, striking out five, and giving up five hits. Doug Bair struggled, but by the time the Angels even scored the run, the Tigers had eleven. Aurelio Lopez closed the game getting the final four batters out in order.

August 25, 1984 Tigers 5, Angels 1 (84-45)

It’s definitely nice seeing Jack Morris put together back to back quality outings. In his seventeenth win of the season, Morris went eight innings, gave up nine hits and one run, while striking out four. Willie Hernandez came in to pitch a perfect ninth to finish off the game.

The big blow of the game was a three run homer by Ruppert Jones in the sixth inning. Darrell Evans hit a solo shot, and Lou Whitaker went three for five.

August 24, 1984 Angels 5, Tigers 3 (84-45)

Dan Petry gave up four runs in the first inning, and that was basically the difference in the game. He’d end up calming down and actually finishing the game, but homeruns by Chet Lemon and Marty Castillo weren’t enough for the Tigers to ever get the lead.

Angel’s starter Mike Witt threw a nice game, going eight innings while giving up eight hits and three runs, while striking out six.

August 22, 1984 Tigers 11, A’s 4 (84-44)

For the third straight game, the Tigers scored into double figures on the Oakland pitching staff. Barbaro Garbey, Alan Trammell, Marty Castillo, and Doug Baker all had two hits, and the Tigers scored all eleven runs without a homerun. The Detroit Tigers did steal six bases though.

Juan Berenguer pitched seven quality innings, giving up five hits and one run.

With the win, the Tigers extended their lead to 12 1/2 games, with only 34 left. At this point, the playoffs were just about in the bag. The only question on Tiger fan’s minds was who they were going to play. The Minnesota Twins held a 5 1/2 game lead over the Angels and Royals at this stage of the season.

August 21, 1984 Tigers 12, A’s 6 (83-44)

For the second straigh game, the Tiger’s bats allowed the pitchers a virtual night off. Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez both gave up two runs in an inning of work each, but four runs in the first and four in the sixth pretty much sealed this game up early.

Milt Wilcox pitched a nice game, going six innings and striking out seven. He improved to 14-7. Lance Parrish, Larry Herndon, and Darrell Evans all hit homeruns. Lance Parrish’s dinger was a grand slam in the first inning, and Darrell Evans ended the day going four for five, scoring three times, and driving in three runs.

August 20, 1984 Tigers 14, A’s 1 (82-44)

Not even with the way Jack Morris had been pitching could he have blown this one. The Tigers scored fourteen runs on twenty hits. Larry Herndon, Doug Baker, and Darrell Evans had three hits a piece, and Chet Lemon drove in three runs.

By the end of third, the Tigers had a 6-1 lead. With five in the fifth, they went into double figures. Jack Morris won his sixteenth by pitching seven innings of three hit ball, and Dave Rozema pitched two solid innings of relief.

August 19, 2004 Mariners 4, Tigers 1 (81-44)

Rookie starter Mark Langston shut down the Tigers, giving up only four hits and one run through 8 1/3. More impressively, he struck out eleven Tigers. Mark led the league in strikeouts in his rookie campaign, and went on to do it as well in 1986 and 1987.

A fine game by Dan Petry was wasted, as he dropped to 15-6 while going the distance, and giving up ten hits while striking out eleven as well.

Just to show how bad the offense was clicking, Marty Castillo walked in the only run of the game for Detroit.

August 18, 1984 Tigers 4, Mariners 3 (81-43)

This current winning streak was the beginning of the end of any chance the Blue Jays would have to catch up to the Detroit Tigers. With the win, the Tigers extended their lead to eleven games, with only a month and half left in the season.

Juan Berenguer had probably his best start of the season, throwing 8 1/3, giving up only three hits, two earned runs (three total), while striking out twelve. Two of the three runs came in the top of the ninth, but Willie Hernandez slammed the door shut by getting the last two batters out to earn his twenty sixth save.

The Tigers were held to only five hits, but one of those was a three run shot by Kirk Gibson. The homerun was the twentieth of the season, making this the first of five consecutive seasons that he’d hit twenty homers and steal twenty bases.

August 17, 1984 Tigers 6, Mariners 2 (80-43)

The last time the Tigers faced Seattle was the day after their heralded 35-5 start. The Mariners went on to hand the Tigers losses six, seven and eight in a three game sweep, and the Tigers got their revenge in this one.

By the end of the third, the Tigers were up 4-0, and that was really all they needed. Milt Wilcox pitched a nice game for his thirteenth win, going eight innings, and giving up one run on seven hits.

Alan Trammell, Rupert Jones and Kirk Gibson all had two hits in this one as six different Tigers scored runs off of starter and future Tiger Mike Moore.

In Sparky’s book Bless You Boys, he mentions that this was the game where they broke the attendance record set in 1968. For only the second time, they pulled in 2,000,000 fans. They’d end up drawing 2,704,794, still a record. They’d draw 2 million three more times during the 1980s (1985, 1987 and 1988) and then wouldn’t draw as many until 1989, the final season at Tiger Stadium. Since then, only Comerica Park’s opening season has brought 2,000,000 fans to the ball park

August 16, 1984 Tigers 8, Angels 7 (79-43)

Some back and forth, wild and crazy games, can be called rollercoasters.

If that’s the case, then this one was Millenium Force. The Tigers took a quick 5-0 lead after two innings, essentially giving Jack Morris some easy sailing.

And he didn’t take advantage of it. Two innings later, Morris was gone, and the Tigers were down 7-5, as one again, he struggled to get batters out. Then enters the bullpen. More on that in a second.

Down 7-5 in the eighth, Alan Trammell drove in two with an RBI single to tie the game. In the bottom of the twelth inning, Barbaro Garbey came up huge with a walk off RBI double to win the game. A nice, solid, come from behind win.

But give a huge dose of credit to the bullpen. Doug Bair, Aurelio Lopez, and Willie Hernandez combined for a total of 8 1/3 innings of four hit, shutout baseball. Another superb job by the pen kept the Tigers in the game, as they salvaged a 2-2 split of the series.

August 15, 1984 Tigers 8, Angels 3 (78-43)

At this stage of the season, with Jack Morris’ struggles, Dan Petry had become the ace in that he seemed to come up with a win to put a stop to any kind of substantial losing streak. Dan pitched eight solid innings, giving up eight hits and three runs. The Angels had the lead once, going up 2-1 in the fourth, but the Tigers bounced back with two runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good. Willie Hernandez pitched a perfect ninth to finish the game off.

Tom Brookens had the big game, going three for three with two RBIs. Barbero Garbey went three for three, Dave Bergman drove in three runs, and Kirk Gibson scored three times. It was a solid all around performance by the team.

August 14, 1984 Angels 6, Tigers 4 (77-42)

The Tigers lost the first of two in a back and forth affair. The Angels took the lead on three different occassions, only to see the Tigers tie it up, until the top of the ninth when the Angels finally took the lead for good. A Doug DeCinces two run single off of Willie Hernandez was the winning blow, as Willie lost his second game of the season.

Juan Berenguer pitched a solid game, but for one of the few times this season, the Aurelio Lopez/Willie Hernandez combo didn’t come through. Lopez gave up a run in his sole inning, and Willie gave up his two after pitching two innings.

Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, and Lance Parrish all went yard with solo shots and all three had two hits.

August 14, 1984 Angels 12, Tigers 1 (77-43)

The twelve runs by California matched the Tigers season worst for runs given up in a game. On two other occasions, Tiger’s pitching gave up twelve.

Dave Rozema didn’t get far in this outing as a seven run third inning put the Angels up for good. Doug Bair was also shelled hard, as it seemed like the Tiger’s pitching had no chance.

And there were no notables on offense. The Tigers spread out seven singles, and Darrell Evans drove in the only run. With the two losses, the Tiger’s lead over Toronto had dwindled to 7 1/2 games. What looked like a runaway race was tightening up quick.

August 12, 1984 Tigers 8, Royals 4 (77-41)

A four run first inning put the Tigers up for good as Milt Wilcox held the Royals scoreless through the first six innings. The Royals tagged Milt for four runs in the seventh, but the typical tandem of Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez finished the game up to give the Tigers the weekend series sweep.

Ruppert Jones hit a two run shot, and Alan Trammell went two for five with two RBIs.

August 11, 1984 Tigers 9, Royals 5 (76-41)

It wasn’t his best outing of the year, but Jack Morris went one batter short from going the distance, as he gave up five runs on eleven hits. Aurelio Lopez struck out the final batter to earn his twelth save.

Larry Herndon, Lance Parrish and Kirk Gibson all hit homeruns, and Alan Trammell went four for five.

August 10, 1984 Tigers 5, Royals 4 (75-41)

It sounds like a broken record, but the usual suspects in the bullpen did it again. Dan Petry pitched 6 2/3 solid innings, but left the game tied 4-4. Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez were nearly flawless in the final 2+ innings, allowing Ruppert Jones to put the Tigers ahead with a solo shot in the eighth inning. Lopez improved to 10-0, and Hernandez saved his 25th game.

The contribution Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez made throughout the 1984 season were incredible. They threw a combined 278 innings, went a combined 19-4, and saved 46 games, all while striking out 206 batters and throwing up a 1.053 WHIP and a 2.43 ERA. Those numbers were by far better then any of the starters and shows why Willie Hernandez got the support he did for the Cy Young.

August 8, 1984 Red Sox 8, Tigers 0 (74-41)

An error by third basemen Howard Johnson led to five first inning unearned runs, as Glenn Abbott couldn’t get out of the first inning. Probably the strangest thing about the inning was Abbott struck out Wade Boggs.

Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd threw a complete game seven hitter, as the Tigers couldn’t put a runner across the plate. John Grubb was the only Tiger to figure him out, as he went two for three.

August 7, 2004 Red Sox 12, Tigers 7 (73-40)

Jack Morris got pounded again. Coming off the heels of the best start he’s had in a while, Jack gave up six hits, two walks and nine runs 1 1/3 innings, forcing Sparky to go to the pen early. Bruce Hurst was hardly stellar, but when you’re given a seven run lead after two innings, there’s not much you can do to lose the game.

Alan Trammell and Howard Johnson both hit their tenth homer of the season, and Lance Parrish added his 23rd. Kirk Gibson went three for four.

August 7, 1984 Tigers 7, Red Sox 5 (74-40)

Milt Wilcox cruised through the first six innings, and then gave up four runs in the seventh to give the Red Sox a 5-4 lead. As a precursor to the 1986 World Series debacle, Dave Bergman scored in the ninth on an error by firstbasemen Bill Buckner that sent the game into extra innings.

Then in the top of the 11th, Lance Parrish hit a two run shot to give the Tigers the lead. Aurelio Lopez and Willie Hernandez combined for 4 1/3 perfect innings while striking out seven.

Lance Parrish had the big day. Two homers and three RBIs. Kirk Gibson and Larry Herndon also added dingers.

August 6, 1984 Tigers 9, Red Sox 7 (73-38)

Dan Petry didn’t have his best stuff, as he gave up six runs and eleven hits in only 4 2/3 innings, but Bob Ojeda was just as worse, as the Tigers scored six on the Red Sox starter as well. Aurelio Lopez pitched 2 2/3 to improve to 8-0, and Willie Hernandez picked up his 23rd save.

Chet Lemon and Lance Parrish both knocked in three runs and hit homers. Tom Brookens added a solo shot and scored two runs.

August 6, 1984 Red Sox 10, Tigers 2 (73-39)

A drubbing, plain and simple. Carl Willis got one batter before getting pulled, and Doug Bair didn’t much better. By the end of the fourth inning, the Tigers were down 9-1. Rookie starter Roger Clemens threw a solid eight innings, holding the Tigers to six hits while striking out nine.

Tom Brookens had the only multihit game, going two for four, and Howard Johnson hit a solo shot.

August 5, 1984 Royals 5, Tigers 4 (72-37)

For the first time during the 109 games of the season, Willie Hernandez lost a game. A two run double in the top of the ninth by Dane Iorg broke a 3-3 tie as Bret Saberhagen takes the win in relief, and Dan Quisenberry notched his 29th save.

Larry Herndon had two hits and drove in two.

August 5, 1984 Royals 4, Tigers 0 (72-38)

Whether it was being tired, or good pitching, the Tigers couldn’t quite get going. Charlie Liebrandt held Detroit to five hits, and Dan Quisenberry pitched the ninth to complete the combined shutout.. Alan Trammell had the only multi-hit game, going two for three.

Juan Berenguer threw a fine game, going the distance and giving up four runs on eight hits. But it wasn’t enough. With the Royals sweeping, the Tigers now stood a meer eight games over Toronto. What looked like a run away was slowly turning into a pennant race again.

August 4, 1984 Royals 9, Tigers 5 (72-36)

Glenn Abbott got hit hard once again, giving up eight hits and four runs in 5 1/3. Doug Bair and Sid Monge also got shelled, as the Royals scored nine for the second time in as many nights.

Kirk Gibson went three for five and Rupert Jones had three RBIs. Neither starter got a decision, as Mark Gubicza, then a rookie, only went 4 1/3 for the Royals. He’d eventually go on to have a nice career with the team, eventually winning 20 games in 1988.

Playing one doubleheader can give a manager headaches. In fact teams no longer are scheduled double headers like they were in the past. But due to some rainouts, the Tigers were forced to play not one, not two, but three consecutive double headers. The Tigers would survive, but their lead over the Blue Jays would once again drop into single digits.

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