Tigers clinch wild card in bench-clearing win over White Sox
DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers looked dormant with the bats until a pitch from Chicago’s Chris Sale hit Victor Martinez around the back of his left shoulder.
Then tempers flared, the benches and bullpens emptied — and Sale’s shutout didn’t last much longer.
Martinez came around to score the tying run in the sixth inning, and after Sale came out of the game, Chicago’s bullpen was no match for the Tigers. Detroit won 6-1 on Wednesday — and clinched a spot in the post-season when Seattle lost to Toronto.
The worst the Tigers can end up with now is a wild card. Detroit is trying for its fourth straight AL Central crown, and the Tigers took a 1½-game lead over second-place Kansas City, with the Royals playing later Wednesday.
With one out in the sixth and Chicago up 1-0, Sale’s first pitch to Martinez hit the Detroit slugger. Martinez walked slowly to first, and the two started jawing at each other. Sale appeared to point out toward centre field in agitated fashion as Martinez went to first.
“They were claiming that someone with binoculars in centre field was giving signs to Victor,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “I think it’s a little weak that they would hit him. If they injure Victor there and we’re in the playoff hunt, that’s bad news. That just can’t happen.
“He clearly did it on purpose. He made it obvious.”
Sale didn’t accuse the Tigers of stealing signs afterward, and he said he wasn’t specifically gesturing toward centre field.
“I was just throwing my arms up, like you do when you are upset,” the lefthander said. “I wasn’t really trying to control where they pointed.”
Sale appeared to tip his hat toward the outfield in the third inning after striking out Martinez.
“There was a fan that was just wearing me out in the bullpen before the game, telling me that I wasn’t any good, and telling me how much Victor was going to hit me,” Sale said. “So that was just having some fun with him.”
Justin Verlander (15-12) allowed a run in eight innings for Detroit.
Sale allowed a run and four hits in six innings. He struck out 10 and walked three, becoming his franchise’s career leader with his 18th game of at least 10 strikeouts. Ed Walsh had 17.
But Chicago’s slim l ead slipped away after he hit Martinez.
“I think he just woke the whole team up,” said Martinez, who is 15 of 29 for his career off Sale.
The benches and bullpens emptied, but order was quickly restored. J.D. Martinez followed with a double and Nick Castellanos hit a sacrifice fly to tie it at 1.
Ian Kinsler’s RBI double the following inning off Javy Guerra (2-4) put Detroit ahead, and when Kinsler reached second, he put his hands up in front of his eyes, pantomiming someone looking through binoculars.
Miguel Cabrera added a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Detroit scored three runs in the eighth on a well-executed squeeze play by Andrew Romine and RBI singles by Rajai Davis and Kinsler.
Cabrera struck out four times, only the third time in his career that’s happened and the first time since Sept. 17, 2010.