August 13: This Friday In Detroit Tigers History

Today is Friday, August 13. It’s a date that has special significance for Motor City Bengals’ resident historian, who was born on a Friday the 13th in August once upon a time. In celebration, here are four occasions in his lifetime that this box on the calendar proved to be unlucky for Detroit Tigers opponents.

Apologies to any superstitious readers who have triskaidekaphobia.

Friday, August 13, 1976

Vern Ruhle rooted for Al Kaline and the Detroit Tigers when he was growing up in Coleman, Michigan. He made his big league debut in September 1974, just in time to be the soon-to-be retired Kaline’s teammate. In 1976, Ruhle was in his second full season as a Tigers pitcher. The right-hander drew the starting assignment in this road game against the Kansas City Royals. He had been hittable but able to limit damage. Coming into this evening, opponents were hitting .285 against Ruhle in 23 starts, but his ERA was a respectable 3.76. A lack of run support factored into his 6-9 record. In seven of those losses, the Tigers scored two runs or less for him.

Ruhle was strong through the first five innings. He gave up only a second-inning single and a third-inning walk. One of those baserunners was wiped out on a failed steal attempt. Meanwhile, Royals right-handed starter Al Fitzmorris also handled the Tigers pretty easily. Willie Horton reached on an error by Kansas City shortstop Freddie Patek to lead off the second. Rookie Jason Thompson walked to lead off the fifth, then stole second base. It was the first steal of his career. That had been it for the Detroit offense.

The tide turned for the Tigers in the top of the sixth. Chuck Scrivener, Detroit’s ninth-place hitter, walked to lead off the inning. Ron LeFlore’s single, the Tigers’ first hit, sent Scrivener to third. Ben Oglivie put the Bengals on the board when he drove his teammate in with a sacrifice fly to center. Fitzmorris got out of the inning with a couple infield groundouts, and the Tigers settled for a 1-0 lead. Patek singled off Ruhle to begin the bottom of the sixth, then stole his 43rd base of the season. Frank White singled, which sent Patek to third. Then White stole second. Future Tiger Al Cowens grounded out to shortstop Tom Veryzer, but that drove in the tying run.

One of the game’s key plays happened next. Amos Otis broke his bat delivering a single into right that Rusty Staub fielded. White, who was on third, went halfway home on contact. He was called back by his third-base coach, who thought Staub was going to make the catch. When the ball dropped in, White took off for home again. Staub, who was in his first year with the Tigers, wasn’t known for his defense. In fact, this was the only season he played in the outfield for team. He spent the remainder of his time in Detroit strictly as a designated hitter. In this instance, though, Rusty rose to the occasion. He fired a laser to catcher Johnny Wockenfuss, and White was tagged out.

The inning continued for future Hall of Famer George Brett. While he was at the plate, Otis became the third Royal in the inning to steal second base. Ruhle got Brett to pop out to third baseman Aurelio Rodriguez in foul territory to end the Kansas City threat. Detroit struck again in the top of the seventh. With two outs, Veryzer doubled. Wockenfuss atoned for his role in letting the Royals run wild on the bases in the sixth. He knocked a double into left field and Veryzer scored the Tigers’ tie-breaking run. After the seventh-inning stretch, Ruhle set the Royals down 1-2-3.

LeFlore led off the eighth with a single. That prompted a pitching change. Royals manager Whitey Herzog, a former Tigers player, called on lefty Steve Mingori to face the left-handed hitting Oglivie. Tigers manager Ralph Houk decided not to burn a pinch-hitter, and Oglivie laid down a sacrifice bunt to send LeFlore to second. Staub’s single drove in LeFlore in with a valuable insurance run. The two biggest bats in the Detroit lineup had come through nicely. Staub topped the 1976 Tigers with 176 hits, and LeFlore was right behind him with 172. Rusty led the team with 96 RBI, and Ronnie led the way with 92 runs scored.

Ruhle got through a scoreless eighth to keep Detroit’s 3-1 lead intact, although he gave up a couple singles. The third out in the inning was the second key play of the game for the Tigers. Oglivie made a superb diving grab in left-center to rob Otis of a hit and keep the Royals from scoring. Afterward, Herzog acknowledged that the catch “killed us”, but Houk said that Ben was a good outfielder who never surprised him. Describing how it unfolded, Oglivie commented,

“The ball wasn’t hit as good as I thought it was at first. The ball got in the lights, but I got a fairly good jump. I backhanded the ball close to the ground, very close to the ground. I made sure the webbing of my glove was off the ground.”

The Royals weren’t about to go quietly, though. Brett doubled to lead off the bottom of the ninth. That was it for Ruhle. Houk summoned his chief fireman, lefty John Hiller. Detroit native John Mayberry greeted with him a single that scored Brett. Hal McRae followed with a single. Jim Wohlford bunted toward first base, but Thompson was able to scoop up the ball and make the throw to Rodriguez at third to nab Mayberry. Cookie Rojas’ flyout to left moved pinch-runner Tom Hall to third. With the tying run 90 feet away, Hiller struck out Buck Martinez with a changeup to end the game and earn his 11th save. The Tigers escaped with a 3-2 victory, and Ruhle picked up his seventh win.

Friday, August 13, 1982

The number one tune in the country was “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor. It was in the midst of a six-week reign on “American Top 40”, the radio-countdown show based on the Billboard Hot 100, which was hosted by legendary disc jockey Casey Kasem, a Detroit native. The song’s popularity stemmed from its inclusion in the movie Rocky III, starring Sylvester Stallone and Mr. T, but it was – and still is – the perfect rock & roll song to get Detroit Tigers fans fired up for action.

On this evening, the eyes of the Detroit Tigers were focused on the Royals, who were in town to begin a three-game weekend series. Right-hander Milt Wilcox was making his first start since July 19. Tendinitis in his shoulder had forced him to the disabled list. Kansas City came close to scoring a first-inning run after U.L. Washington dropped a one-out bunt and made it all the way to third base on Lance Parrish’s throwing error. That was some bad luck for the catcher who sported no. 13 on his back. Wilcox struck out George Brett and Amos Otis to avert further trouble.

Lou Whitaker had recently been moved up to the top of manager Sparky Anderson’s lineup. The silver-haired skipper dabbled with using his second baseman as a leadoff hitter briefly in 1979 and again in 1980, but this time it stuck. Three days earlier, Whitaker hit the first of his 23 career leadoff home runs off the Yankees’ Doyle Alexander, a future Tiger teammate. He did it again in this game, victimizing Royals’ righty Dave Frost with a shot to the seats in left field. Whitaker finished his brilliant career with 23 leadoff homers, which was a franchise record until Curtis Granderson hit his 24th in 2009. It was Sweet Lou’s 10th roundtripper of the season. Later in the inning, the Tigers took a 2-0 lead after Parrish singled and came around to score on a single from Chet Lemon.

Wilcox cruised through the next two innings, retiring all six hitters he faced and striking out three along the way. Then the Royals threatened. They loaded the bases in the fourth on a pair of walks and a single. Wilcox got out the jam when Steve Hammond, the most unheralded player in the Kansas City lineup, flew out to left. The Tigers’ offense cranked up the volume in the bottom of the fourth. Lemon led off with a single. After Rick Leach flew out, Tom Brookens hit a two-run home run. Ninth-place hitter Alan Trammell walked to turn the lineup over for Whitaker.

Three days earlier against the Yankees, Whitaker homered twice in the same game for the first time in his career. He did it again with another longball to left field. That put the Tigers up 6-0. Whitaker’s power was still developing at this stage of his career. The home runs off Frost were the left-handed hitter’s first two opposite-field blasts at Tiger Stadium. 1982 also marked the first time that Whitaker reached double figures in homers (15 total), although he was still three seasons away from hitting 20 for the first time. Whitaker admitted that he was surprised by what he’d done. He remarked,

“I guess I surprised the Royals too, because they pitched me outside after the first one, and I just went with it. It’s a matter of patience because you only need one pitch. You just have to wait until you get it and then make sure you keep it in play”.

Whitaker’s second home run knocked Frost out of the game. Righty Bill Castro took over, and Glenn Wilson immediately rocked him with a homer to left. It was the rookie outfielder’s fourth one that week (and he hit another two days later). The long inning on the bench didn’t faze Wilcox. He set the Royals down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fifth. With it being his first start back after being activated, Anderson planned for his veteran hurler to go only five innings. It was a successful return. Wilcox gave up a pair of hits and a pair of walks while striking out seven. He said that his split-fingered fastball, which pitching coach extraordinaire Roger Craig taught him a year earlier, was working well for him.

Lefty Pat Underwood kept the Tigers’ shutout intact for a couple more innings before the Royals scored off him in the eighth. Detroit wasn’t done scoring, though. Leach singled to lead off the eighth and scored on Trammell’s two-run home run to left. Whitaker stayed hot by ripping a double to left. He advanced to third a wild pitch from Castro and scored on Wilson’s sacrifice fly. That made it 10-1 in favor of the home team, and that was the final score. Underwood pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save in preservation of Wilcox’s seventh win.

Friday, August 13, 2004

The Tigers were in Anaheim on this evening, which made it a late night for fans catching the broadcast back in Michigan. Angels Stadium had been anything but heavenly for the Tigers, who were swept in a three-game series there back in May. They also got swept in each of their two previous visits before that, and the losing streak in their hosts’ ballpark had reached 11 games.

Detroit took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Amidst a pair of strikeouts by Angels righty John Lackey, Rondell White singled and Carlos Peña walked. On a 3-0 pitch, Brandon Inge took advantage of the green light that manager Alan Trammell had given him, and he drove in both runners with a double that sailed over right fielder Vladimir Guerrero’s head. Peña narrowly beat the relay throw as he slid into the plate. Afterward, a surprised Inge said he did a double take when he got the sign from third-base coach Juan Samuel. He stated,

“You better believe that when I get a 3-0 green light, I’m swinging if it’s close. I wasn’t sure what he would throw me, but I geared for a fastball, middle portion of the plate, and that’s what it was. I was going to take anything in or too far out.”

The Tigers missed out on an opportunity to score more in the fourth when Omar Infante grounded out to third base with two down after Lackey had walked three straight hitters. Rookie Nook Logan, whose career walk rate was a paltry 6.2%, was especially impressive in winning a 10-pitch battle to draw his free pass.

Jeremy Bonderman, the Tigers’ second-year righty, kept Anaheim off the board in the first four innings. He scuffled along the way, though. Six Angels had reached base, four via hits, one on a walk, and one runner was safe thanks to a Bonderman error. He did get through the third by inducing three straight infield groundouts. With one out in the fifth, Bondo committed his second error of the game when he made a bad throw trying to get Chone Figgins, who had bunted. Figgins advanced to second on the miscue. Guerrero, the future Hall of Famer, drove him in with a double to make it a 2-1 game.

With one out in the top of the fifth, Craig Monroe doubled. Lackey uncorked a wild pitch, which sent C-Mo to third. Inge knocked him in with a single that also knocked Lackey out of the game. The Tigers led 3-1 and again threatened to add more against righty reliever Scott Shields. The speedy Logan bunted for a single, and Carlos Guillen walked. Detroit had to settle for the lone run when Ivan Rodriguez left the bases loaded by hitting into a force play to end the inning.

Bonderman pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth. After he gave up a leadoff single to former Tiger Curtis Pride in the seventh, Trammell called on Esteban Yan. The Tigers were the fifth of the seven teams Yan pitched for in the big leagues. The Angels became the sixth in 2005. The righty retired the first two hitters he faced, but he couldn’t get Big Bad Vlad. Guerrero tripled to the wall in right-center. Pride trotted home, and Detroit’s lead was down to 3-2. Yan stranded his runner at third by getting Garrett Anderson to ground out to Peña at first base.

The Tigers came out swinging against Shields in the eighth. Inge and Logan singled, and Infante moved them up with a sacrifice bunt. Guillen struck out, but Rodriguez walked to load the bases. For the third time in the game, Detroit left the sacks full when new Angels reliever Brendan Donnelly struck out Dmitri Young. The Tigers wound up leaving a total of 13 runners on base and went 3-for-13 with men in scoring position. Their inability to break the game open looked like it might come back to haunt them in the bottom of the eighth when the Angels tied the game against Yan. It was 3-3.

For the top of the ninth, Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia called on closer Troy Percival, who was still pitching effectively in what turned out to be his final year with the Angels. He signed with Detroit as a free agent that November. Exactly five years after experiencing an unlucky Friday the 13th against the Tigers, it happened to Percival again. White led off with a double. Jason Smith came in as a pinch-runner and went to third on Peña’s groundout. Monroe broke the tie with an RBI single. Inge followed with a single, his fourth hit of the game, to put runners on the corners.

The Tigers picked up an insurance run in controversial fashion. Logan flew out to Guerrero in right. The runners tagged up. Guerrero’s throw to shortstop David Eckstein nabbed Inge at second base as Monroe crossed the plate. Home plate umpire Tim McClelland, much to Scioscia’s chagrin, ruled that Monroe safely scored just before the third out was registered. Detroit closer Ugueth Urbina needed just eight pitches to put Figgins, Guerrero, and Anderson away in the bottom of the ninth to pick up his 20th save of the season in the Tigers’ 5-3 triumph.