October 16, 2013: Jim Leyland records final win as manager with Tigers’ big inning in Game 4

In what turned out to be the final win of manager Jim Leyland’s 22-season Hall of Fame career, the Detroit Tigers put this game away early and evened up the 2013 American League Championship Series at two games apiece with the Boston Red Sox.

Leyland’s Tigers had won their third consecutive AL Central Division title in 2013, then beat the Oakland A’s in the AL Division Series. Seeking their second straight pennant, they took an early edge in the ALCS when five Detroit pitchers struck out 17 Red Sox batters and allowed just one hit, Daniel Nava’s ninth-inning single, in a 1-0 Game One win. But Boston had rebounded in the next two games, rallying from a four-run eighth inning deficit in Game Two and taking a 1-0 decision in Game Three on Mike Napoli’s solo homer.

Game Four was set for just after 8:00 P.M. on Wednesday, October 16, at Detroit’s Comerica Park, Either the Red Sox would take a commanding three-games-to-one lead or the Tigers would draw even.

The Tigers’ starting pitcher was 29-year-old right-hander Doug Fister. In his fifth big-league season, Fister had a record of 14-9 with a 3.67 ERA. He’d faced the Red Sox twice: He was hammered for six runs in 3⅓ innings on June 21 but threw seven innings of four-hit-shutout ball in a 3-0 win on September 2. He was 2-2 in postseason play the prior two years, and had started Game Four of the Division Series against Oakland, allowing three runs in six innings in a game the Tigers won, 8-6.

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia singled to right in the top of the first, but none of the other batters got the ball out of the infield. It was the first time in the series that a Red Sox batter had a hit in the first three innings.

Jake Peavy had joined the Red Sox at the end of July in a three-team trade, coming from the Chicago White Sox. His major-league career went back to 2002. He’d been the NL Cy Young Award winner in 2007 with his first team, the San Diego Padres.1 In 10 starts with Boston, the 32-year-old righty was 4-1, and the one loss was by a score of 2-1. He had started Game Four of Boston’s Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing one run in 5⅔ innings.

Peavy retired all three Tigers he faced in the first inning. No ball left the infield. Leyland’s lineup was one he hadn’t used all season, with regular first-place hitter Austin Jackson dropped to eighth and everyone from usual number-two hitter Torii Hunter to eighth-place batter Omar Infante moving up a spot.2

Fister pitched around Napoli’s leadoff double in the second, and the Tigers’ revamped batting order struck for five runs in the bottom of the second. DH Victor Martinez kicked things off with a single to left field, and Peavy walked the next two batters, Jhonny Peralta on four pitches and Alex Avila on eight. The bases were loaded with nobody out.

Infante flied to shallow center, with Jacoby Ellsbury running in and making a diving catch. There was no way Martinez could tag and score.

But Peavy pushed in the first run by granting Jackson a walk on just four pitches. Jackson had come into the game having struck out in 18 of 33 postseason at-bats, leading to his demotion from the leadoff slot. As Detroit sportswriter Mitch Albom put it, “[T]he first Detroit run in 13 innings had been driven in by a Boston pitcher.”3

Jose Iglesias grounded to second. It looked like a tailor-made double play, but Pedroia lost his handle on the ball before hastily flipping to shortstop Stephen Drew, who caught the ball well after crossing the bag but was granted an uncontested out call on what was known as the “neighborhood play.”4 After the game, Pedroia took full responsibility for not fielding the ball cleanly: “I put us behind the eight ball there. It’s all on me.”5 Peralta scored for a 2-0 Detroit lead.

Hunter then doubled past a diving Will Middlebrooks at third base and into left field, driving in two runs. Miguel Cabrera – headed for his second consecutive AL MVP Award – looped a single into center field, scoring Hunter. It was 5-0, Tigers.

Peavy came back to retire the side in order in the third, but whatever he had gotten working in that inning was no longer working in the fourth. Infante led off with a ground-rule double that hopped into the Red Sox bullpen in left-center, and Jackson singled him in with a ball that glanced off the glove of a diving Pedroia.

Red Sox manager John Farrell changed pitchers, calling on Brandon Workman. The first batter Workman faced was Iglesias. Jackson stole second base, and then was sacrificed to third by Iglesias. He held at third on Hunter’s comebacker, but Cabrera singled cleanly into center, past a diving Pedroia, and Jackson scored. It was 7-0, Detroit. Peavy was charged with all seven runs, all earned, in three innings of work.6

In the meantime, Fister kept the Red Sox at bay, allowing at least one baserunner in every inning through the fifth but keeping Boston scoreless.

The Red Sox finally broke through with three one-out singles in the top of the sixth – Napoli to right, Drew into center, and an RBI single to center by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. It was 7-1, but Fister struck out Drew and got pinch-hitter Mike Carp (batting for Middlebrooks) to hit into a force play at second.

Leyland then turned the game over to his bullpen. The Red Sox got another run, but only one, in the top of the seventh. Phil Coke took over on the mound from Fister; not overtaxing Fister could make him available for a possible Game Seven start. Coke faced one batter, Ellsbury, who swatted a single to left, his third hit of the night. Al Alburquerque relieved Coke. Shane Victorino bounced a double to the fence in left and Ellsbury scored. After Pedroia grounded out, Victorino having to hold, David Ortiz was due up. Leyland made another move and brought in lefty Drew Smyly. Ortiz grounded out to second and Napoli popped up to first.

Smyly faced three batters in the eighth and retired all three. Joaquin Benoit pitched the ninth for the Tigers. Xander Bogaerts led off with a ground-rule double into the right-field corner. Ellsbury then got his fourth base hit – a stand-up triple right over the first-base bag and into the right-field corner, giving the Red Sox one run and creating a situation with a runner on third and nobody out. Benoit then seemed to buckle down and he struck out both Victorino and Pedroia. David Ortiz was the last man up, since he flied out to right field and ended the game.

The Red Sox had been just 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position, by no means a recipe for success. In Games One, Three, and Four combined, they had scored a total of four runs.

Leyland’s revamped lineup had generated seven runs on nine hits and five walks. It was one more run than Detroit had scored in the first three ALCS games combined, and the Series was tied, each team with two wins.

As it happened, it was the final major-league win for the 68-year-old manager. The Red Sox won Game Five, 4-3, to return home with a three-games-to-two lead in the series. In Game Six, Victorino’s seventh-inning grand slam rallied Boston to a pennant-clinching win, and the Red Sox went on to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

Leyland, who had informed Tigers President Dave Dombrowski in September of his decision to retire, told the Tigers team after the Game Six loss at Fenway Park, then made a public announcement two days later, on October 21.7

He retired with 1,769 regular-season wins with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins, Colorado Rockies, and Tigers, and 44 postseason wins. His teams won six division titles and three pennants, and he was at the helm when the Marlins won the 1997 World Series. Leyland was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2024.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Madison McEntire and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and a video of the game at YouTube.com. Thanks to Gary Gillette for providing access to Detroit newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET201310160.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B10160DET2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXLGrcHnyXo

Notes

1 The Boston Globe noted, the morning of the game, “The Red Sox had a solid rotation, but the addition of Peavy gave them one that could make run through the postseason. Few teams have a No. 4 starter who is a former Cy Young Award winner.” Peter Abraham, “Peavy Familiar with Opponent,” Boston Globe, October 16, 2013: D7.

2 Christopher L. Gasper, “Bunch of Runs after Leyland’s Hunch,” Boston Globe, October 17, 2013: D2.

3 Mitch Albom, “In the Swing,” Detroit Free Press, October 17, 2013: 1A.

4 Had the call been protested and subject to instant replay, it wasn’t even close – the runner would have been safe. Drew was “in the neighborhood” of the bag, though, and at the time, an out was often granted because of concern for the fielder’s safety when faced with an incoming runner. Three years later, in 2016, Major League Baseball made force plays subject to replay review, which had the effect of eliminating the “neighborhood play.”

5 Kevin Paul Dupont, “Pedroia Takes Blame for Botched Double Play,” Boston Globe, October 17, 2013: D3.

6 The Globe headline provides a clear sense of what the article addressed. Nick Cafardo, “Peavy’s Outing Is a Real Let Down,” Boston Globe, October 17, 2013: D3.  Peavy did start Game Three of the World Series, giving up just two runs in four innings of work. The St. Louis Cardinals won, 5-4.

7 George Sipple, “Into the Sunset,” Detroit Free Press, October 21, 2013: 1B.