Collier: Leyland did not expect this
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There were a couple of places Jim Leyland didn't expect to find himself or his Detroit Tigers on the next to last weekend in May, seven games behind the Cleveland Indians being one of 'em.
Getting pushed around PNC Park by the Pirates was probably another, but when you've managed more big league games than anyone save for only 15 people (Saturday night brought game No. 3,058), you've no doubt begun to appreciate that, as the ancient philosopher Joaquin Andujar observed, it all comes down to one word: "yaneverknow."
One more thing the old Pirates skipper probably didn't expect, which was the peculiar narrative of Saturday night's proceedings, in which unbeaten Detroit starter Max Scherzer was chased in an elongated sixth inning that overturned a two-run Tigers lead.
"Came to us last year and seemed to have figured it all out," Leyland said long before having to pull his 6-0 righty at the start of a roaring Pirates comeback. "He's got a good change, good slider, and a live, live arm. He was one of the best pitchers in the league the second half of last year."
Scherzer had turned that up to flat out unbeatable through the first seven weeks of 2011, so it didn't exactly figure that the first club to solve him would be your .237-hitting Pirates, keepers of one of only three offenses in the majors with more strikeouts than hits. (Nats and Padres).
But the Pirates, who scored 10 runs in the Friday night opener of this series -- generally enough to hold them for a week -- have now scored five or more in five of the past six. They started the sixth inning scoreless and seemingly clueless, and without any indication from Scherzer that he was headed for anything but 7-0.
But the Pirates ... suddenly a lot of sentences are starting "But the Pirates."
Probably a good thing.
Andrew McCutchen, down in the count 0-2, swatted the third pitch to left field for a leadoff single, and Jose Tabata mashed a 1-2 pitch to center so hard McCutchen could only move up one base. Garrett Jones murdered the next pitch, but with so much topspin that it nosedived in the dirt parallel to the foul line and hopped over the fence for a double, keeping the tying run at third temporarily.
First Published May 22, 2011 12:00 am
