Tigers Throw One Away; Blue Jays Lead by 2 1/2 Games

The strategy worked, the execution failed.

Lloyd Moseby hit the bases-loaded ground ball that the Detroit Tigers wanted in the ninth inning Friday night, but Lou Whitaker’s short sinking throw to the plate now serves to represent his team’s swiftly sinking division title hopes.

The Toronto Blue Jays took a 2 1/2-game lead in the American League East with a 3-2 victory in which they scored all of their runs in that dramatic ninth, the winner on Whitaker’s throwing error after the previous two batters had been walked intentionally.

Manny Lee, thrust into a starting role because of the Thursday night injury to shortstop Tony Fernandez, hammered a two-run game-tying triple, forcing the Tigers to create the one-out force-play situation at the plate.

Whitaker’s throw bounced past catcher Mike Heath and betrayed the strategy, but it was the inconsistent arms of the Tiger bullpen, the most glaring Detroit weakness, that deprived Whitaker’s team of returning to within a half-game of the Blue Jays.

The nomadic Dickie Noles and the enigmatic Willie Hernandez failed to preserve that 2-0 lead, leaving Manager Sparky Anderson to say later that the Tigers have to win the final two games of the four-game series.

“I’ve got to be honest about that,” he said. “We still have a chance if we win one, but win two and we go out the favorite.”

Win two and the Tigers would still trail by a half-game, but they would be going home for four games with the pathetic Baltimore Orioles and a final three games with the Blue Jays, who must play three with the tough Milwaukee Brewers here before traveling to Detroit.

The Blue Jays’ Dave Stieb (13-8) goes today against Walt Terrell (16-10) in a matchup that Anderson said he would have liked even better if his team had gone on to beat the hottest Toronto pitcher, Jimmy Key, Friday night.

“My mother said there’d be nights like this but she didn’t say they’d be this rough,” Anderson said, having just failed to get the necessary relief.

As Whitaker said: “Man for man we’re better, but they’ve got the bullpen.”

Tom Henke has saved 34 games for Toronto, 7 more than Detroit’s team total. Eric King leads the Tigers with 9 saves; Hernandez has 8. Two years ago, Hernandez converted 31 of 32 chances. This year, he has been accorded only 13 save opportunities. In the last four, he has pitched a total of 1 inning, facing 10 batters. Five have hit safely, two have walked.

“I’m not going to blame the guy, I’m not going to dump on him” Anderson said. “He’s out there trying. But when the guy who leads your team has only nine saves . . . well, that tells you how it’s been.”

This does, too: The Tigers reached out and acquired the journeyman Noles in a minor league deal with the Chicago Cubs last week. Noles, in his second appearance, was summoned to pitch the eighth after Frank Tanana, winless in his last seven starts, shut out the Blue Jays on 5 hits through 7 innings, making 103 pitches before his arm stiffned.

Noles worked a hitless eighth. After Ernie Whitt hit a drive to deep center for the first out of the ninth, Jesse Barfield followed with a single, and Anderson played Russian roulette with Hernandez.

Pinch-hitting Rick Leach drove his first pitch for a double, and Lee drove his next for a triple. The game was now tied, with a crowd of 46,233 on its feet.

Anderson brought on rookie Mike Henneman, who is 9-2 with 6 saves as a part-time closer, part-time middle man in a bullpen that is without roles. Two intentional walks loaded the bases. The infield was brought in. Moseby then hit a hard one-hopper directly at Whitaker. It might have been a 4-6-3 double play, but the instructions had been to take no chances with the fleet Moseby. The plan was to throw home.

“I saw Tram (shortstop Alan Trammell) out of the corner of my eye at second base and thought we might have had a chance to turn two, but you can’t take the risk with the winning run at third,” Whitaker said. “There was no distraction. I just didn’t get my throw there. It happens.”

The throw hit on the synthetic surface and bounced past Heath, who shook his head later and said:

“I probably could have backed up, kept one foot on the plate and made the catch, but it happened too quickly to even think about it. I just tried to stop it and didn’t.”

Should Whitaker have gone for the 4-6-3 double play?

“You can’t go that way because sure as hell the other guy (Trammell, in this case) won’t be there,” Anderson said. “You even glance there and the winning run scores. I mean, you better know what the intentions are, and in this case they were to come home all the way.”

So the Tigers blew the chance to beat Key, who was 17-6, had won 8 straight decisions and pitched well enough to make it 9, yielding solo runs in the second and sixth, only one of them earned as he lowered his league-leading earned-run average to 2.73.

Jeff Musselman came out of that deep Toronto bullpen to relieve a threat in the ninth and gain his 12th win against only 4 defeats.

Lee, a Dominican, told a horde of reporters later that he doesn’t speak English. Teammates spoke for him, describing the significance of his big hit in the wake of the controversial loss of Fernandez.

Key seemed to say it best.

“There’s no question he has big shoes to fill,” Key said. “Everyone thought he could fill the defensive shoes, but that he couldn’t do it with the bat. I know it’s only one game, but the fit is fine right now.”

Tiger-Blue Jay Notes Toronto shortstop Tony Fernandez, who suffered a fractured right elbow when upended by Bill Madlock Thursday night and later had surgery, remained hospitalized Friday. He will wear a cast for three weeks and a brace for several more. Ron Taylor, the Toronto team physician, said Fernandez should be 100% by the start of spring training. . . . The Blue Jays purchased the contract of infielder Alexis Infante, 24, from their Syracuse farm team to replace Fernandez on the roster. . . . Nelson Liriano, Fernandez’ double play partner, continued to insist Friday that Madlock had made a dirty play (“You play hard but you don’t try to hurt anyone.”), but teammate Ernie Whitt said: “I thought Madlock was probably within a body’s lengh of the base, but I also thought he threw a rolling block, which is illegal. It was like an electric shock went up and down the bench when we heard that Tony would need surgery.” . . . Madlock said that a number of nasty and threatening phone calls to his hotel room Friday morning prompted him to disconnect the phone. He was booed each time he went to the plate Friday night, but he reiterated that his slide was hard but clean. “I definitely took him out but I didn’t put that metal strip in (on which Fernandez landed),” Madlock said. “If I don’t try to take him out, what are my teammates going to think when I come back to the dugout. If you’ve watched me play in the National League, you know that’s how I play. I guess that’s why they call this league the gentleman’s league. Very few guys get knocked down at second base or brushed back at the plate.” . . . Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson sarcastically dismissed the incident again. “That Madlock is such a bully,” he said. “If it had been Manny Lee or anyone else playing short, everyone would be saying, ‘tough luck, Manny, go get your workmen’s comp.’ ”