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1. houdini says:

   October 11, 2012 at 12:23 am

   I just wrote this page and not 5 minutes later he hit an rbi in game 3, alds.

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2. houdini says:

   October 11, 2012 at 1:22 pm

   Detroit Tigers’ Avisail Garcia has clutch hit, plays key role in Game 4 of Division Series

   OAKLAND, Calif. — Avisail Garcia had an eventful night for a guy who didn’t enter the game until the eighth inning.

   Garcia was involved in two key plays late in the game Wednesday night as the Detroit Tigers suffered a 4-3 loss to the Oakland A’s in Game 4 of the American League Division Series.

   The Tigers held a tenuous 2-1 lead and had a runner at second base with one out in the eighth inning when Garcia entered the game as a pinch-hitter to face A’s left-hander Sean Doolittle.

   Garcia sent an 0-2 fastball from Doolittle to the opposite field to score Omar Infante to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead. The RBI for Garcia gave the Tigers what appeared to be a huge insurance run, but the A’s overcame the two-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth inning.

   Avisail-Garcia-mug.jpg Avisail Garcia
   Garcia was involved in that rally as well.

   The A’s tied the score and had a runner on second with two outs in the bottom of the ninth when Coco Crisp sent a single to right field.

   Garcia has a cannon for an arm. He showed that off early in the series when he threw out Crisp on a play at the plate. The crowd at the Oakland Coliseum cheered when Crisp singled, then seemed to freeze for a moment in anticipation of a play at the plate.

   That play never happened. Garcia charged the ball, but it skipped underneath his glove as he started to get into position to make the throw just a split-second too early. It would have taken a perfect throw to get the runner, but a play at the plate at that point would have added another layer of excitement to an already-amazing game.

   Garcia started the season in Single-A Lakeland, so it says something about how highly the Tigers think of him that he is a regular player against left-handed starters in the playoffs for the Tigers.

   It also says something about the Tigers: They don’t have any other options.

   Really, the Tigers would have much preferred to use Ryan Raburn as a right-handed hitter in a corner outfield spot, but he posted awful numbers this season. They would have preferred to have Jeff Baker, obtained in a late-season trade, play in that spot, but they quickly moved on from that trade when he struggled.

   When the Tigers needed a right-handed hitter for the stretch drive, they asked their minor-league people and found that Garcia was their best option.

   “I had no idea he was ready,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said this week. “I’m still not sure he’s ready. … They thought he could handle it, so we did it. You’ve got to believe in your people, and I certainly believe in them. So we brought him up and we played him.

   “He’s done fine. He hasn’t tore it up, but he’s done fine. He’s done a good job.”

   Garcia has done fine. He has one clutch hit and has made one excellent defensive play in his first playoff series. That’s a pretty good debut for a guy no one really expected to see in the big leagues this season.

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