For the second straight day the Tigers have beat the Rangers in walkoff fashion. For the second straight day they did so while the Rangers’ relief ace -- Neftali Feliz -- watched from the comfort of his bench in the bullpen.
Today the heroics came via a Brandon Inge home run with one out in the ninth off Darren Oliver, who was into his second inning of work in a tie game. Yesterday it was Miguel Cabrera doing the honors off Darren O’Day on a bases loaded single.
Ron Washington recently said that he would not limit Neftali Feliz to save situations and that, instead, he’d deploy him more often, Except, as Aaron pointed out, Washington meant that he’d actually use him in lower-leverage situations, such as in games with four-run leads, which isn’t all that useful. Well, today and yesterday were both high-leverage situations: tie games, in the ninth, one of which was a bases-loaded situation. Why Ron Washington doesn’t want his most dominant pitcher on the mound in those situations is between him and his god.
But hey, at least Feliz is well-rested to pick up that save tomorrow! Oh, wait. It’s an offday. Never mind.