Oakland, Calif. – Really, the mystery as the Tigers took a 5-4 lead into the ninth Saturday at Oakland Coliseum is that they had a 5-4 lead.
The home-field Athletics already had clubbed three home runs. They had launched many more balls to the warning track in center field and lined out everywhere else it had seemed.
But the Tigers still led, 5-4, even with two outs and none on in the bottom of the ninth.
And then came the walk to Bruce Maxwell, the double by Matt Joyce, and, finally, lethally, a two-run, walk-off single by Adam Rosales, and just like that, what had seemed destined to be a funky victory for the Tigers became a 6-5 triumph for the A’s.