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Wind knocked out of Sale despite complete game gem
- Updated: August 4, 2016
DETROIT — The Tigers stood pat at Monday’s Trade Deadline in part because they felt that players coming off the disabled list could give them a boost soon. J.D. Martinez gave them a big boost Wednesday, stepping off the DL and off the bench for a go-ahead, pinch-hit home run off Chris Sale in the eighth inning, helping extend the Tigers’ winning streak to eight games with a 2-1 win over the White Sox on Wednesday night at Comerica Park.
“I can’t remember any like it,” said Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, whose team moved within two games of the first-place Cleveland Indians in the AL Central. “Certainly I’ll remember this game.”
Martinez, activated from the 15-day DL earlier in the day after missing six weeks with a fractured elbow, was held out of the lineup after playing a doubleheader on a rehab assignment with Triple-A Toledo on Tuesday. But Ausmus took a chance with him off the bench, hitting for James McCann.
“I had my plan off of [Sale],” Martinez said, “and then I got caught up in the moment, and I was like, ‘You know what, forget this. See ball, hit ball. Look for the ball up. Just be ready to hit.’ I saw it nice and slow and I just said, ‘This is it.'”
Martinez hit the first Major League pitch he had seen since June 16, a Sale fastball, into the shrubs in left-center field, an estimated 434-foot drive, according to Statcast™. It was his second career pinch-hit home run, but his third career homer in 32 plate appearances against Sale (14-5), who fell to 3-4 lifetime at Comerica Park, despite a season-high 10 strikeouts over eight innings.
“That’s what good hitters do,” Sale said. “They make things happen in games, and clearly you saw what he did. And it won the ballgame for them.”
Sale trailed for much of the game in his duel opposite Michael Fulmer, but Justin Morneau’s second homer this season off the Tigers rookie tied the game at 1 in the seventh. Fulmer tossed 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts before Shane Greene (2-2) thwarted a go-ahead opportunity for the White Sox in the seventh …
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