Detroit — Ron Gardenhire was hot. A full hour after he’d been ejected from his first game as Tigers manager, he was still seething — so much so that he thought it prudent to send his bench coach, Steve Liddle, to handle the postgame press conference.
“He’s pretty upset,” Liddle said after the Tigers took a 13-10, 13-inning gut punch from the Pirates on Opening Day Friday. “That would be an understatement.”
The Tigers thought they had the game won in the bottom of the 10th inning. It would have been a rousing victory, especially considering they fought back from a 4-2 deficit in the seventh and then rallied for four runs to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.