Toronto — Truth be told, Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire was facing a Catch-22 situation Thursday as his starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann was one out, one strike, away from taking a perfect game into the eighth inning.
Now that the 2-0, 10-inning victory is in the books, Gardenhire can openly say that part of him was a little bit relieved that Blue Jays’ Teoscar Hernandez rolled a single up the middle with two outs in the seventh to break up Zimmermann’s bid.
“I was just nervous,” Gardenhire said. “I enjoy those kinds of games, but on the flip side, as a manager you don’t want to see a guy trying to go through nine innings on the first start of the year.