Marlins 2, Tigers 1 (10)
MIAMI -- Anibal Sanchez secured the American League ERA title by tossing five scoreless innings, but the Miami Marlins rallied to defeat his Detroit Tigers 2-1 in 10 innings Saturday night at Marlins Park.
Justin Ruggiano scored the winning run after leading off the 10th with a walk and advancing to second on Juan Pierre's sacrifice bunt. Reliever then beaned Donovan Solano -- who was removed from the game -- and Christian Yelich worked a walk to load the bases.
Giancarlo Stanton then hit a one-out single to center to win the game.
Sanchez and three relievers had combined to hold the Marlins to just two hits, both singles, through eight innings. No Marlins runner had gotten past second base.
But in the ninth, working off Tigers closer Joaquin Benoit, Yelich hit a one-out single and Stanton walked. Logan Morrison nearly ended the game right there with a drive that was caught in deep right field.
Ed Lucas, playing one day after his wife gave birth to a son, then hit a single to tie the score 1-1. Adeiny Hechavarria then walked to load the bases.
Sanchez, pitching against his former franchise, allowed two hits and no walks, striking out eight. Of his 66 pitches, 49 were strikes.
Sanchez pitched four 1-2-3 innings. The only time he got into trouble was the fourth, when Chris Coghlan led off with a single and stole second. But Sanchez got Solano to fly out and Stanton to bounce into a double play.
With his ERA down to 2.57, Sanchez beat out Oakland's Bartolo Colon (2.65) for the title. Colon pitched Friday.
Marlins starter Nate Eovaldi also pitched well on Saturday, allowing seven hits, two walks and just one run in six innings.
Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera, who will be rested on Sunday, wrapped up his third consecutive battling title by going 2-for-4 and finishing with a .348 average. He has a huge lead in the race.
Cabrera, though, was robbed of a hit in his last at-bat when Marlins shortstop made a stellar backhand pick in the hole and threw out the Tigers star.
The Tigers opened the scoring in the fourth, when Prince Fielder walked, advanced to third on Jhonny Peralta's single and scored on Alex Avila's sacrifice fly to left.
With two outs and runners on first and second in the fifth, Eovaldi likely saved a run when he caught Fielder's line-drive smash. The ball was hit so hard that it made a loud "thud" when it landed in the glove of Eovaldi, who caught it while trying to get out of the way.
Fielder reacted by flipping his bat in disbelief and then laughing.
NOTES: The Tigers' loss to the Marlins on Friday night -- coupled with the Oakland A's win later that evening -- makes it official: Detroit will not have home-field advantage during the playoffs. ... Miami's Mike Redmond will finish his first season as a big-league manager on Sunday, and he will do it against Detroit's Jim Leyland, who was Redmond's first MLB skipper. That was in 1998, when the Marlins lost 108 games. ... Redmond said Marlins SS Adeiny Hechavarria is "one of the top couple of shortstops in the league, defensively." Redmond also said he thinks Hechavarria will be an All-Star one day. ... Marlins CF Jake Marisnick will have his left knee scoped on Monday. ... Tigers SS Jose Iglesias was in the starting lineup for the second straight day but said he was sore after missing one week due to a bruised left hand.
