4/12/84: Rangers, Tigers honor The Masters by playing "18" Rangers win, 9-7

The Rangers and Tigers staged their own tribute to The Masters by playing "18" at Tiger Stadium. The result, a marathon 9-7 Rangers win over the Tigers in a game where many dinners were delayed as well as the final outcome.

The Tigers struck first in the home half of the 1st on a leadoff double by Lou Whitaker and subsequent single by Alan Trammell, who stole 2nd and scored himself on a single by Larry Herndon, his 1st of 5 hits over the long day. The Rangers would score 2 off Tiger ace Jack Morris in the 3rd on a 1-out single by Wayne Tolleson and walk by Curtis Wilkerson. After Mickey Rivers lined to 2nd, Buddy Bell and George Wright singled back-to-back to tie the score at 2.

The Tigers got single runs off of Ranger starter Frank Tanana on Larry Herndon's leadoff single in the 4th and Chet Lemon's run-scoring double. Lemon would strike again in the 6th with a leadoff homer making the score 4-2 after 6. However, Jack Morris would completely lose control in the 7th when catcher Marv Foley struck a leadoff homer cutting the lead to 4-3. Wayne Tolleson followed with a single, he was bunted over by Curtis Wilkerson and scored the tying run on Mickey Rivers' RBI triple. Buddy Bell singled in Rivers, making the score 5-4, chasing Morris from the game.

Frank Tanana carried the lead into the bottom of the 8th, when Larry Herndon doubled for his 3rd hit of the game. Chet Lemon, who had homered in the 6th, struck again giving the Tigers a 6-5 lead after 8. Aurelio Lopez, who took over from Morris in the 7th, got Wayne Tolleson to ground to 3rd, then faced "W"-powered Curtis Wilkerson, who stunned the Tiger faithful with a fluke homer that barely grazed the left field foul pole. The 6-6 score would remain for the next 9 innings.

The Tigers best chance to win came in the bottom of the 16th when Johnny Grubb led off with a walk, Rusty Kuntz followed with one of his own and PH Howard Johnson lined one past Tolleson at 2nd, loading the bases. After the Rangers changed pitchers from Dave Tobik to Joey McLaughlin, Lou Whitaker lined to 2nd, Alan Trammell lined to 3rd and Dave Bergman ended the inning by hitting a force to 1st.

Glenn Abbott took over for Doug Bair in the 18th. Wilkerson bounced to Abbott, then Ned Yost singled, followed by one by Buddy Bell which moved Yost to 3rd. George Wright hit a fielder's choice to short with the infield in, forcing Yost at the plate, then Larry Parrish crushed a 3-run homer, making the score 9-6 after 17-1/2. McLaughlin retired Kuntz on a fly to left and got HoJo to foul to Ned Yost. Lou Whitaker then hit a solo homer, Alan Trammell walked, Dave Bergman singled Tram to 3rd, then after McLaughlin was relieved by Dave Schmidt, Lance Parrish, who went 0-for-8, bounced one to Schmidt, ending the marathon.

There were 140 plate appearances in all, 11 pitchers were used, Lance Parrish was 0-8, while Gary Ward was 0-7, striking out 5 times and grounding into an 5-4-3 DP. 

TEX 9-16-1 DET 7-16-0 WP-McLaughlin (1-0) LP-Abbott (0-1) SV-Schmidt (2) HR-Lemon (1,2) Foley (1) Wilkerson (1) Lar. Parrish (1) Whitaker (2) GWRBI-Parrish (1) TEX 3-4 DET 4-3 

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