Top of the 10th

The public-address annoucner has just told the remaining fans that win, lose or tie, this is it. This game ends in 10.

I have a personal history with extra-inning Tiger games. It was Sept. 11, 1988. The Tigers were still in the American League East and were in the Bronx, facing the Yankees in a pivotal four-game series.

The game went 18 innings, and aided by a rare Don Mattingly error, Detroit went ahead in the top of the inning.

But Tiger closer Willie Hernandez walked Rickey Henderson to lead off the bottom of the 18th, and Claudell Washington won it with a walk-off home run into the right-field bleachers.

Good stuff. (The Yankees didn't win the division, and neither did the Tigers - the Boston Red Sox beat Detroit in the standings by one game.)

As I dip into my pool of nostalgia, Pittsburgh's Raul Chavez hits a home run over the wall in left field.

Pittsburgh takes a 7-6 lead to the 10th.