Rogers's Turnabout Continues

Lefty Dominant Again as Tigers Hold On and Get Even: Tigers 3, Cardinals 1

Kenny Rogers extends his scoreless streak to 23 postseason innings this year and 24 1-3 postseason innings overall. (Brian Snyder - Reuters)

DETROIT, Oct. 22 -- The television cameras zoomed in on Kenny Rogers during Game 2 of the World Series, close-ups peering deep into his eyes as he stood on the mound at Comerica Park, hand-helds practically in his face, like prying demons, documenting each brisk, determined jog back to the dugout following another scoreless inning. If he noticed them at all, or if he considered the correlation, it was not apparent. Rogers -- the new Kenny Rogers, October hero, model citizen -- was focused on delivering his Detroit Tigers a victory they desperately needed.

Rogers did just that, in spectacular fashion, pitching eight dazzling, two-hit innings in the Tigers' 3-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on a chilly but electric Michigan night. The World Series is now tied at a game apiece as the production shifts to St. Louis for Game 3 on Tuesday night.

The feel-good story of Rogers's redemption, perhaps the overriding plotline of this postseason, continued to delight the heart and confound the mind. Once an outcast, a shover of cameramen, a washed-up journeyman who almost couldn't find a job in 2003, he is now a 41-year-old beloved teammate and unhittable out machine.

His eight stellar innings Sunday night extended his string of consecutive scoreless innings this postseason to 23, and if the series returns to Comerica Park for a Game 6 next weekend Rogers will take aim at the great Christy Mathewson's 1905 record of 27 for a single postseason.

"I'm no Christy Mathewson, that's for sure," Rogers said. The performance, he said, was "very satisfying, mainly because it's needed. Our team needed to win today, and I know it was huge."

And yet, there is a nagging question, a delicious bit of intrigue -- still partially unresolved after the game -- regarding Rogers's performance Sunday night: What, exactly, was the dark substance that Fox's prying cameras appeared to have detected on his left palm during the first inning -- and why, after an inquiry by Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa and an apparent intervention by the umpires, was it gone an inning later?

Rogers's answer: "It was dirt and I wiped it off." Rogers added that he did so on his own, with no prompting by the umpires.

The Cardinals' viewpoint, courtesy of second baseman Aaron Miles: "Somebody said they thought they saw pine tar. So he got rid of it, or he never had it in the first place." La Russa declined to discuss the incident.

The umpires' take: "There had been some question [about] the dirt that was on Kenny's hand," said MLB Umpire Supervisor Steve Palermo. "So the umpires . . . asked that Kenny just clean that dirt off, so that there wouldn't be any question [about] any foreign substance or dirt or whatever it may have been on the ball."

The rule book's interpretation: "No player shall intentionally discolor or damage the ball by rubbing it with soil, rosin . . . or other foreign substance," says Rule 3.02. The penalty: "The umpire shall . . . remove the offender from the game." (Palermo said the umpires did not believe Rogers had discolored or otherwise altered the ball intentionally.)

The bottom line: Whatever it was on his hand, Rogers did not seem to miss it when it was gone.

It was a night for knit hats, parkas and blankets among the 42,533 towel-waving fans -- a crisp 44 degrees at first pitch with a gusting wind of up to 30 mph. But Rogers pitched with just half-sleeves beneath his classic Tigers uniform, with the Olde English "D" on the breast.