Ultimately, though, a crowd of 31,022 on hand to enjoy Star Wars fireworks night also had to watch the Tigers celebrate their first division title since 1987 on the A's diamond after closing out a 3-1 victory over Oakland.
Doug Fister, acquired from Seattle on July 30, shackled the A's on three hits over eight innings, and Jose Valverde converted his 45th consecutive save of the season and 47th overall in the ninth as Detroit wrapped up the Central and became the first A.L. team to clinch a playoff spot.
The Tigers are headed to the postseason for the first time since 2006, when as a wild card, they swept the A's in the ALCS before losing to St. Louis in the World Series.
Detroit last won a division title 24 years ago, though, when they were a member of the A.L. East, so they threw quite a wild party in the visitors' clubhouse.
For a while, it looked as if the Champagne and cigar celebration might not come off. As the teams were preparing to begin the top of the fourth inning, several banks of lights around the stadium went out with the score tied 1-1. It was the first such power outage at the Coliseum since July 28, 2006, against Toronto.
"It was kind of a shocker, because you're not sure what to do or how longit's going to take," said Fister, a Merced native who used to come to A's games regularly as a youth in the early 1990s. "I just tried to treat it like a rain delay. You just sit and wait for a while, then get back up there on the mound and get going again."
Once power was restored, Fister (6-1 with Detroit after going 3-12 with the Mariners) turned out the lights on the A's.
Josh Willingham had led off the second against the Detroit right-hander with his career-high 27th home run over the center-field fence. David DeJesus followed Willingham's blast with a single to center, but after that, the plug was pulled on the A's offense.
Fister retired 17 in a row from the second inning through two outs in the seventh, and after DeJesus finally broke the string with his second single, Fister retired four more in a row before turning it over to Valverde.
Valverde gave up a leadoff double to Coco Crisp but then set down three straight A's hitters to touch off a massive Tigers infield pileup.
Fister, who didn't walk a batter while striking out five, allowed his offense plenty of time to make up the early one-run deficit and finally get to A's starter Trevor Cahill (11-14), who walked a difficult tightrope most of the night.
"(Fister) has been really good since he's been over there," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "I don't think anyone's scored more than a run against him in over a month. He pitched pretty well up in the zone tonight. Usually he's down in the zone, but he had a real good curveball."
While Fister failed to allow more than a run in his sixth straight start, dating to Aug. 20, Cahill was pretty much all over the place and relied largely on some sterling defensive plays to keep it close.
After Willingham's homer, the Tigers tied it 1-1 in the third and kept putting multiple runners on base in inning after inning against the A's starter but couldn't break through until the sixth, when Wilson Betemit tripled home the go-ahead run.
Detroit then added an insurance run on Don Kelly's solo homer with one out in the seventh.
Cahill pitched 62/3 innings, allowing nine hits, four walks and a hit batter while striking out four.
"For the most part, when Trevor needed to make a pitch he did, even though there was traffic out there on the bases," Melvin said. "If we hadn't played well defensively, that game would have gotten out of hand in a hurry."
[Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/athletics/ci_18916049?source=rss]
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