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Nate Robertson pitched a solid game tonight, and the Tigers’ bullpen — by far the best in the major leagues this season — did a bang-up job in four innings of relief. The Tigers’ bats generated enough offense to take a 1-0 lead, but the real story isn’t so much the Tigers winning it. The A’s managed to make baseball history by tying two records they surely wanted no part of. They tied the record for most double plays in a championship series by hitting into four, and very nearly hit into a fifth but for a conservative (and smart) play by Placido Polanco in the bottom of the ninth. Worse, the A’s continued their terrible batting with runners in scoring position — they’re batting just .086 (3-for-35) in the playoffs this year — and tied an all-time playoff record by going an astounding 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position tonight. The Tigers are going to have to do a better job of keeping the A’s off the basepaths in Game 2, however, as the A’s stranded nine runners, and six of those were on two at a time with none or one out. Credit Robertson for pitching himself out of those jams with some key strikeouts.

Fun trivia note: the last time a team turned four double plays in an LCS game was when the Giants did it exactly 19 years ago, which was also the last year the Tigers made the playoffs.