"You can have four bad at-bats, then go up there and hit," said Youkilis, who connected off Todd Jones, the onetime spare part in the Sox bullpen who has since morphed back into a 40-save closer for the Marlins last season and was 16 of 17 in save chances until Youkilis did him in.
"I call it a Bellhorn day," Youkilis said. "Mark was the best at that. Three [bad] at-bats then boom, home run to win a game."
The Tigers began the night with the best record in the majors and were coming off a walkoff win against the Yankees. With 41-year-old Kenny Rogers holding the Sox to a run on five hits, all singles, in the first seven innings, outdueling Curt Schilling (6 innings, 7 hits, 2 earned runs), it appeared the Sox were about to learn firsthand about the perils of facing baseball's most surprising team.
With one swing, Youkilis changed all that, jumping all over a Jones pitch that was supposed to sink but instead sailed deep into the night.
``This is all a part of the process," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. ``This is all a part of baseball. That's why it's such a great game. Twenty-four hours ago we were the happiest team in baseball, probably. And tonight we're probably the most disappointed."
Sox manager Terry Francona had given some thought to coming out to Comerica Park the night before, with the Sox having a day off and the Yankees still in town.
``I would have loved to have bought a ticket to the bleachers and screamed at Johnny [Damon]," he said. ``He would have gotten a kick out of it. But I watched most of it on TV."
Had Francona sat in the left-field bleachers, he would have been in prime position to watch Youkilis, with his sixth home run this season, succeed where an inning earlier David Ortiz had come up short in his bid for a go-ahead home run off Detroit's precocious rookie, Joel Zumaya, who challenged Big Papi with a 98-mile-per-hour fastball.
