Cardiac Cats

After being completely shut down by Brandon Duckworth and the rest of the Kansas CIty Royals bullpen for 8 innings, the Tigers struck like a rattlesnake in the ninth inning. A double by Magglio Ordonez, a walk from Carlos Guillen, and then the knockout punch of a three run blast to left off the bat of Pudge Rodriguez lifted the Tigers to a 3-2 win today.

The Tigs simply couldn't get anything going all day at the plate. Duckworth retired 11 straight batters at one point, and it was beginning to look like another embarrassing loss at the hands of the Royals. Jeremy Bonderman pitched well, only making one truly bad pitch in the solo homer in the first by Mark Teahen and then surrendering another in the third. He struck out eight batters, compared to just one walk (which was intentional) and allowed seven hits, a solid line on the day. He pitched out of a few rough spots; the third could have yielded more runs and Bondo also pitched himself out of a jam in the fifth.

Brandon Inge's woes continued again today, as he flew out to end the seventh inning when the Tigs had the bases full. He's 0-16 on the season and beginning to look more and more like the Brandon Inge of old, the one who hit .220 and made the 9 spot in the order his home.

The ninth inning just goes to show exactly what these Tigers can do on offense. All game long they're being dominated by a good outing from three different pitchers, and then the makeshift closer for the Royals, David Riske, who's in until Octavio Dotel comes back from injury, comes in and tries to finish Detroit off. Magglio lead off by totally smoking a double to right field that hit three-quarters of the way up the wall, and Guillen followed him with a walk on a full count. With runners at first and second, Jim Leyland had third base coach Gene Lamont walk down the third base line to talk to Pudge, giving the Royals the impression that Pudge would be bunting. Riske laid a fastball right down Woodward, and instead of squaring to bunt, Rodriguez ripped the pitch onto the grass in left field. It was an absolute bomb and put an exclamation point on the Tigers' series victory.

It was also fun to see another team's bullpen blowing the game. Lefty Bobby Seay, Fernando Rodney and Todd Jones all looked impressive keeping the Tigers in the game. Rodney gets the win and Jonesy now has three saves in three chances.

So now the Tigs travel to Baltimore to take on the Orioles in a three game set that starts tomorrow at 3. Coming out of the bullpen for the Birds? Our old friend Jaime Walker. Hopefully, the Tigers will get a few rips at him in the next three games.