Who doesn't remember Game 4 of the ALDS last year? A dazzling display of Tiger offense, Jeremy Bonderman's complete bitch slap of "The Greatest Line Up Ever Assembled", and the raucous post-game celebration. But guess who started that game for the Yanks? One Jaret Wright, who faces the Tigs again today, this time in a Baltimore Orioles uniform.
Wright had a bunch of shoulder problem two years ago, but had a decent season last year, and he was supposedly healthy in the playoffs when the Tigers straight up tattooed the guy and ran him out after just 3 innings. It was beautiful. He's described as a "pressure pitcher" by Baltimore's manager Sam Perlozzo (who I'm pretty sure ran a rival family in The Godfather). I'd agree, except on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. Wright had a few good starts in the playoffs in 1997 when he was a ROOKIE leading the Cleveland Indians to a soul-crushing defeat in the World Series, which was beautiful. It's ten years later now, and Wright hasn't followed that success up with anything resembling a solid major league career.
The Cats send Nate Robertson to the mound today, making his second start of the year. Hopefully he doesn't have to sweat out the win, like he did last Wednesday when the bullpen nearly gave away the 9-2 lead he left the game with. It'd be nice to see Nate-o hold the Birds to a similar run total in today's game, seeing as the Tiger bats only strike once every few games.
It's getting to the point where the lack of production from some of last year's stalwarts is getting disturbing. Looking at the players who got extensions in the off-season, two of them (Brandon Inge and Carlos Guillen) are batting a combined .217. And Guillen is the one batting .217. Looking around the line up, Craig Monroe is at a blistering .176, Gary Sheffield is blazing along at .143, Sean Casey is straight up on fire at .200, even Curtis Granderson, who started out hotter than hell, is at .292. Something really, really needs to change in these guys if this month is going to be successful. Getting out of April with a record above .500 has always been a chore for the Tigs, but this year it's going to be a close call.
A win today would be nice. A convincing win would be even better. It's the Orioles man. The Orioles.
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