Return Of The Bats?

Tonight the "resurgent" Tigers' line-up takes on a foe that pretty much bitch slapped them earlier this year in Jorge De La Rosa. De La Rosa went 7 innings in his first start of the season, against Detroit, and allowed just one run and four hits in a Royal win. Of The Rose is a lefty, meaning the Tigers are going to struggle against him because for some reason this primarily right-handed line up has not been able to hit left-handed pitching this season.

But there is hope. After last night's game, the Tigs seem to be regaining last season's magic in the bats and doing what good teams do- absolutely pounding inferior competition. With Mike Maroth going again tonight, he's 2-0 on the season by the way, the pitching should keep the Tigs in the game at least. If the boys come out and jump on Jorge early though, it's going to be another long night in Royalville and a happy one in Tigertown.

Maroth, while not as completely shut-down as the top three starters have looked this year, is having a very solid season on every front. There were some questions as to whether the Maroth we saw before the surgery last season, or after the surgery was the one we'd be seeing this year. It seems as if pre-surgery Mike has shown up thus far, which is good news to everyone. Maroth has never really been a dominant pitcher- he goes out and keeps the team in games and lets the players behind him do a lot of the work by letting hitters put balls in play, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't (see: 2003, 20 losses). However, as we saw with Sean Casey's stellar play in the field yesterday, the Tigers' team defense has improved this year, and so Maroth is just the kind of pitcher that is looking to be rather strong in that 4 spot in the rotation.

Something that's getting troublesome in the Tigers' order is the amount of strike-outs coming from Craig Monroe, Brandon Inge, and Curtis Granderson. With four more strike-outs coming from those guys yesterday, they have 47 between them already for this season. Granderson is still having a productive season regardless, showcasing his power and hitting ability when he's not striking out, and Monroe is the best clutch hitter the Tigers have and can absolutely rip the ball when he gets going, but I'm still not high on Inge. The guy is a solid third basemen and all, but seriously, hit the fucking ball, dude. Less strike outs, more base hits. For the love of God.

Keys to the game- Jump on De La Rosa early, play good defense behind Maroth, and beat Jose Mesa to death before he gets to come into the game and let his required two runs in. God I hate that guy.