Well, in about six minutes the ring ceremony for the Tigers will start, giving them their hard-earned little pieces of jewelery for last season's efforts. After this bit of nostalgia, Nate Robertson will take the mound or the first time this season.
Nate is one of the spark plugs on this team. He was the creator of Gum Time and the winner of 13 games last year, even though those 13 could have easily turned into 18 or 19 with a little bit of help from the Tigers' bats in the latter part of last season. With Mike Maroth finally getting back to full strength and filling his spot in the rotation, a little bit more pressure will be off Robertson to have to be a strong lefty on a pitching staff that doesn't have too many of them. Looking at the rotation, however, the Tigers have three of five starters pitching left-handed (once Kenny Rogers returns in July, obviously), which is going to be a huge advantage down the stretch.
It's good to see that Old Man Winter is deciding to attend today's game. Writing this from East Lansing, it's about 40 degrees with 40 mph gusts of wind, and I imagine in Detroit it will be quite similar. It should be a hellacious day in the spacious outfield of Comerica Park, and very reminiscent of last year's playoffs.
Something I realized Monday that might be an interesting sub-plot to watch as the rest of this series plays out- Frank Thomas has one hit against Tiger pitching in the last 5 games he's played against them. I'm sure you all remember last year when he put a big Ofer on the ALCS after being one of the strongest players in the playoffs against the Twins in the ALDS. Joel ZUmaya made him look downright silly the other day with a WICKED curveball that caused Big Frank to toss his bat at some guy in the front row. He made a great catch by the way.
Anyway, check back here after the game for thoughts and rants about a, hopefully, Tigers win.
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