I couldn't update after yesterday's game, I'm very sorry. It was far too painful for me to put my anger into coherent words and something tells me that the world is already too full of angry grunting and mad gesticulating to convey unexplainable anger. Which is basically what Fernando Rodney filled me with. That rat bastard.
Even today's win doesn't feel like everything it should, after a great comeback led by Marcus Thames and Placido Polanco. Polly really has been stealing the show at the plate this year, and he damn well should be since he nearly went 0-the World Series last October. Thames' home run in the ninth was a giant boost to get the game into extras, and all the Tigers need to do is get a guy in scoring position and there's a good chance that Polanco will drive the run in.
But the win doesn't feel like a win, because for the fourth time in the last four games, the bullpen was exposed as this team's biggest weakness. The Bullpen Bengals were supposed to be the backbone of this team- have the game over in the seventh inning. Outside of Joel Zumaya, Wilfredo Ledezma, and Todd Jones (save for Wednesday), there is no one worth relying on in that bullpen. Aguilno Lopez relieved Verlander today after Justin pitched very well, and promptly gave up a lead-off single and a home run after that to make the game 5-3 and put the Tigers in dire straits. The pen simply can't come in and blow games wide open like that, it puts too much pressure on the rest of the team: the batting order has to produce more runs, the starters have to pitch more and allow less runs, and the fielders playing behind them have to step up and make plays that wouldn't be required of them if they had more quality pitchers on the mound.
One of the keys to this team is the early lead. Once again, the Tigers jumped out to a quick lead on the Sox, but they need to be able to keep striking. John Garland absolutely dominated the line up after his shaky first inning, coming on the heels of yesterday's game where Jose Contreras put 16 Tigers down in a row after allowing a grand slam in the first to Carlos Guillen. Contreras and Garland are both solid pitchers, but allowing anyone to own a line up for seven plus innings is not going to equal wins.
Even though this team hasn't been playing its best baseball on a consistent basis, the Tigs are still in second in the AL Central, racking up their 10th win today. If this team hits one of the streaks that it got on last year, winning 10 straight or 15 straight, then there's going to be some trouble for the other teams in the division. However, right now, the game that they're playing (hot one day, cold the next), is as getting as old as the Michigan spring weather- they're teasing us with signs of warmth and growth, and then clobbering us with setbacks and going cold.
Just win boys. My heart can't take this over a full season.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment