What started out as a promising home stand, with a 5-2 win on Monday, quickly turned into a nightmare. The Tigers were blown out this afternoon 13-3 losing another series to the Orioles.
There wasn’t much to be happy about today. Rick Porcello gave up six runs in six innings, on the surface, a terrible outing. However, when we look at the over all body of work, he only had one bad inning, and it was horrible, the 4th. He gave up all six of the runs charged to him in the 4th. He came out for the 5th and 6th and put up zeroes.
After giving up a two run and a three run homer, Porcello seemed to settle down. After the 6th he had only thrown 93 pitches. I was hoping he’d come out for the 7th but Downs came in instead.
The bullpen that looked so strong the previous two games was an abomination. Downs pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up two earned. Valverde pitched the 9th and gave up 4 earned.
In between Downs and Valverde, Evan Reed pitched an inning and two thirds giving up one earned run and striking out 3. If there was a bright spot in this disaster, I think Reed looked pretty good.
Besides the pitching, the offense and defense weren’t much better. After scoring 5 runs in the first game on Monday, the Tigers scored a total of 5 in the last two games against a very mediocre Oriole starting staff.
Matt Tuiasosopo came up with a big pinch hit double scoring two in the bottom of the 6th, cutting the Oriole lead to 6-3, but effectively killed his own rally when he got thrown out trying to take third on a ground ball to shortstop off the bat of Infante.
The bullpen gave the runs back, and then some, in the top of the seventh with the help of the defense. With runners on second and third and one out, Adam Jones hit a soft line drive to second baseman Omar Infante. The runners left on contact. Infante dropped the ball, the runner on third scored, and everybody else was safe as well. What could have been a rally killing double play extended the inning and by the time the top of the 7th was over, the O’s were up 9-3.
To be fair, MLB dot com says that it was a ground ball off of the bat of Adam Jones, but from where I was sitting, lower box behind the Tiger dugout, it looked like a soft liner that Infante dropped. In any event, the inning and game was a disaster!
On a side note, I’m pretty sure Valverde won’t be on the roster in the morning.
“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural
Flashin' Leather 
Well buckle up…I don’t know what we will see by Monday. Here is what I know the Tigers have some problems to solve and rather than just scream like the guy next door yesterday here is a proposal. Identify the problem. The Tigers went to the post season not to long ago with a fifth starter who was a 500 pitcher (Brad Penny) He gets 30 starts 15 down the drain. Every fifth day the team is on the field with the mindset well we have a 50/50 chance. Couple seasons back we had a closer go 48/48. So who has the chance to damage the team the most? I say the guy with 18 more chances to fail. So how to fix this……well my name isn’t Mike and I don’t sign checks..how ever IF I did I would try and solve this in house cause everything on the lot is well used and going to be high priced I suspect. If they haven’t called Rondon by now well I would plug in my best and pull the trigger. IMHO that is Drew Smyly he has made the transition to relief and if you want to be an every day player well here it is. And on to the next problem………
Nebraska, you are right on point. I in fact, was screaming like the guy next door, I GET SO IRRITATED when I see games like yesterday’s.
A few more thoughts,
First, I’m high strung 🙂 and very antsy, I want to see another World Series title. The last, and only one, I saw was in 1984 when I was 15 years old. It has been 29 years, let’s get on with it.
Second, although I wasn’t a season ticket holder in 2003, one of my best friends was. Since nobody else wanted to go, he and I probably went to 40 home games when the Tigers lost 119 games. As such, I feel like I’m allowed to scream, irrationally at times, because I sat through that abomination of a season. I’m sure you were there with me.
Third, I was really hoping Leyland would show more confidence in other pitchers besides JV. I know Porcello got lit up in the 4th but he came back and put up zeroes the next two. He only had 93 pitches. Throw him out there for the 7th. I think that would have gone a long way for Rickey’s confidence and given the Tigers a better chance to come back.
It takes the wind out of your sails when you start to come back and then give the runs back the very next inning.