The Angels took Rick Porcello, and the Tiger bullpen, behind the woodshed again tonight, pounding the Tiger pitching staff for 14 runs.

I can’t make any excuses for Rickey this time, he was not good, and that is kind.  He allowed 7 earned in four and a third innings and didn’t get any help from his friends in the bullpen.

Darin Downs came in with one out and the bases loaded in the fifth and allowed all three inherited runners to score.

Evan Reed relieved Downs and sabotaged himself.  He allowed 4 runs but none of them were earned.  He made two errors himself.  His first error was a pick off throw to first that went down the right field line where Tori Hunter had to field it.

By the time the top of the fifth was over the Tigers were down 10-2.  The offense tried to fight back, answering the Angels’ 8 with 3 of their own in the bottom of the fifth, but the pitching staff couldn’t stop hemorrhaging runs.

The Angels demolished the Tigers 14-8.

This is two bad starts in a row for Rickey and all of the sudden I’m finding holes in the Tiger rotation.  The last two starts for Porcello and JV have been terrible.  Add to that an empty closer position and Sanchez on the DL, and I’m getting a little worried.

One of the key at bats for me was when Porcello faced Josh Hamilton in the top of the fifth.  With one out he had Hamilton 0 and 2 on two straight change ups.  I was expecting a high heater to try to induce him to chase.  Instead, Porcello threw him a 78 MPH curve ball low and in and Hamilton promptly drilled it to right, driving in a run.  If this is the pitch and location Holaday wanted, they should re-evaluate their game plan.

Alvarez goes tomorrow, hopefully he can stop the bleeding.

“God, I love baseball.” – Roy Hobbs | The Natural