The Tigers are on the verge of makin’ me MAD!

The Angels made it eight in a row over the Tigers today with a 7-4 win.  Spot starter, Jose Alvarez did an ok job going 5 and 2/3 surrendering 4 earned.  Things looked ok in the top of the 6th.  The Tigers had a 3-2 lead.  With two outs Chris Iannetta singled.  This brought out pitching coach Jeff Jones for a visit with Alvarez.  Whatever Jones said, he should have kept it to himself because on the next pitch, that sawed-off, little, jerk Erick Aybar, hit his third home run of the season, giving the Angels a 4-3 lead.  Drew Smyly came in to relieve Alvarez and struck out Brenden Harris to end the inning.

Smyly came out for the top of the 7th and it was his turn to take a shit.  He walked the lead off batter, Shuck and Mike Trout followed with a bloop double.  Before the top of the 7th was over, the Angels were ahead 7-3.

The offense was pathetic today as well, grounding into three double plays, with Fielder the only one hustling down the line to try to beat the relay.

It’s time to do something about the 5th spot in the Tiger lineup.  Victor Martinez is not doing the job and is really irritating me with his lack of hustle.  He never busts his ass down the first base line, in fact, most of the time he looks like he’s skipping.

This team is looking a lot like last year’s team, if the starting pitching has an off day, the bullpen or the offense doesn’t seem able to bail them out.  With the way Verlander has pitched the last two months and Dotel still hurt, I’m getting less optimistic by the day.

The last two games have been an embarrassment and now the best the Tigers can do on this home-stand is go .500, but they have to beat the Angels and Jeff Weaver tomorrow afternoon to do it.

One bright spot has been Bryan Pena.  He had two hits tonight and is hitting .297 on the season.

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