A much-needed victory
posted in Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Power rankings |Since last Saturday, the Tigers haven’t looked like the Tigers we all know and love. Well, I take that back a bit. They have at times resembled the Tigers. They’ve fought and fought every game, though opponents’ pitching held them to a few shutouts and low scoring games. Coming back against the Yankees, and coming within 1 out of defeating the Red Sox Friday still didn’t really feel quite like the Tigers, though it was getting close. Saturday’s 6-2 victory in front of a sell-out crowd was just what the doctor ordered.
Actually, I feel like the Tigers proved they can “play with the Red Sox.” I scare-quotes that because I don’t really think it had to be proved. If not for a blown save, the series would be 2-0 Tigers right now. But it’s 1-1, and Detroit has played soundly against another quality team. So I am not in the least concerned.
I am not as sure if the Tigers proved much against the Yankees. Not that it matters too much in the long term, but it would have been nice to at least tie that series, though the Yankees seemed to out play Detroit in the innings I saw. That and the Tigers most decidedly did not look like themselves, making mistakes left and right we havent’ seen all season.
But back to the present. Jeremy Bonderman set down 13 in a row, showing he can still be the pitcher he’s projected to be. He gave up three hits. Jason Beck points out Bonderman has been a real thorn in the side of the Boston Red Sox as of late.
He has won his last three meetings with Boston …, all of them at Comerica Park.
More later, I’m sure.
Some Housecleaning
Roman Colon is a bullpen guy, according to Jim Leyland. Leyland wasn’t going bench him after one start, he seems to want guys not to feel their job is on the line with every pitch, but he saw all he needed to, I guess. I’m not really going to dispute his opinion.
Maroth will be out 2 to 3 months, the Tigers say. We hope the best for him, not because his statistics have looked nice, but because over the years in the Olde English D, he’s always been a good guy, and you always want the good guys to find success.
The Daily Fungo Podcast gave me a couple nice compliments. Go check out the podcast if you haven’t already. And no, I was not eaten by mosquitos. But I do have a few black fly bites from my last time fishing.
Danny Knobler wonders why people aren’t showing up, even though they do for the Lions, Red Wings and Pistons. If I had to speculate, I would say filling a 40,000+ seat stadium on a nightly basis is more difficult than a 22,000-seat arena two times a week or so, or a football stadium once a week for 10 weeks over the course of 5 months. I could be wrong. I really don’t know. But I have a good feeling winning like they have, the Tigers will continue to see a mostly-full park.
At Fox Sports, the Inside Pitch thinks Jim Leyland will ignore calls to replace Jones.
But the fact is that while Jones is now 0-3, Friday night’s 2-1 lead was only the second he has blown through the early days of the third month of the season. That’s pretty good for a closer.
And Jones’ history shows he’s much more effective finishing games than he is setting them up, which is what he’d be doing if Leyland replaced him as closer.
It could be worse… Derrick Turnbow blew three saves in the last four games of action for Milwaukee.
The Yankees beat the Tigers 3 of 4 times. Fox Sports Dayn Perry rewarded them with the No. 1 power ranking. After two weeks of leading, Detroit is No. 2.
Detroit is No. 5 in the ESPN power ranking. Their top-choice, the St. Louis Cardinals, have had some injury problems, including the loss of Albert Pujols. Maybe we don’t want to be No. 1…
A few days old, CBS Sportsline has Detroit No.2 behind the White Sox. After this week I don’t know if either team will hang on to that area.
Nearly a week old, Sports Illustrated ranked Detroit No. 1 before the Yanks series.
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