Game 3: Tigers take to the frozen Midwest
posted in 2007 season, Justin Verlander, KC Royals, around the central |IN THEORY: Detroit at Kansas City, 8 p.m., FSN
Justin Verlander vs. Jorge de la Rosa (STATS preview)
Detroit backup catcher Mike Rabelo ties a towel around his face as he tries to keep warm Friday at Kansas City. The announced temperature was 35 degrees. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Pregame thoughts: After facing one of the best offensive teams in the American League, Detroit heads to Kansas City for a three-game series against one of the worst. This fact should be even more apparent when Justin Verlander takes the mound fresh off a nice Spring Training performance and a good show against the Detroit minor leaguers before that. Kansas City, with the worst pitching staff on this side of Washington, will counter with Jorge de la Rosa, who STATS tells me is a converted reliever with a decent K rate, but lacking control and with an awful WHIP.
I’m not going to dwell on this game’s preview too much, because I honestly doubt they play it. Already the weather in KC resembles the weather the Tigers just escaped in Detroit: cold, crappy and windy. (and yet a whole lot better than here!) And it’s a night game. Likely the Tigers have a third day off of baseball this week. Let’s hope they can play Saturday. This is ridiculous. The MLB really has to make sure the first week is spent in Domes and southern locales.
Postgame thoughts — 3-1 Royals: Well, that’s why they play the games, I guess. Not that they probably should have in those cold, windy conditions. I worked, didn’t see it, didn’t hear it, but I saw some highlights on TV and the Tigers looked like crap in the field for what I saw. Reading the other Tigers blogs, that sounds like it was the case. That’s really not that big a deal. Verlander allowed one run on two hits in six innings. Jose Mesa allowed two more, helped by poor defense. Three runs allowed? Who’s going to complain about that?
Well, fans of a team that scores one run off a Kansas City starter with a career 5.66 ERA, that’s who. Six strikeouts (an improvement!) and three walks just won’t cut it. Admittedly — and despite those nine runs Wednesday — a lot of these Tigers are getting off to a slow start all around. There’s a lot of early Mendoza line averages. And because this is only three games, that means pretty much zilch except the team is starting rather awkwardly this year with some bad appearances at the plate coupled with the bullpen picking up two losses and trying to earn a third.
The 1-2 record doesn’t mean squat. Small sample sizes don’t mean squat. But I am getting perturbed at the crappy, lackluster performances we keep seeing on the field. Some highlight Tigers’ problems like early swings and a designated hitter in right field. Some just make you shrug your shoulders in disbelief. And then some you wonder, “What it will be like if the team ever plays in temperature over 40 degrees again?” But other teams play in the same conditions and being AL champions give you no excuse to play poorly. Detroit is a better team than this. I wish they’d show us that.
Around the Central: I swear I will keep up with this better. Minnesota@White Sox was canceled.
Seattle@Cleveland was also officially canceled, despite the fact they played nearly enough innings to make it count. Seattle manager Mike Hargrove argued his batter couldn’t see the ball and it was unfair to his team if the final half-inning was played out. Cleveland manager Eric Wedge claimed it was unfair to his team (which would undoubtedly have won 4-0 … oh, and Paul Byrd had a no-hitter going). Oh, and did I mention it was one strike from being in the books? That was another game that shouldn’t have been played. But Cleveland chose to play it and lost catcher Victor Martinez to a hurt quad. It’s unclear if he’ll be out short term or if he’ll end up on the DL, but it’s a steep price to pay for stupidly playing in the snow. They will make the game up Saturday (today) in the afternoon.
Sphere It
