Game 5: Pudge homer caps victory
posted in 2007 season, KC Royals |Tigers at Kansas City, 2 p.m., FSN and radio
RHP Jeremy Bonderman (0-0, 4.50 ERA) vs. RHP Brandon Duckworth (-,-)
STATS preview
Lineups when available
Preview: Jeremy Bonderman makes his second start of the year this afternoon when he takes on Brandon Duckworth. Bonderman’s last appearance against the Royals ended poorly, as he blew a six-run lead and the Central Division title the final day of the season in 2006. While it all worked out in the end, it would certainly be nice to see Bondo totally shut the Royals down today. A victory today would put the Tigers above .500 for the first time this season.
Duckworth is making his season debut for the Royals. Like his Royals teammates, he’s not a guy who’d make most staffs. Duckworth has a higher WHIP (1.50) and ERA (5.43) in his career and numbers that really stand out otherwise, except a pretty low home run rate (3 HR in 45 IP last year). though he’s done fine in his career against the Detroit laundry. Gametime temp is 35 degrees.
Update: Hmm, apparently the Tigers presspass notes were wrong about FSN.
Postgame thoughts (3-2 Tigers): Dating back to last year, the Tigers seem to find themselves playing from behind against Kansas City frequently. Thanks to a Pudge Rodriguez 3-run home run in the top of the ninth, that trend continues with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory. Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen set it up with a double and walk, respectively, to lead off the ninth.
Rodriguez and the Tigers cruelly stole the ‘W’ from Duckworth, who handled them for most of the game. We Tigers fans know how the Royals fans and players feel right now. Sometimes everything seems to go right and yet, in the eighth or ninth inning, it all falls apart. That seemed to be the story of 2004 and 2005. The team was improved — as the Royals are this year — and yet it just takes one bad inning and you still get the ‘L.’ Sympathy aside, it was nice good to get this one.
Duckworth allowed just one baserunner — Guillen with a double in the second — through five innings before he started to tire. Through 6-1/3 innings, he gave up four hits, a walk and no runs. The Tigers threatened in his final inning, loading the bases with two singles off Duckworth and a walk off a reliever.
But then Inge stepped to the plate with two outs, and I’m pretty sure most Tigers fans were thinking “Now would be a great time to snap out of this slump… but he probably won’t.” And Inge fulfilled that promise with a fly out. He’s now 0-for-17 for the year, but at least he didn’t add to his strikeout count, if you’re looking for a positive.
Otherwise, it looked like Bonderman was going to get burned by run support after striking out eight in six innings and allowing just two runs. He allowed a two-out homer in the first and seven hits altogether, but overall, not too bad. We still want to expect more out of him, he’s not quite where he can be, but it wasn’t a bad start. Still, two starts, no decisions, as Fernando Rodney got the victory for pitching in the 8th. Bobby Seay got his first inning of the season. Jones got his third save of the opening week.
Guillen finished 2-for-3. Marcus Thames started his first game of the season, filling in for Craig Monroe in left field. Thames walked twice.
Around the Central:The Cleveland Indians may never play a baseball game again, I’m convinced. Their double-header with the Mariners got called again. Officially, they have played 0 games of a 4 game series so far. They’ll try again tomorrow for another traditional doubleheader beginning at 4. Good luck.
Johan Santana led the Twins to a 3-1 victory over the White Sox. He allowed one hit over seven innings. Justin Morneau had a 3-run homer for Minnesota, which finished the first week of action with a 4-1 record.
Sphere It
I can’t really post anything intelligent about the game, so I am going to rant instead.
Rant #1: Neither Saturday or Sunday’s games were on FSN Detroit, no local channels carry the games up here in the UP. No problem I thought, I have DirecTV and the MLB extra innings package is free this month, so I will get to see both games. Boy, was I wrong. Neither one of the Tigers games were available to me on the extra innings package this weekend. I was considering ordering it, but there is no way I will if the games I can’t get on fsn detroit aren’t going to be on there. Nice going MLB, you have just drove away a potential customer.
Rant #2: I was watching the game on Friday night and thought to myself, hey why don’t I pick up David Riske (KC’s closer until Dotel comes back) and see if I can steal a few saves here in the first few weeks. Picked him up before he got the save in Friday’s game (no credit for that one), but I did have him on my roster in time to blow the save yesterday. His stat line, 1IP 27.00 ERA. I am a fantasy baseball genius. That being said, I am glad he blew the save, just wish I could have saw it.
Edit to my earlier post, I meant the extra innings package was free this WEEK. I wish it was free for a month!
Re rant 1: That is so annoying that we can’t get the “free tv” games but not too unexpected. The perfect place here in Marquette would be Fox19, which exists solely to show the Lions. But it’s owned by people in Alabama who could care less, I assume.
Re rant 2: I hear ya. I have Chris Ray in my keeper league. I added Aaron Heilman in my Tigerblogger league. Both had beee-utiful wekends.