What’s opposite of a pitchers’ duel?
posted in 2007 season, Toronto Blue Jays |Game 11: Detroit at Toronto, 1:07 p.m.
TV: FSN
Pitchers: Chad Durbin (0-1, 11.57) vs. A.J. Burnett (1-1, 7.27)
Pregame thoughts: My stomach recoiled a bit when I looked at the Tigers lineup. It’s not really the lineup that caused the recoil. The lineup is almost identical to Leyland’s regular starting nine. No. I didn’t even notice the names. I just noticed the batting averages listed. The .263 of Carlos Guillen was the highest average. These guys are slumping, and they’re slumping kind of hard early on. Omar Infante is getting the start in place of Placido Polanco, which explains why it looks so ugly. Omar hasn’t even got an at-bat yet.
The good news is, they hit A.J. Burnett around pretty well in his first start. He gave up six runs in two innings. The bad news is, he’s probably not going to be that bad again.
The other interesting thing to note is Chad Durbin’s second start. He lost his first one, having a bit of a meltdown for an inning but pitching fine otherwise. Can he stop the bleeding quick when the Jays inevitably game some runners on base? We’ll see.
Postgame thoughts (10-7, Tigers): Hardly saw any of this game. Certainly there are better recaps around the blogosphere tonight than I could hope to provide.
“Nine full innings” — the Tigers slogan — stood tall as Detroit rallied from a bad pitching performance by Chad Durbin to pull out the victory. Already in this young season, the Tigers have two ninth inning come-from-behind victories. In Jon Paul Morosi’s article, Todd Jones (six saves already this year) said the Tigers have stolen three games. That’s what winning teams do more often than they have games stolen.
Marcus Thames again proved useful coming off the bench. He fought off a pitch by B.J. Ryan in the ninth inning for a game-winning two-run double. Maybe he’ll continue to play himself into the playing time he already deserves. Another standout was reliever Jason Grilli, whom Leyland credited for the win.
Now, about the other matter: Chad Durbin. He got tagged for six runs in four innings. The first three runs came before he even got an out in the first inning. His ERA has ballooned to 12.46 and he’s allowed three homers in 8 2/3 innings.
As I figured, Jim Leyland is going to give him another start, Danny Knobler reports. I have to figure that’s going to be Durbin’s last chance — he’ll face the White Sox — unless he turns things around. I saw his first two or three innings and have to say, he didn’t look any better than his first game. I’m not sure if Leyland sees any potential for Durbin to turn things around or not. Probably. You don’t carry a pitcher you don’t think can turn things around. I’m not sure I do. I wish I saw something. You want Durbin to have a success story. You should, anyway. He’s a Tiger.
I know it seems like I point this out daily — it’s only because the Tigers have been on the road nine out of 11 games this season — Detroit has six wins in nine away games. That’s a great way to start a long trip.
Around the Central:
Minnesota 12, Tampa Bay 5: Sidney Ponson gave up two runs in 5-1/3 innings for the victory. Torii Hunter had two doubles for Minnesota (7-4) Carlos Pena had a pinch hit 3-run homer for the Rays.
Cleveland 4, Chicago 0: The Indians (5-3) finally picked up their first home victory of the season. How strange. Two homers backed Paul Byrd’s six innings of shutout ball. Young Chicago (5-5) pitcher John Danks allowed just two runs but fell to 0-2.
Baltimore 6, K.C. 4: The Royals (3-9) blew a 4-1 lead. Baltimore starter Daniel Cabrera followed his ownership of the Tigers by allowing four runs in five innings. Former Tiger Chris Gomez homered to help the O’s.
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