Bullpen need to end skid
posted in 2007 season, Chicago White Sox |Game 18: White Sox at Tigers, 1 p.m.
TV: TV2
Pitchers: Jon Garland vs. Justin Verlander
Pregame thoughts – After the Tigers coughed up three late-innings leads in three days, the starting pitcher seems to be irrelevant — especially this starter, Justin Verlander, who has no wins to show for three games in which his ERA was 1.42. A starter can lose the game for you, but apparently he can’t win it with stellar pitching.
Fortunatley, if anyone is going to ignite the Tigers offense, it’s Jon Garland. A sample of Tigers vs. Garland:
Granderson: .391 OBP, .381 SLG, 20 at-bats
Guillen: .400, .400, 35 at-bats
Infante: .455, .625, 32 at bats
Polanco: .417, .583, 24 at-bats
Sheffield: .600, .667, 9 at-bats
Thames: .400, .714, 14 at-bats
So you can see, some guys can hit him. And if Leyland wants to go to the bench to give some guys some rest, now is the day to do it. I’m thinking Craig Monroe (.611 OPS) needs a break myself. Inge and Maggs each have two homers off Garland, Thames has three.
If I remember correctly, Pudge will rest today, giving Mike Rabelo the start.
Postgame thoughts (Tigers win, 6-5, 12 inn.) – I guess if you play enough of these extra-innings game — the Tigers have played six in 18 games — you’ll win eventually. Placido Polanco drove in Pudge Rodriguez in the 12th inning for the walk-off Tigers victory, narrowly avoiding a sweep that looked all but imminent.
Yet again, Detroit blew an early lead. The first four batters took advantage of Jon Garland, giving the Tigers a 3-0 lead before an out was recorded in the first inning. But Garland clamped down after that and didn’t allow a base runner until the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Justin Verlander picked up the quality start, but left after seven innings with a 3-3 tie.
Joe Crede took Aquilino Lopez yard for a 5-3 Chicago lead, but Marcus Thames teed off on David Aardsma with two outs to knot the game at 5-5. Wil Ledezma pitched three innings, and Jason Grilli picked up the victory.
While it’s great to win, the flip side is the decision-making of Jim Leyland continued to leave me confused. He kept Verlander out there for 113 pitches, even though he’s been yanking Bonderman in the 80s or 90s. Then, in the 10th inning when Brandon Inge led off with a double, he didn’t have Curtis Granderson lay down the bunt to get Inge to third base with one out. Granderson can definitely bunt the ball, so I thought that call should have been automatic. I’m sure Sox manager Ozzie Guillen would have walked the bases loaded, unless he wanted to test Omar Infante, but that still leaves Maggs and Guillen chances to end the game. So I was confused by that.
Otherwise, it was great to see Marcus Thames respond to getting a start in the most dramatic of ways. Other than the homer by Lopez, the bullpen pitched well I thought. So it’s off to Anaheim for the Tigers after a .500 homestand.
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