Thames homers, Bondo throws shutout
posted in 2007 season, Minnesota Twins |Tigers 1, Twins 0
As we know, bad things happen when the Tigers score less than six. Like, they lose. A lot. So while Jeremy Bonderman was busy pitching a gem on ESPN, I was thinking “oh god, the bats better get going! Bondo better pitch a shutout! ahhh!” Well, you know the drill.
When Curtis Granderson led off with a triple in the fourth, only to see Placido Polanco strike out, Sean Casey foul out on the first pitch and Magglio Ordonez get robbed by a good defensive play, well, that felt like the best chance the Tigers would have.
Well, you know what happened. Twins starter Scott Baker only gave up three hits all day, and one was a two-out home run by Thames in the eighth inning. Baker only threw 79 pitches in eight innings, if that tells you how dominate he was. 57 were for strikes, if that didn’t.
Meanwhile, Bonderman pitched terrific and made it through 8 innings. For awhile, he looked like an inning or two go too long, but the best way to keep the bullpen from blowing it was to avoid the bullpen as much as possible. You know Bonderman has these types of games in him. He can simply take a game over. He can be a shutdown pitcher. He gives the Tigers as a good a shot at a Cy Young award in the future as Justin Verlander does. But we don’t see enough of these games from Bondo. So, it was nice to watch what he can do.
Along the way, there was a great diving catch by Granderson that showed off his wheels and his glove.
Todd Jones made it through the ninth fine. The Twins went 1-2-3 and, quite literally, kept hitting it right at people in the infield. But Jones, for all the crap he takes, is seldom the guy I worry about in the pen even as I worry about him. … Well, you know what I mean by that.
The Tigers survived the weekend while Sheffield served his suspension by splitting and salvaging at crappy series with the Twins. Cleveland comes to town now. Hopefully the Tigers can take advantage.
Bunt Singles:
Eulogio De La Cruz was sent to Toledo to make the roster spot for the new bullpen help.
Sphere It
What a huge win for the ball club last night! Thames seemed to be the only Tiger that could really lock in on Baker last night, just missing a home run in the previous at bat. Baker was awesome last night, very impressive to watch.
Curtis also played a very good game, and I am very happy for him that he was able to do it on a national game. I think he deserves all the hype that Grady Sizemore has been getting, but he is being left out of the conversation a little bit.
Last week the ESPN crew made a really big deal out of how many fastballs Andrew Miller was throwing, this week they moved on to Todd Jones and how many breaking balls he was throwing. Whatever he is doing it seems to be working, I enjoy see him retire the side with no trouble.
We’ve officially reached the point where I can’t watch when Jones pitches.
Well, ok — I watch. But I pace and mumble a lot.
Big win last night. And, as always, nice to get another little dose of Ernie Harwell on the broadcast.