Jones, Tigers complete sweep
posted in 2007 season, Minnesota Twins |Tigers 4, Twins 3 (10 innings)
Wow. Who’da thunk it? Certainly not me. If you tell me one team sweeps the other with three one-run games, I would guess the Tigers were swept. This is terrific to win another close game.
In the matinee tilt with the bottom four in the batting order being, shall we charitably say, not so good, Detroit battled through a good back-and-forth game and managed to pull off a one-run victory in 10 innings. Todd Jones closed out his third straight one-run game. The bullpen allowed just one run the entire series, and that was Jason Grilli.
Timo Perez got the start today after being called up from Toledo. The FSN crew said he got to the ballpark at 11:45 (central) for a 12:10 game. I don’t necessarily know if starting him in that position was a good idea, but it tends to be what Jim Leyland does.
Turns out, his decision worked out fine. Perez singled in the 10th off Twins closer Joe Nathan, moved to second on a Mike Rabelo bunt, and scored on a Brandon Inge double. Inge had two RBIs in the game. So take that into mind. The bottom half of the lineup propelled the Tigers to the victory. Earlier in the game, Mike Rabelo had a triple and scored the then-game-tying run.
Bonderman made it through the first nine Twins batters before giving up a hit. I don’t know that he pitched great, but he did pretty well, also giving up a pair of runs in the seventh. Zach Miner picked up the victory in relief.
Also, Placido Polanco hurt his knee, it appeared, on a double-play-breaking slide by Justin Morneau earlier in the game, but he continued to play. Just something to keep an eye on.
So, on this brief post-All-Star Game road trip against two wild card contenders, the Tigers went 5-2. Combine that with their victories over the Indians and Red Sox before the break, and things are going pretty well against Detroit’s top competition in the American League. Detroit leads the majors with 32 road victories.
Sphere It
“The bullpen allowed just one run the entire series…”
WOW!