Raburn powers Tigers
posted in 2007 season, Chicago White Sox |Tigers 13, White Sox 9
Optimist or pessimist. Pick your story line.
- Kenny Rogers gave up four home runs, seven runs and three walks. And he only lasted four innings.
- But Ryan Raburn continues to prove his value to the club, hitting two home runs, four hits and driving in 7 RBIs.
- But Jason Grilli gave up a pair of runs.
- In three innings.
- But… OK. I’m running out of reasons to be pessimistic, despite Detroit allowing nine runs.
The Tigers bullpen allowed two runs over five innings. Jason Grilli stopped the bleeding, even if he shed some blood himself. Tim Byrdak picked up his third career save, having pitched two perfect innings his first appearance off the disabled list.
The Tigers offense scored 13. That alone would be impressive. It is moreso, given Mike Rabelo, Raburn and Omar Infante started. Due to Gary Sheffield having a sore shoulder, Raburn replaced Maggs in right field and Maggs played DH. So, with all that mixing, they still did well.
And they won. That’s really what counts in the end. They became the second team in the majors to hit 60 wins. Cleveland won, also, but the Twins and Mariners lost.
So, I’m going to mark myself down as an optimist today. You should too.
Sphere It
What a different Raburn. I wonder if he can make a dent in spring training next year. Seems like last call-up he couldn’t make contact, but he has done nothing but hit bullets this year.
Would Texas (or anyone else, Rockies?) be interested?
In theory, a guy hitting like Raburn is right now would a help pretty much anywhere, Texas and Colorado included. But a wise GM is probably asking himself “is this Jack Cust? (et. al.)” A career minor leaguer coming up and hitting awesome in the bigs, before reverting to form, is nothing new. So he’s probably not that big a bargaining chip. As a fan of any team he was traded to, unless it was for spare parts, I’d be a bit disappointed.
As a fan of the Tigers, I couldn’t be happier for the kid and hope he keeps it up and does so in a Tigers uniform.
It energizes the team when the “new blood” comes
in .Shades of Sparky’s days.Hessman is also interesting
with the quick bat whip for power.
Byrdak is a strikeout pitcher.Can always use those.
Big rubber game match this afternoon.