Game 4: Porcello debuts with a loss
Jays 6, Tigers 2
BOX
Record: 1-3
With all the eyes of Tigers fandom on him, 20-year-old Rick Porcello didn’t look too bad in his major league debut. Unfortunately, the managable deficit he left was soon turned into a much tougher one to surmount by the bullpen, and the Tigers fell. It felt like a rather lackluster performance by the team.
- Rick Porcello — The kid didn’t do too bad for a debut. I’m not going to make it sound like he pitched some phenomenal game. At times, you could see what makes him a special prospect. At others, you could see an argument for a little more seasoning in the minors. When he left, it was 3-2 as the result of a pair of solo home runs and a two-out RBI single. Following the first home run (making the game 2-2), Porcello struck out the next two batters with some incredibly nasty stuff. But for the day, he finished with 57 strikes for 89 pitches (64 percent) in 5-innings. So he’s going to have to work on getting outs a bit quicker still. He had four strikeouts in a walk but allowed eight hits. Now that he’s got his initial start and of its assorted nerves out of the way, it’ll be interesting to see how he responds in the second game. Gut reaction: Liked what I saw, but still a candidate for returning to the minors when Jeremy Bonderman is healthy.
- The bats were a bit sluggish — Going against another pitcher making his major league debut in Ricky Romero, the Tigers eschewed the patience they had shown the past couple of days. And when Brandon Inge isn’t hitting home runs and Adam Everett, Ramon Santiago and Matt Treanor are all in the lineup at once, the 6-9 batters are not going to do too much to put runs on the board. So I guess the two runs scored sounds about right. Porcello was going to have to debut near-perfect to get a win with that lineup behind him. Not that I disagree with resting guys, especially playing on the turf in the Rogers Centre. But it’s just not going to be a lineup that produces a lot.
- The bullpen, again – I don’t know what happened to the Juan Rincon of spring training. He sure didn’t make the trip to Canada. He gave up a two-run homer, letting in one of Nate Robertson’s runners, to make the game 6-2. After that, I guess he settled in and made it through 2-1/3 innings without taxing anyone else’s arm, and struck out two, so that’s a positive. I hope he shows us something better soon. I’m not convinced the Tigers can’t find someone better in the minors to call up if Rincon continues looking so average — Casey Fien, maybe. Earlier, Nate Robertson didn’t do too bad in his appearance anyway.
- At least that’s over — The Tigers could have been 2-2 when they returned home for the opener had it not been for the bullpen meltdown on Tuesday. That would have been nice. But I know Jim Leyland is just putting his team through the first-week paces, getting guys into the game. I’m not real pleased with how the season has started, but at least the Tigers have a win under their belt. I think we’ll get a bit better indication of the team once it gets outside on the grass.
posted in 2009 season, Toronto Blue Jays | 1 Comment

