That top closer that I was talking about on Monday? Yeah, he was not so good tonight. In his first opportunity to nail down a save in a Tigers’ uniform, he failed miserably. He gave up a leadoff home run to Alberto Collaspo to right field, a single, and a game winning double. He did not record a single out.
And it’s a shame because the Tigers rallied in the ninth after it was already all but over in favor of the Royals. Down 1-0, with two outs and two strikes on Miguel Cabrera against the Royals’ closer, Joakim Soria, the outlook was bleak. But Cabrera battled back to have an amazing at-bat, spoiling several pitches by fouling them off, before taking the 10th pitch off the right field foul pole. Boom. 1-1 game.
After a scoreless 10th, the Tigers got to former-Tiger, Kevin Farnsworth, in the 11th. They opened the frame with three consecutive singles, the third off the bat of Carlos Guillen, which plated pinch runner, Don Kelly, for a 2-1 lead. The Tigers would have, obviously, benefited from another run in that situation, but unfortunately, they had their Mendoza part of the lineup at the plate and Miguel Cabrera made a bonehead baserunning blunder, getting picked off trying to steal third.
And you know how the bottom half went, because I already told you. Curtains.
SCHERZER’S DEBUT:
Max Scherzer had a no-hitter through 4.2 innings of his first start with the Tigers and finished with six scoreless, allowing just one hit, walking two, and striking out three (6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K for the more clear box score line). Scherzer mostly worked off his fastball (66/91) tonight, as that was probably in his best interest considering the weather conditions (needed to work quick and throw strikes) and because the Royals are simply not good hitters. He threw 63% of his pitches for strikes and most importantly, got ahead 0-1 on 15 of 22 hitters. It’s a damn shame for Sherzer, the team, and my fantasy team, that the hitters couldn’t produce some runs for him to turn this outing into a much deserved win.
LET’S LOOKS AT THE ROOKS:
Austin Jackson finished the game 2-5 with two strikeouts. One of his hits, the triple, was a result of some fortunate gusts of wind and rain. He only saw 18 pitches in five at bats as opposed to the 26 he saw on Opening Day and struck out twice in key situations. The egregious strikeout, of course, was when he attempted three horrible hacks with a baserunner on third and just one out. Those are the runs the Tigers need to bring home, but for the rookie, we can expect some failures in these spots now and then.
Scott Sizemore is still hitless as a Tiger in the regular season, but he did draw two walks tonight. His OBP is .429 after two games. He made a couple tough plays in the field, but some fans took note of what appeared to be some slight negligence on the final play of the game. He got the relay throw but as he went to throw it in it slipped out of his hand behind him. He would have had Bloomquist caught off third (or at least could have held him at third), but that huge goof (and not hustling afterwards) allowed Bloomquist to score the game winning run. In the second game of his career, this is hardly something to overanalyze when the Tigers would have lost this game anyway.
MINOR POINT ON THE BIG POTATO:
This crossed my mind in the 11th inning, but Valverde was up and getting hot in the 9th after Cabrera tied the game. It’s not necessarily the excuse for how he pitched in the 11th, but it’s not usually good on a reliever’s arm to get hot one inning, sit for awhile, and then have to get hot again in a hurry (and the Tigers fell apart quickly in the 11th after they got the run). This is especially true for a closer who is not used to that. It’s good for Valverde to get that experience out of the way early, but I feel that if he would have warmed up just once and gone in right away for a chance at a save, the outcome would have been different. Oh well. He can only go up from here, although he’s already tied Fernando Rodney’s career season last year of one blown save. I can promise you it probably won’t be his last this season, but he’ll be fine.
AROUND THE CENTRAL:
The White Sox (1-1) fell to the Indians (1-1) 5-3 after allowing five unanswered runs. Fausto Carmona struggled to find the strike zone, but finished six strong and picked up his first win of the season. Peavy gave up three runs in five innings in his first outing of the season.
The Twins (2-1) defeated the Angels for the second consecutive night, 4-2. Carl Pavano was lights out for the Twins going seven innings and striking out seven, opposite zero walks. Jon Rauch gave up a run in the 9th but closed the door for his 2nd consecutive save filling in for Joe Nathan. The Twins are in 1st place in the Central by half a game!
Wave goodbye to everyone until tomorrow, Mario.
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