The cardiac Cats are alive and well. The Tigers won their fourth game in a row, in the most exciting fashion, thanks mostly to offseason acquisition, Johnny Damon. Any remaining ill-will from fans toward Damon for him being a huge sell out back in the day when he signed with the Yankees, and subsequently shaved off his soul, has to be completely out the window now – I think he’s finally shed all of the pin in ‘pinstripes’ to fully earn his Tiger stripes.
What might come as somewhat of a shock to some of you, Damon’s biggest play today may not have come from his bat and, even more surprisingly, probably came from his arm. In the 6th inning with the game tied at two, Juan Rivera singled to left and looked to have a sure go-ahead RBI. Usually, when there’s a single to left field and Damon is fielding the ball, most runners from second have higher odds of getting tackled by Office Linebacker, Terry Tate, before they get to home plate than of being thrown out by Damon. Well, Damon found something in that candy arm and threw Matsui out at the plate, ending the inning and keeping the game tied.
That big play and three scoreless innings later set the stage for his bottom of the 9th, walk-off homer to right. Adieu. Enter Billy Zane.
BILLY ZANE WITH THE CALL…
DAMON, FIGHTER OF THE NIGHT
I can’t get enough of how well Damon has played for the Tigers so far. According to Dan Dickerson, he’s hitting .417/.487/.612 in his last 18 games. That’s 28 for his last 67. As I’ve stressed here before, Placido Polanco is being replaced in the lineup this season by Damon, not Scott Sizemore. I think he’s filling in perfectly, and interestingly enough, Damon is the first Tiger to hit a walk-off homer for his first HR as a Tiger since Placido Polanco did it June 19, 2005. OOOOOOoooohhhhhhhh.
QUALITY BONDO
Bonderman wasn’t great – he gave up 10 hits and was bailed out at least three times by the Angels poor base running – but he was more than adequate enough to pick up a win today. Unfortunately, the Tigers’ Ryan Raburn gave up a run on his error and the Tigers wasted all their hits in last night’s game. The best stat about Bonderman’s quality start is that he walked zero. Good things can happen when you make the other team put the ball in play.
RYAN PERRY’S FIRST CAREER WIN
You never would have guessed, based on how well Perry pitched last season, that he’d have to wait until his 2nd season to rack up his first career save and his first win. Perry threw the final two outs in the top half of the 9th, so he was the beneficiary of Damon’s homer in the 9th. Congrats to Ryan Perry.
AROUND THE CENTRAL
White Sox just shut down the Yankees in the bottom of the 9th for a 7-6 win. KC plays Tampa Bay and Minnesota plays Cleveland later this evening. We’ll update accordingly.
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