Archive for the '2006 Tigers' Category

Just like that, the Tigers drop two games and the White Sox are there to pick them up.  The Tigers have been outscored 13-0 the last two days, and they’re by two teams the Tigers will have to contend with in September if they’re going to be in the playoff picture.  A lot is being made about next week’s series with the White Sox, but I think these next two series against the Red Sox and Yankees, along with last weekends series against the Indians, are/were just as important.

Here’s why.  While there’s no doubt we have a pretty good chance at winning the division (67.4% going into today’s game), there’s also the Wild Card, which may be much easier to snatch up.  While the White Sox will probably hang with us the whole season, it’ll be the Indians, Red Sox, Yankees and Blue Jays that will make up the Wild Card picture.  Even with the loss today, the Tigers have a five game lead over the Yankees.  If they take the back end games of this series against the Yankees or even split, it could be as many eight games.  That’s a nice cushion this early in the season.

So not to give up the AL Central to the White Sox, but it’s just as important looking at the bigger picture.

Barry Bonds passed Babe Ruth this weekend.  I think the best job that anyone’s done with this is John Perricone’s post on when Barry Bonds tied the Babe, but I think it’s just as fitting with one more homerun.  Congratulations to Barry Bonds for setting yet another milestone.

While I recognize that Memorial Day is a very important holiday, at this stage in my life I equate it to yard work, which I don’t particularly enjoy.  Needless to say, I wanted to throw out a heartfelt thank you to all of the men and women who have given their lives over the years protecting this country.  I also wanted to get my review of Stranded at the Corner finished, but as usual, I’m behind.

It’s almost like the Tigers can’t lose right now.  When I saw Mike Maroth get shelled to the tune of six runs in the first inning, I told myself “well, you can’t win them all.”  Then they crept back into the game and just crushed the spirit of the hapless Royals.

Marcus Thames has now hit eight homeruns in 68 at bats after hitting two today.  That’s a homerun every 8.5 at bats.  Just to put that in perspective, Andruw Jones led MLB in at bats per homerun last year with 11.5 so Thames is hitting homeruns at an excellent pace.  He’s also drawing walks and any time you have a four digit OPS, you’re doing something right.  Unfortunately, he’s the odd man out right now, at least with Leyland.  But you think the way he’s been hitting, that Leyland wouldn’t be able to ignore him.  I think he should be the full time DH, but Leyland seems content with using guys like Omar Infante in that spot.

The Kansas City Royals are now 10-35.  In 2003, the Tigers won their 45th game to improve to 10-35 on the season, and then they went on to win their next two games as well.  If the Royals lose either of their next two games, they’ll be on a worse pace then the 2003 Tigers.

And I’m not completely surprised.  While the Tigers have made some poor moves, the Royals management appears particularly inept.  Right now, I think they’re burying a guy who could be their best hitter.  Justin Huber was called up a few weeks ago and he’s been completely ignored.  Doug Mientiewicz has been starting at first base since Mike Sweeney went down with yet another injury and DM has an OPS that’s less then .700.  He just hit his first homerun of the season today and before today, his OBP was higher then his slugging percentage.  Huber can rake, he’s just not being given the chance.

I was in the car listening to the Tiger game last night, and they were down 4-0.  In any of the last ten years, I probably would have thought to myself, “another loss, sigh.”  And that was regardless of who they were playing.  This year though, with all of the winning, I’m starting to become a convert.  My first thought was “The Tigers can come back from this.”  And come back they did.  The pitching buckled down and after the third inning, they gave up only one run.  So despite a less then stellar start from Kenny Rogers, the Tigers walked away with yet another win.  Hopefully they get it done tonight as they’re up 1-0 in the fourth inning.

With a lot of “surprise” teams, you usually have a convergence of career years by veterans with the emergence of some homegrown talent.  Mike Maroth would be an example of a veteran who’s having a career year, while a pleasant surprise has been Curtis Granderson.  He had three more RBIs yesterday, and that brings his season total 20.  He’s walking as well.  A lot of projections had him being a potential “20/20” guy and if you would have asked me then which he’d be more likely to attain, I would have said 20 stolen bases.  A pleasant surprise has been Granderson’s power. 

He now has eight homeruns, and a couple of those have come at some pretty key times.  So it looks like once again I was wrong.  With only three stolen bases in six attempts, he’s probably not going to get to 20 steals.  I could see him hitting 25 homeruns though and I’ll take that over the steals.

One area of concern is Granderson’s production at home.  His home OPS is .676 while his road OPS is an impressive .903.  Regardless, we could be looking at a leadoff hitter who hits 25 homeruns, scores a 100 runs and drives in 75.  I’d take those numbers over what we’ve had the last couple of years (think Nook Logan and Alex Sanchez) in a heartbeat.

Granderson is also getting it done in the field.  He leads all outfielders with 1.8 fielding winshares and he also has five fielding runs above average.  Just to put that in perspective, Nook Logan, who was highly touted as a solid centerfielder, had seven total fielding runs above average and if Granderson keeps this up, he’ll probably double that.

Another solid weekend series for the Tigers.  Their seven game winning streak came to end after the Reds blew them out on Friday, but they got back on track with two nice wins over the weekend.

I had a chance to see the end of both Saturday’s and Sunday’s game.  It’s been a long time since I felt this way, but you almost knew the Tigers were going to do something in the ninth inning on Saturday.  Ken Griffey hit the grandslam off of Joel Zumaya, but Curtis Granderson came through with some heroics in the bottom of the ninth with a two out solo shot to send the game into extra frames.  Then the Tigers put runners at second and third with two outs and Craig Monroe hit it well enough to cause Felipe Lopez to misplay it and throw the ball away, allowing Carlos Guillen to score and end the game.

Today’s game was equally as dramatic, and while it didn’t have the billing of Justin Verlander vs. Johan Santana, it was equally as impressive.  Aaron Harang threw seven shutout innings, but he finally got into trouble in the eighth inning.  Brandon Inge drew a leadoff walk and then Vance Wilson (his name seems to keep popping up in the close games) turned a bunt attempt into a two base error when Harang was forced to try to shuffle pass it (unsuccessfully).  Then Placido Polanco came up huge with a pinch hit RBI single to drive home the only run of the game.  Nate Roberton and Todd Jones combined to throw a three hit shutout.

Two things of note.  Todd Jones saved his 155th game as a Tiger, making him the all time Tigers leader.  Just behind him is Mike Henneman, and in third place is my personal favorite, John Hiller.  I think Hiller was one of the best and most underated relievers of all time and a great story because of his comeback after a heart condition.  Also, the Tigers threw their eighth shutout of the season, which leads all of baseball.  Oddly, all of those shutouts have been combined with a starter and at least one reliever.  In fact, no Tiger starter has completed a game yet.  In 2005, the Tigers had nine shutouts, but that was their season ending total.  The last time they had at least ten, which is certainly attainable, was in 1990, when they had twelve.

I also happened to be watching the White Sox/Cubs game on Saturday when the brawl happened.  While I’m not certain what, if anything, A.J. Pierzynski said to Michael Barrett, it didn’t to appear to me that anything was out of sorts.  I thought the punch by Barrett was a sucker punch and I also didn’t think A.J.’s slapping home plate was all that strange.  I’m sure we’ll hear more about this over the next few days.

Kansas City is on deck for a four game series. Odd scheduling, because the Tigers were at home all this past week, then they go to KC, and then come back and play ten straight games at home.  The White Sox lost to the Cubs today, so the Tigers are back on top of the division, and for that matter, all of baseball.

Sounds like the old Sparky truism was all over the radio about looking at where a team is at after the first forty games.  We’re at the quarter point of the season, and the Tigers have the best record in the majors.  At least they’ll be tied if the White Sox beat the Devil Rays tonight.

I heard this on the radio and didn’t confirm it, but the Tigers have only started at least 27-13 in five previous seasons.  The last time it happened was 1984, and we all know what happened that year. 

I commented on this on my Tiger column at the Hardball Times, but I just keep waiting. Most of it is conditioning because as Tiger fans, we’ve been disappointed for so long.  Just to put things in perspective though, I went to a game with my dad on June 20, 1993.  The Tigers beat the Brewers and it was the team’s eleventh win in the previous fourteen games and the Tigers were 43-25.  The Tigers stood two games ahead of the Blue Jays and things were looking good.  Ten games later, all of which were losses, the Tigers found themselves down by 4 1/2 games and the team was in third place.  The Tigers later flirted with first place but ended the season in fourth place at 85-77.

So things can happen fast.  I’m hoping Jim Leyland will be able to keep the players in line, but in so many ways, especially with regard to the rotation, the Tigers are blowing away expectations.

What a game yesterday.  I was going to go, then a friend cancelled so I gave up the tickets.  My favorite kind of game is a pitcher’s duel and I missed a great one.  What’s even funnier was, i was watching the game and was annoyed that Leyland didn’t hit Pudge for Vance Wilson, who then hit the game winning two run shot.  Once again, that’s probably why Leyland’s in the dugout and I’m not.  It still boggles the mind though.

The Tigers have won seven straight.  I heard this on the radio as well and didn’t confirm it, but the last time they had that long of a winning streak was 1993.

Interleague play starts and outside of a series next week against the Royals, the Tigers face some high powered hitting teams so that pitching staff will be put to the test.  The Reds have dropped off after a five game losing streak, but with guys like Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns, this lineup can do some damage.  Best case scenario is, we’re talking about a ten game winning streak on Sunday.

The Tigers swept the Indians, and thanks to the AFLAC trivia question on Fox Sports, I now know that this is the first time that the Tigers have ever swept the Indians at Jacobs Field.  You have to go way back to 1990 at Cleveland Stadium to find the last time that the Tigers swept the Indians in Cleveland.

What a run by Mike Maroth.  With today’s win, he’s now 5-2 with a miniscule 2.18 ERA.  His strikeout to walk ratio is only 17/14 and that’s nothing to write home about but he’s kept the ball in the park (three homeruns), benefited from the improved Tiger defense and has managed to strand a ton of batters.  Coming into the game, he had a mediocre 1.42 WHIP, but his left on base percentage was 87.6%.  So he’s giving up baserunners, just not in bunches and he’s leaving most of the ones he gave up on base  I’m not terribly optimistic he’ll be able to keep it up, but like the Tigers in general so far, I’ll take it while I can get it.

Interleague play starts this weekend and the Tigers host the Reds.  Blade and I were hoping to catch a game with the Reds in town, but I don’t see it happening.  I am going to try to go to the game on Wednesday.  I’ll get to see Justin Verlander up close for the first time as well as Johan Santana.  With that, I still don’t like interleague play.  It messes up the schedule, they never gave the Tigers a real “rival,” and I just don’t see it as increasing attendance outside of whoever gets to host the Yankees (and now Red Sox).  Then again, I’m the one who wants to go back to the “no playoff” structure that was in place prior to 1969 so I’m old school.

The Twins are in town this week beginning Tuesday and they’re kind of a new team since the Tigers rolled out of their last weekend.  They’ve won seven of their last ten and they’re now ahead of the Indians by one game.

Jim Leyland continues to boggle Tiger fans’ minds.  This weeks “odd move” is taking place in tonight’s game (Tigers are up 1-0).  Ramon Santiago and his career .296 OBP is hitting lead off of all places.  He’s one for two so far, with a lead off single so maybe Jim Leyland is a seer of sorts.

The only run was on a Chris Selton solo shot so hopefully he’s out of his slump.  Bonderman’s throwing well in a light rain. 

UPDATE 

Santiago went two for four with a run.

The Tigers’ game was rained out tonight in Baltimore, so they end up with a split of what turned out to be a two game series.  I’m annoyed because I picked up Justin Verlander in my fantasy baseball league because he was set to have two starts (we have a one week lock), but now with everyone being pushed back, that’s not going to happen.  In fact with rain in the forecast and Cleveland just down the street, we might see some more rain delays, if not postponed games.

This should be an interesting upcoming series.  The Indians have been struggling, but they’re still a dangerous team.  If the Tigers can manage two out of three, they can further push the Indians down and give them some early breathing room by making it a two team race out of the gate.

Note to self – If you’re going to throw up a section with the AL Central standings, try to keep it updated.  I thought it would be a cool function but I’ll try to make a better effort to keep it current.

I’m going to be doing an occasional piece for Creative Sports, a fantasy baseball website.  Once or twice a week I’ll be writing up something on the Tigers from a fantasy perspective and my first piece should go out tomorrow.  I recommend you check out the site if you’re into fantasy baseball.

….the more they stay the same?  This was a tough series to lose.  While there’s no shame in losing to Johan Santana on Sunday, Saturday’s game didn’t sit to well.  They don’t call him the roller coaster for nothing and Todd Jones blew his first game of the season.  Already I’m hearing people talking on the radio about the Tigers supplanting Jones as the closer, but I don’t see that happening.  Also troubling in Saturday’s game was that the Tigers struck out ten times (and Scott Baker isn’t much of a strikeout pitcher) and didn’t walk at all. 

I was curious why Leyland didn’t walk at least one guy after Shannon Stewart tripled home Nick Punto.  That would have set them up at a chance for a double play, but I can also see Leyland’s logic in not doing so because he would have either had to face Joe Mauer or Torii Hunter.

Magglio Ordonez has been locked in the past few days.  He hit a homerun in each of the three games against the Twins and with two more hits today he’s now hitting .313.  It’s nice to see he’s finally getting around to earning that paycheck.  Hopefully he’ll be able to keep it up.

Joel Zumaya had another nice outing on Saturday. He came in with Joe Mauer on second base and two outs and struck out Torii Hunter to end the inning.  Then he put the Twins down in order in the eighth inning.  He touched 100 miles an hour a few times on the gun.

The Tigers are off tomorrow and play a three game set at Baltimore beginning Tuesday.  The Orioles have lost their last five games and eight of their last nine so hopefully the Tigers can get back on track against against a struggling team.  The Orioles are dead last in MLB with a 1.64 WHIP and they’re second to last with a 5.55 ERA so it looks like Leo Mazzone hasn’t been able to work his magic quite yet.

So much for the Tigers’ home woes.  Prior to this game, the Tigers were 2-5 at home.  That turned that around in a hurry and the Tigers had their first six game winning streak since late June, 2004. 

Dan brought this up in the comments of my last post.  Alexis Gomez hit third in the order today, which is a little, well, odd.  To make it more odd, I just heard on the radio that when Dmitri Young comes off the disabled list, it’ll be Gomez who’s designated for assignment.  So if he doesn’t clear waivers, this could be his last game as a Tiger.  If he’s good enough to hit third, he’s good enough to keep, right?  Guess not although I’m not quite sure why he’s been getting more time then Marcus Thames has been of late.

The Tigers are now 19-10.  Say they hit a rough patch and go 4-7 in their next eleven games.  They’ll hit the quarter point with a 23-17 record, which is way better then I thought they’d be.  And not to bring up the dreaded past but the 2003 Tigers won their 19th game on June 30 of that year.  Whether they keep it up or not, the Tigers have definitely improved their product since that horrific season.

The Tigers travel to Minnesota this weekend to take on the Twins again, who have won a few games since the Tigers embarassed them last weekend.  Regardless, this is a great time to keep the team’s winning ways going.  The Twins are still struggling at the plate and they have by far the worst offense in baseball.

Just to check out some of the team stats for the Tigers at the Hardball Times, the Tigers have the most Pythagorean wins with 20.  They’re tied for the lowest groundball percentage in the American League with 39% and they have the second best slugging percentage at .484.  On the pitching side, they lead MLB in ERA with a 3.01 and they’re also tops in defensive effeciency with .746.  They’re also tops in the American League in groundball percentage (48%) and line drive percentage (16%).  Note that this was all before today’s game.

Have a great weekend.

The Tigers, like the Energizer Bunny, just keep going, and going.  They swept the Royals in their two game series, and while that’s nothing spectacular in and of itself, I am pretty happy that the Tigers took care of business against the worst team in baseball.

Mike Maroth continues to pitch very well.  While his strikeout to walk ratio isn’t anything to write home about (12/10 in 30 1/3 innings), he has a very respectable WHIP (1.25) and he’s given up only two homeruns.  Guess it goes to show how a better defense can improve a softer throwing pitcher.  The ball gets put in play, but more are converted for outs and right now, the Tigers lead the league in defensive effeciency.

Believe it or not, the White Sox lost so the Tigers are now a half game back of Chicago.  I’m not sure what’s more surprising, that the Tigers have the third best record in the majors or that the Reds have the best record.

Now I’m going to leave this to commentors, but one thing I was wondering the other day was, if Alan Trammell were still in charge, would this team have played this well for him?  I know we’ll never know, but it’s not like Jim Leyland has done anything spectacular out there (please correct me if I’m wrong).

The Angels roll into town for two games.  Hopefully we do a little better then when we faced them out in Anaheim.

The Tigers haven’t had much luck against the Twins the last few years.  You have to go all the way back to 2000 to find a season when the Tigers had a winning record against the Twins, and even then they were only 7-6.  This wasn’t any ordingay weekend series though.  The Tigers had struggled at home as well and to take care of their division rival like this was pretty impressive.  And it sort of makes you wonder whether the Twins that won the division from 2002 through 2004 were really that good or whether they truly took advantage of how poor the AL Central was.  They never won a playoff series and once teams like the White Sox and Indians improved their team, they went from good to mediocre in a hurry.  Now they look downright bad.

I didn’t watch the game today, so I’m not sure why Kenny Rogers got pulled in the ninth.  He had only thrown 93 pitches and he had a chance for shutout.  And it’s not like Rogers is going to throw out his arm.  Todd Jones got the job done though and he hadn’t thrown since Tuesday, so maybe Leyland wanted to get him some work.

The last time the Tigers won 16 games in a month was August, 2000.  The last time they did it in April was (gulp) 1984.  With a White Sox loss today, we’ll be a game back in the loss column.  The Tigers play a two game series against the Royals and I’m going to call this a relatively important series (I guess they all are).  These are the kind of games a mediocre team would drop, so hopefully the Tigers take care of business and take both games.

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The Tigers west coast road trip ended on a sour note.  Both Monday and Wednesday, the Tigers were shut out.  On Monday, Ervin Santana and the Angels pen held the Tigers to six hits.  This afternoon, John Lackey had a one hitter going through the end of eight innings before Scot Shields came in and finished the shutout.

The bright spot was Jeremy Bonderman who had been struggling.  Bonderman went six innings and gave up only three hits and a walk with six strikeouts.  He did get into trouble in the sixth inning but he struck out Vlad Guerrero to get the first out of the inning and he got Tim Salmon to ground out to end the inning.  Also encouraging was the pen.  Jamie Walker, Joel Zumaya and Todd Jones combined to throw three perfect innings to close out the game.

Regardless, heading out west and finishing 6-3 means the team had a very solid performance.  The Tigers head back home for a three game series against the Twins and while the Twins have struggled, we haven’t had much luck against them (or any other team for that matter) the last few years.  We also haven’t had much luck at home this year.  Hopefully we turn both of those things around this weekend.

After a 7-7 start, the Tigers have now rattled off five straight wins.  Equally impressive is that they’re doing it on the west coast.  They have one more stop against the Angels this week, but even if they take one of three, they’ll finish 6-3 on the trip.  And if it weren’t for an eight game winning streak by the White Sox, the Tigers might have found themselves in first place.

The Tigers got some great starting pitching in this series.  Nate Robertson gave up only two hits in seven shutout innings and Justin Verlander was no slouch today either.  He gave up one run on four hits in seven innings.  And Mike Maroth had his second straight quality start since getting bumped in the rotation because of an elbow problem.  He gave up four hits in six shutout innings. 

Friday we saw the return of Todd Jones.  He gave up back to back singles with one out, then walked the bases loaded.  Jeremy Reed hit a sac. fly to cut the lead in half (2-1) but then he got Ichiro to ground out to end the game.  Things went more smoothly today.  He struck out one in a perfect ninth and he picked up his second save of the season.  While I still think Jones is overpaid, I do think having him in the pen will give Jim Leyland one more solid option.

What definitely qualifies as a WTF moment, Leyland hit Omar Infante third today.  At least Carlos Guillen was moved up to fifth (because he was the DH and the DH HAS TO HIT FIFTH!!), but Shelton is still hitting sixth.  I know it was get away day, but having Santiago in the lineup was also a little troubling.  But the team is winning, so it’s hard to complain too much.

In my opinion, Retrosheet is the most important baseball site on the web.  And they’ve recently released their annual expansion.  Now you can get box scores and play by play all the way back to 1957.  In addition, the have some earlier years fro the 1900s.  Just as important, they now have play by play for most of the missing year (1994-1998).  The only season since 1957 that you can’t get play by play info for is 1999.

Stop by and you’ll find youself spending more time then you wanted just checking things out.  It’s easy to do at Retrosheet.

I like the 3:30 start time.  I got to listen to the end of the game on the way home and the ninth inning was particularly interesting.  Probably the highlight was Brandon Inge’s at bat.  He went to 0-2 early, then proceeded to foul nine balls off en route to drawing a walk on fifteen pitches.  His walk loaded the bases and ended up leading to the winning run.

I’m not sure what Jim Leyland’s infatuation is with batting “whoever” the desiginated hitter is at the five spot.  This week it’s particularly baffling because Alexis Gomez, who was called up when Dmitri Young went on the disabled list, has been there twice this week.  Thames, who I think is the best player that the Tigers have on the bench, has hit there twice as well.  It just seems like Leyland is way too into the whole lefty/righty platoon.  Thames is better, period.  Play him there.  Gomez is a week removed from Toledo, so he should be relegated to the bench.

A nice ninth inning comeback by the Tigers today.  Price and Dickerson were kind of baffled as to why Huston Street didn’t throw in the ninth, so it’ll be interesting to see what the reasoning behind it was.  Ken Macha went with Justin Duchscherer a little too long and the Tigers got to him early and often.  With the score 3-1 heading into the top of the ninth, Magglio Ordonez singled and then Alexis Gomez doubled.  Chris Shelton then continued his tear and singled home Ordonez to make it a one run game.  Carlos Guillen then singled home Gomez to tie the game up.  Craig Monroe hit into a fielders choice, and then Inge had his 15 pitch at bat.  Duchsherer then walked Curtis Granderons and Carlos Guillen scored the go ahead run.

Fernando Rodney got into a huge jam in the bottom of the ninth but pitched his way out of it.  He loaded the bases with one out, then he got Jason Kendall to ground into a fielders choice with a play at the plate.  He then struck out Adam Melhuse to end the game.  So instead of being even at 8-8, the Tigers fought back and improved to 9-7.  Seattle’s on deck as the Tigers continue their west coast swing tomorrow. 

Just a couple of notes.  Anytime you can head out west and win two of three against a quality team like the A’s, you’re doing something right.  I also like the fact that Leyland stuck with Rodney for a second inning and let him pitch himself out of that ninth inning jam.

There are several types of carpets, as it’s not easier to clean the carpets when you’ve kids at home. And some home owners believe that carpets are a source of floor heating especially in summers.

It was a great day to go to the game yesterday, just not a great game to watch if you’re a Tigers fan.  Shelton’s homerun was impressive though.  He was down 0-2 in the count, then ripped a line shot that looked like it never rose more then 15 feet above the ground.  It was definitely a bullet and I see now how he’s getting his triples.  Just about everything he’s hitting is hard.

Unfortunately, outside of a Carlos Guillen homerun, that was the only real Tigers’ highlight.  I saw more weak popups in this game then I’ve ever seen and it looks like Jim Leyland didn’t like it one bit.  He was pretty short at his press conference and laid down the law.  It’ll be really interesting to see how the Tigers respond, through their actions, tonight against the A’s.

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of Mark Fidrych’s debut.  I had planned on doing a game by game diary of each of his starts when I found out Tiger Tales was doing their own tribute of Fidrych’s phenomonal 1976 season.  Below is what would have been my first entry in the tribute.  Now it’s my last as I’ll enjoy Lee’s take on how Mark “the Bird” Fidrych took the world by storm in 1976.

Thirty years ago today, on April 20, 1976, the Tigers took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning against the Oakland A’s (in Oakland).  Willie Horton, in what was essentially his final season in a Tigers’ uniform (he played in one game for the Tigers in 1977 before being traded to the Texas Rangers) had homered and drove in three runs.  Tom Veryzer had a two run single in the second inning, and Ron LeFlore had scored twice.

Starter Joe Coleman had thrown eight solid innings but he gave up a single to lead off hitter Bert Campaneris and then walked Phil Garner.  Tiger’s manager Ralph Houk went to the pen and brought in Jim Crawford.  Campaneris and Garner executed a double steal, but then he got Bill North to line out to left field for the first out.  Claudell Washington drew a walk to load the bases up and then Joe Rudi singled and drove in two runs to tie the game.  Ralph Houk had seen enough, so for the second time in the inning, he went to the pen.

The move seemed innocent enough.  In came a curly haired 21 year old that would eventually take the baseball world by storm.  The Tigers were coming off of 102 losses in 1975, the second most in franchise history.  And that was only three years after winning the division in 1972.  Tiger’s fans didn’t have a lot to cheer about. 

That reliever was Mark Fidrych, who would go on to have a rookie season for the ages.  Unfortunately, his debut doesn’t have a happy ending.  Don Baylor was the first batter he faced, and Baylor singled to drive home the winning run.  Fidrych’s box score line was pretty much a big nothing.  He wasn’t credited with any innings because he didn’t get anybody out, and the run he gave was up was inherited from Crawford.  All that showed up was the hit.

Little did fans know what was in store with this youngster.

Not too bad for a guy with a bum elbow.  Mike Maroth had his start bumped earlier in the week and it looks like the extra rest did him some good.  Maroth threw 99 pitches and went seven shutout innings.  He walked two, gave up three hits and he struck out five.  The Indians threatened a couple of times on him with runners on second with less then two outs, but both times Mike Maroth was able to get out of the jams.

Joel Zumaya got into trouble in the eighth, but he too was able to get out of the inning unscathed.  He struck Jason Michaels out with a high 99 mph fastball to end the inning.  Fernando Rodney threw a perfect ninth and to finish the shutout and he earned his third save of the season.

Probably the most disappointing part of the game was the bottom of the eighth.  The Tigers got runners on first and third with one out, and Magglio Ordonez, the $15 million man (or is it $18 million, it’s hard to remember even though the numbers are so obscene) struck out.  Craig Monroe followed that up with a strikeout to end the inning and the Tigers didn’t get any insurance.  I can live with Monroe not being clutch, but this is what we’re paying Ordonez to do and he didn’t come through.

The only run of the game came from a Chris Shelton homerun.  It was his eighth of the season, and he continues to lead the league.  You figure at this point, even if he calms down and hits at a pace most people thought (.280/25 homeruns) for the rest of the season, he could still easily hit .300 and be the first player since Bobby Higginson in 2000 to hit 30 homeruns for the Tigers.

The Tigers finish their series against the Indians tomorrow afternoon before heading out west.  It’ll be the first game I’ll be attending this season and I’m looking forward to it.

If you would have asked me before opening day whether I’d be happy with a 5-4 start, I would have said I’d take it.  That kind of puts the whole thing in perspective for me.  I’m not going to change my opinion of this team based on their first five games, or for that matter, their last four.

The defending World champs came into town, and despite the fact that they were struggling, they left with three wins (and they’re no longer struggling).  The Tigers offense pretty much went away in the first two games of the series, and by the time they got it back, their pitching wasn’t there.

The Tigers had 21 hits today, yet they still lost.  In fact every Tiger except for Curtis Granderson had at least two hits.  I didn’t expect Justin Verlander to throw like he did in Texas, and nobody else should have either and the seven early runs he gave up ended up being the difference.  The pen wasn’t there either, and three different relievers gave up runs and cost the Tigers a comeback win.  The 23 year old took his lumps today, and hopefully he’ll bounce back when he pitches again (most likely on Tuesday against the A’s in Oakland).  With all three games being afternoon games, I only got to keep track of the Tigers home opener so I can’t really say what might have gotten Verlander into trouble.

Chris Shelton continues to hit the ball extremely well.  He hit his seventh homerun of the season and now has 14 RBIs.

A topic of conversation, both here in the comments by Dan and on sports talk radio, was Leyland sticking with Omar Infante late in the game yesterday with Dmitri Young and Marcus Thames on the bench.  Young’s been good as a pinch hitter in the past and Thames has had a nice start.  I heard a two pronged excuse.  That Leyland was playing the percentages (which percentages?) and that he wanted everyone in the lineup to be tested in key moments.  I’m also not quite sure why Infante would ever be a viable option at DH, although he had four hits today (his first four hits of the season) when he gave Brandon Inge a break at third base.

The Tigers host the Cleveland Indians in a four game weekend series.  The Indians are off to a very good start, and if the Tigers leave for the west coast with a split in this series, I’d be pretty happy.

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