The loss to KC tonight was a microcosm of the entire season. Good starting pitching, awful hitting, and a complete flameout by the bullpen.
Thanks to a fine outing from Armando Galarraga, the Tigers found themselves leading 2-1 in the 8th inning. Zumaya relieved Galarraga and proceeded to give up a hit and a walk (sandwiched between an out). The next dude shot his next pitch into the gap, scoring 2. Yea, bullpen!
Amazingly, Ryan Raburn doubled home Josh Anderson to tie the game in the bottom of the 8th. The problem is that nobody told Raburn it was a double. He tried to stretch it into a triple, and the poor 3rd baseman had time for tea and crumpets by the time he tagged out RyRay. That could've been the play of the game.
Rodney pitched the 9th and gave up a homerun. No late-game heroics from the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th as they had difficulty doing anything against the KC closer, Soria. Pretty awful loss, considering KC exposed the Tigers bullpen as a total sham. This does not bode well. Nobody in Detroit believes the Tigers will be able to hold onto first place, and count me among 'em. They're not a complete team.
Third place in the Central, but they'll be near .500. Whatever that's worth.
ReplyDeleteI suppose we'll learn a lot in the next five games - 2 against KC and 3 against Cleveland. Jim Leyland said, "There's no excitement around this team right now." That's the problem. No fire. The old cliche "Hitting is contagious" is very true. Slumping is apparently contagious as well.
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