Getaway Game

Raburn at the plate, the crowd waits with baited breath
Mrs. Nofrownmotown and I drove out to the park yesterday to catch the Tigers vs. Rangers game. We braved the 79 degree sunshine and landed decent seats along the right foul line.

Upon taking our seats, I glanced up at the giant scoreboard with the Tigers' lineup:

Dirks, CF

Kelly, 1B

Boesch, LF

Cabrera, DH

Martinez, C

Guillen, 2B

Betemit, 3B

Raburn, RF

Santiago, SS

Now the prospect of staring at Raburn's backside in right field was daunting enough. Worse, Leyland opted to rest four regulars against the 1st place Texas Rangers. With an opportunity to put some serious separation between the Tigers and the rest of the Central, Leyland inexplicably opted to take his foot off the gas.

I can understand resting Jackson in favor of Dirks. Jackson isn't offering much offensively this season. In fact, he's second in the AL with 120 strikeouts. Why he's leading off is anyone's guess. I also understand Martinez catching instead of Avila. It's common practice for the catcher to rest the day game after a night game. Still, Avila was swinging a hot bat. Why not DH the guy?

Leyland also opted to rest Magglio and Peralta. The "logic" in that decision must've been due to the opposing pitcher - Alexi Ogando. Righties are hitting just .178 against the dude. Yet, it's not like lefties are much better. They're hitting just .235. Basically, Ogando is shutting everyone down. After watching Leyland play the righty vs lefty game for five years, I'm convinced it's much ado about nothing. A good hitter is a good hitter, regardless of who's on the mound. Despite his low batting average, Magglio has proven to be a good hitter. He knocked a 2-run home run off the top ERA man in the AL last weekend (Weaver). And Peralta's been one of the hottest hitters on the team all season. This lineup simply can't afford to take those bats out, in favor of Santiago and Raburn.

If Leyland wanted to reward Raburn for his great game the night before (and he did win the game for the Tigers with an 8th inning HR), then, fine, play him. But don't rest Peralta and Avila AND Maggs. That's too much firepower on the bench.

It's like Leyland threw up the white flag before the first pitch was thrown.

Not surprisingly, the Tiger hitters struggled. They struck out 9 times. Cabrera and Martinez managed five hits between them, but the rest of the lineup went 4 for 27 (.148) - all singles. It was a blah game on the heels of three awesome, heart-pulsing wins. Perhaps Leyland's own heart couldn't take another squeaker, so he assured a loss?