A strange version of the Tigers battled the Rays last night at Tropicana field.
The Tigers were outhit 11-8. For most of the night, the Tigers were outpitched too. Yet, after Phil Coke got Zobrist to ground out to first base, the Tigers escaped with a 2-1 win, perhaps their most impressive road win of the season.
It wasn't great baseball, though. It was impressive because the Tigers beat a good team's ace, while playing without Boesch, Benoit, and Valverde. The Rays' David Price cruised most of the game. The Tigers finally broke free in the 7th. Delmon Young led off with a single, and then Cabrera got his first ever hit against Price - a souble to deep right. (Yes, I created a new hit specifically for Cabrera - the "souble". It's basically a double that's hit so hard that Cabrera doesn't have enough time to make it to 2nd base, so he's stuck with a single.) Delmon Young advanced to 3rd. V-Mart followed with a hard hit grounder to 3rd. Delmon was off on contact, and the Rays' easily threw him out at home. As I've said before, I've never seen a team thrown out so often at home. These guys got to stop running on contact. It's killing them. But it didn't kill them last night. Avila saved the day with an RBI single. Then Peralta hit a sac-fly, scoring V-Mart.
They got two runs off Price, while Penny somehow limited the Rays to 1. It was a bizarre game for Penny. The Rays got hits in every one of his innings but one. He fell behind almost every batter. Yet, he somehow escaped with just one earned run. It was reminiscent of Nate Robertson. The bulldog.
Leyland took out Penny with one on in the 7th. Schlereth notched one more out but then gave up a single and a walk to load the bases. No Alburquerque, no Benoit. So Leyland handed the ball to Ryan Perry, the wayward star from '09 who spent most of this season with Toledo. Facing another star from '09, Evan Longoria, Perry took his 6.29 ERA and got Longoria to pop out, ending the inning.
Coke took over from there. It wasn't any easier for him, though. In the 8th, Coke struck out the side but not before giving up a double and a walk. Then, in the 9th, he struck out two more but then gave up a double to Johnny Damon, an intentional walk to Longoria, and then allowed them to advance to 2nd and 3rd on a wild pitch. Leyland's ulcer went into overdrive, and you could see him begging Gene lamont for his Marlboro-flavored Tums. The Tigers survived, though, as Coke got Zobrist to ground out to Cabrera. Cabrera fielded the sharp grounder and narrowly beat Zobrist on a foot-race to first. Game over. And the Tigers pulled off a strange win by somehow limiting the Rays to just one run despite giving up 11 hits.
I should note, though, that Honeymoon's over for Brandon Inge. The guy who .182 for the season resurfaced last night. Inge had two chances to tack-on runs. He came up with two men on in the 7th and struck out. The Rays walked Raburn to get to Inge. Then in the 9th, with the bases loaded, Inge popped out. Still, his defense was solid. I'd prefer for Inge to come on only when the Tigers have a lead, as a defensive replacement, but I guess we'll have to live with him platooning with Betemit. After a win like last night (when the Tigers were mostly outplayed), I'm not going to complain a ton.
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