Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That pretty much describes the offense over the weekend. Dontrelle Willis was definitely not as sharp as he was against Texas, walking four and falling behind hitters a lot, but give him credit for hanging in there. Similar to Galarraga on Saturday, he didn’t let the game get away from him, and with any kind of respectable run support, he could’ve won. Really, with the exception of last Sunday’s game against Oakland, the pitching was pretty decent on the homestand.

Meanwhile, the offense went from blazing to pretty much bottom-of-the-tank, as was evidenced over the past two days. Jim Leyland even tried to shake things up by using the speedster lineup yesterday. The problem was that none of the speedsters got on base. Anderson, Santiago, Thomas, and Granderson all went hitless (though Clete did draw a walk at one point). In fact, the only hit to come out of the first five hitters was a single by Cabrera. On most days, that’s just not gonna get it done. The only one who had a good series was Magglio, and while he’s not quite all the way back yet, he IS hotter than some of the guys further up in the lineup. Perhaps it’s almost time to move him back to the 3-slot?

While it ended on kind of a sour note, a 7-2 homestand is nothing to sneeze at, and now it’s time to hit the road for what could be a difficult road trip. First up is Kansas City, and while the Royals are only at .500, their pitching’s still been pretty solid and they are only 3 games out of first place (that’s what all those rainouts have done). Justin Verlander was not quite as dominant as he has been. He still pitched very well, but the Rangers made him work for it. He has good numbers against KC in his career. Then again, Gil Meche has good numbers against the Tigers in HIS career. He’s had some issues with back spasms recently that have caused him to not pitch as effectively as he had been early in the season, but they apparently weren’t bothering him in his last start and he always seems to pitch well against the Tigers. From what I know about him, he throws a lot of elevated fastballs, and I know for a fact that the Tigers as a group have a tough time laying off the elevated fastball. Your Mood Music for today: This is gonna sound dumb, but up until this morning, I did not even know there was a song about Kansas City. But there is, so I’ve decided to use it. This video is from a live performance of the song by the Beatles back in 1964, and it’s hard to hear the song at times because it gets drowned out by screaming girls, but it’s the best I could come up with. Happy Memorial Day, everyone!