Take That, Big Fox!

Photo: AP

Well, Fox was all ready to wrap things up there in the ninth inning. They had given out their “Clutch Performer of the Game” award, and they were busy rattling off the names of all their producers. But Curtis Granderson had something to say about that, and that something was a game-tying, RBI double. But let’s rewind just a bit, shall we? Edwin Jackson sure had to battle his way through seven innings. He was not fooling a lot of guys, evidenced by the fact that he walked four, routinely fell behind hitters, and gave up a lot of hard-hit outs. And yet, somehow he managed to go seven innings and only give up three runs. That’s impressive, although I’d really like for him to regain his strike-throwing, dominant form for his next start against the Indians (who, all of a sudden, have gotten a lot of offense and good pitching this weekend, which is kinda scary). Meanwhile, the Tigers couldn’t do much against Gavin Floyd, as per usual (though Chris Rose’s mancrush on Floyd was getting really irritating by the seventh inning). There has been mention that this was only Bobby Jenks’s third blown save against the Tigers, but bear in mind that two of them have happened this year, and both times, Granderson was the one who dealt the game-tying blow. That’s kind of incredible when you realize that just a couple years ago, Granderson was, like, 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts against Jenks. Luck played its part, too. Guillen didn’t hit his game-winning single particularly well, but it found a hole. Hell, the only reason Guillen had the opportunity to deliver that single was because the White Sox only have one lefty in their bullpen right now, and Thornton had already been used, otherwise it would’ve been Magglio in that situation. At any rate, even though Guillen’s never been my favorite player, the guy can put together a long at-bat and can foul off some tough pitches.

By the way, that photo makes me giggle.

Yesterday’s win was big, in that it guarantees a few very important things. First, no matter what happens tonight, the Tigers will get on the plane to Arlington as a first-place team. Second, it guarantees that the Tigers will have won this series. Three out of four this weekend is an absolute dream come true, but why stop there? The Tigers might as well go for the sweep. And it looks as though ESPN has finally taken notice of the Tigers and given them a Sunday night game. I’m not sure how to feel about that, to tell you the truth. National recognition is nice, but the Tigers tend to not play very well on national television. Rick Porcello looked good for the first few innings of his last start before giving up a couple bombs to a couple of Seattle Mariners with really low batting averages. I guess we’ll find out whether that was due to rust or not. This’ll be the first time he’s ever faced the White Sox, and they’ve got a lot of guys who can hit bombs. Jon Danks was supposed to start tonight for the White Sox, but he’s been pushed to tomorrow with a blister problem, so they’re sending out lefty Clayton Richard instead. He has been struggling recently, and he’d be a lot easier to get to than Danks, but nothing’s ever truly easy on ESPN.