No Rainbows This Time

Quick post today, as I have to go to work shortly. Last year on Fiesta Tigres, it rained a lot before the game, which gave way to an incredible-looking rainbow during the game (I was at that game, and that’s where the profile picture comes from). This year, it rained a lot before the game and that was probably the highlight of the night. Justin Verlander simply continued the trend of Tigers not pitching well against the Twins (and with that, the entire pitching save is now guilty of this at one point or another this season, save Jarrod Washburn). The odd thing was that it was not your typical JV-type of struggle. Usually when he’s struggling, he walks more people, everyone has long at-bats against him, he can’t put hitters away, and the pitch count climbs rapidly. That didn’t really happen last night. Chris Lambert absorbed a lot of punishment in order to spare the bullpen, although eventually Zach Miner had to come in and bail him out (and probably pitched the best of any of the Tigers last night). Meanwhile, the offense continues to not solve Carl Pavano. If you listen to the game on the radio, the general attitude seems to not be “Why can’t the Tigers (and White Sox) solve this guy?” It’s more like “How come the rest of baseball has him figured out?” Whatever it is that he’s doing, it’s genuinely impressed Dan Dickerson and Jim Price (It’s also impressed Mario and Rod, but they seem to be more easily impressed by opposing pitchers than the radio side of things).

Today, the Tigers will try to take the series, and Jarrod Washburn seeks to bounce back from a bad outing in his Tigers debut. His lifetime numbers against Minnesota are generally good, with an ERA only a tad over 3.00, but remember, the Tigers have not pitched well against the Twins this year, and it doesn’t seem to matter who is on the mound. The Twins’ll send out Scott Baker, who has seen the Tigers once this year and cruised along until the Tigers erupted for five runs against him. The Tigers still lost that game because of some bad bullpen outings, and they haven’t seen Baker since. The game starts at 1:00, but I’ll be at work until 5:00, so it’s highly likely that it’ll be over before I get home. And oh yeah, it’s supposed to be really hot, so everyone better drink a lot of water and stay hydrated. We don’t need any hamstring cramps or injuries such as that.