Monday, September 14, 2009

And THIS Streak Ends At Five


Photo: AP

Rick Porcello was the one who started this mess, and he was the one to clean it up. Fitting enough, I suppose. It was all there yesterday: pitching, good defense, and timely hitting. In addition to some decent pitching for Porcello (who actually got an uncharacteristically high number of fly ball outs), Zach Miner, Brandon Lyon, and Fernando Rodney were pretty steady as well. Meanwhile, the Tigers did okay against Ricky Romero. It wasn’t a great offensive display, but the nice thing was the two two-out RBIs from Gerald Laird. And the add-on runs in the eighth courtesy of Aubrey Huff and Brandon Inge certainly helped. Meanwhile, Miguel Cabrera was seemingly feeling real good with his legs. He even stole a base. Now if we could just do something about the atrocious logos…

Boy, it sure feels like today’s an off-day, doesn’t it? But it’s not. It’s the last game in this series, and the last game against a non-Central opponent. This was originally scheduled to be a big Verlander-Halladay showdown, but Halladay has been pushed back a day, so instead the Blue Jays are starting David Purcey. The Tigers haven’t done much against Purcey in his career (except walk a lot), although Edwin Jackson outpitched him in the second game of the season (it was a game the Tigers eventually lost). Meanwhile, Verlander is coming off a loss to the Royals in which he only gave up one run in six innings, but it was a battle to do that. The Blue Jays are a better offense than the Royals. Justin has not fared well against the Blue Jays in his career, either, though that only encompasses two starts (last August and Opening Day this year). The Blue Jays can hit fastballs. One thing that we might be keeping an eye on is the bullpen. Rodney’s suspension was cut to two games, and he’ll start serving it tonight. Normally, you’d just stick Lyon in to get the save, but he’s pitched for three days straight and Leyland wanted to give him a rest as well, so I don’t know what they’re planning on doing.

No comments:

Post a Comment