This is Officially a Problem

I suppose I should have specified that I wanted Edwin Jackson to pitch deep into the game in an effective manner. He went seven innings, but he couldn’t keep the Blue Jays in the ballpark. Then again, neither could anyone else, except Brandon Lyon and he had his own issues (though I’m fairly certain that Laird would have been able to block that ball). And Brandon Lyon is officially the last of the pitching staff to fall. I did not see Jackson at all, so I can’t really elaborate. Meanwhile, Rodney in a non-save situation is just asking for trouble. You weren’t really expecting him to get out of it two nights in a row, were you? There’s been kind of a big deal made about the fact that once Cabrera hit the three-run homer, the Tigers didn’t do anything until getting two hits in the ninth. Now, if they had scored all six runs in the first and then didn’t do anything except let the Blue Jays chip away, I could see their point a bit better. But Cabrera’s home run came in the fifth. That’s not exactly early. It’s not late, either, but when you score six runs, you should win.

Now today there’s gonna be an awful lot of pressure on Rick Porcello to straighten out the pitching staff, but he’s technically the one who started all the problems in the first place. He had problems holding down the Royals and gave up four runs in five innings, which marked the beginning of everyone’s downward spiral. He faced the Blue Jays in his Major League debut, also giving up four runs in five innings. His opponent that day was the same guy who will oppose him today: lefty Ricky Romero. Both were making strong cases for Rookie of the Year, and both are in search of their 13th win. Romero has struggled recently as well. Jim Leyland will once again try the same lineup that he used on Friday.