Deep But Not Enough

Short post, because I have to leave very quickly. Well, at least we finally had a starter go seven innings. I didn’t see as much of the beginning of this game as I wanted to because I was bouncing between it and another show. At any rate, Justin Verlander said that his fastball command was off but his offspeed stuff was working. Whatever it was, he recovered from a 28-pitch first inning to last seven. However, it still wasn’t enough. Justin only had one walk, but it was a leadoff walk to Milton Bradley that he couldn’t get away with. I’m not sure what all the hating on Gerald Laird was after this game. He gunned down Jack Wilson and made two more close (Seriously, Pudge couldn’t have done any better). I actually thought Milton Bradley was out (and the fact that it was close was impressive enough cuz Laird had to dig that ball out of the dirt), but Santiago was behind Bradley when he caught the ball and therefore the umpire was not gonna be able to see the tag. I was not surprised that the offense didn’t do much against Ryan Rowland-Smith, but I am wondering how Scott Sizemore did NOT beat out that double play ball. He’s not necessarily a burner, but he’s no Sean Casey either, and that play took a really long time to develop.

Today, the Tigers will look to avoid getting swept at the hands of the Mariners. Max Scherzer will be up against Ian Snell. Snell struck out 17 Mud Hens in a game once last year. Scherzer only has numbers against Casey Kotchman, Jack Wilson, and Chone Figgins, and Wilson’s the only one with a hit off him, but that’s way too small a sample size to determine anything. I’d love to give more information, but I’m leaving to go see Wicked right now (literally). As such, I will miss the beginning of this game.