Now That's a Comeback

Photo: Leon Halip (Getty Images)

As it turns out, I did manage to get out of work a couple hours early (though I had a vague sense of what was going on when I left). Unfortunately, since the Red Wings were on FSD, the Tigers got shifted to FSD+, which is BCSN (a local sports channel) on my cable provider, and they decided to air the Toledo Walleye hockey game instead (You might be familiar with the Walleye as the ECHL affiliate of the Red Wings, which I read somewhere is the equivalent of Double A). As a result, I listened to the whole remainder of the game on the radio (though it occurred to me hours later that since my cable provider also carries Sports Time Ohio, I could have always watched the Indians broadcast). I have watched the archived game on MLB.tv, but I wasn’t paying attention 100% to it. At any rate, I’d like to get more of what Verlander did innings 2-5 than what happened in the first inning. He probably should have stayed in for one more batter, since Peralta’s done virtually nothing against him in his career, but maybe it was a question of pitch count. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t seem all that concerned.

For all the talk about stranding baserunners, the Tigers did score at least one run in each inning I was able to listen to. The RBIs are all kind of spread around so there’s not really one particular hitting hero, though Maggs continues to sting the ball. As for the ninth inning…do you realize that the last swing the Tigers took was Inge’s groundout to short? Santiago never took the bat off his shoulders. Same for Damon and Sizemore. They didn’t have to. And here’s your first broom of the season:

So now that we’ve sent Cleveland packing with their tails between their legs, it’s time to see the Royals again, only this time without Zack Greinke. This afternoon it’ll be Max Scherzer against Luke Hochevar. The last time they met, they got locked into an epic pitching duel. I’m not going to go over their numbers again because I just did that last week. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to tire of all these day games, mostly because I keep having to miss most of them.