What a Relief...For the Tigers

My take on Dontrelle Willis? Not all that bad, actually. He had to deal with quite a few baserunners, but call it luck or call it smarts, he was able to get double play balls each time. Strangely enough, he only had trouble in the odd-numbered innings. In the even-numbered innings, the Royals went 1-2-3. And he only walked two, although you can’t exactly say he was pounding the strike zone. However, very few of his pitches were of the “knock the catcher over” variety that became so common with him in the past couple years. He was definitely missing the strike zone a lot, but not as wildly. But if he can repeat that type of performance for most of his starts, I’ll be happy with that. Ryan Perry had some strike-throwing problems of his own, and it ended up costing him a run, but by then the Tigers had already taken the lead. And Jose Valverde finally had a non-adventurous outing.

The Tigers didn’t do much against Brian Bannister, which is not real surprising when you consider his track record against them. Magglio did homer off him, but that was pretty much it. And then the KC bullpen came in. The Tigers’ production against the starters versus the relievers is dramatically different. Miguel Cabrera took care of that 2-1 deficit with one swing of the bat. He’s off to a good start, as are the other two members of the Venezuelan contingent. I’d like to see some more walks out of Austin Jackson, but he’s doing fine with the batting average so far.

And now it is time for the 2010 Tigers to make their Comerica Park debut. The Cleveland Indians are in town for the home opener, and I’ve still got a feeling that they should not be underestimated. They just took two of three from the much more heavily-favored White Sox, and their pitching wasn’t bad in the two games they won. They’ll be starting lefty David Huff in this game. He was in the Indians’ rotation for most of last year, but somehow he did not face the Tigers. As such, none of our guys have a history against him (I thought Johnny Damon might, but apparently he never faced the Yankees, either). Rick Porcello gets the honor of starting the home opener for the Tigers. He probably had the best spring of all the Tigers’ starters. And he does have a history against the Indians, and it’s a pretty good one. Really the only Indians who have hit him well are Jhonny Peralta and Travis Hafner (who is the only Indian to have homered off him). Unfortunately, I’ll miss the beginning of this game (stupid exam). As a matter of fact, I’m going to miss a lot of this homestand, due to school and work. At any rate, your Mood Music for today: Well, you can’t get much more appropriate than “The Boys Are Back in Town.”