Then Again, It IS the West Coast

A busy day yesterday prevented me from blogging about Wednesday’s game until now, although I can’t really delve into details since I only saw pretty much the top of the first inning and that’s it. But on the west coast, a lot of times up is down, black is white, front is back, and Ryan Perry is a bad pitcher. For shame, too, because I’ve heard Jeremy Bonderman pitched quite a good game. I caught wind of a 4-1 score in the seventh and thought that this one was in the bag. Apparently it wasn’t. At any rate, I heard we also got a 2-run shot from Magglio, and the rookies had themselves a good time at the plate as well. Someone (I can’t remember who) pointed out that this was a series in which each team’s best hitter was essentially a non-factor at the plate. Miguel Cabrera wasn’t there, and Ichiro went 0-for-9.

And so now the Tigers are finally back home and finished with going to the west coast (and in the minds of most experts, their most difficult part of the season is over with). They aren’t done with the AL West though. First up on this homestand is a four-game series with the Athletics, who scored quite a few runs in their just-completed series with the Orioles. Up until that point, they had not been a particularly good road team. At any rate, the Tigers will have all their starters except Gio Gonzalez, and in turn, they’ll see everyone except Jeremy Bonderman. Tonight’s starting pitcher is Dontrelle Willis (and by unfortunate coincidence, this means you’re likely to hear a lot of bad-taste Gary Coleman jokes, so I’ll spare you). D-Train is coming off a somewhat mediocre start against the Dodgers in which he started out okay but then faltered and hit a batter with the bases loaded. Things snowballed from there. Anyways, he’s faced the A’s once as a Tiger (at least), and walked a bunch of them, if I remember correctly. Other than that, he doesn’t have a lot of history against A’s batters. Just as Dontrelle Willis was once the ace of the Florida Marlins, Ben Sheets was once the ace of the Milwaukee Brewers. He started off this year not pitching that well (as his high earned run average will attest to), but he has been better lately. Six Tigers have faced him before, but only two have more than ten at-bats against him, both guys that spent quite a bit of time in the National League. Adam Everett is 12-for-34 with a double and a home run off Sheets, which is probably why he’s in the lineup tonight. Miguel Cabrera, is, well, 3-for-18 with ten strikeouts. Yikes. Still, it’s nice to see Cabrera’s name in the lineup again. Carlos Guillen is also back off the DL, and so the entire Venezuelan contingent is whole for the first time this season.