Third Time's Not a Charm

So the Tigers got swept. It sucks and yet it does not carry the emotional hollowness that it should, for some reason (You know that feeling, even though every team gets swept at some point). It’s got more of a “shit happens, let’s move on” kind of feel. This is the third year in a row that the Tigers got swept in their first series in Minnesota. Rick Porcello looked about the same as he did against the Angels, with the exception of the fact that he walked more people (4 walks is excessive for him, so for now it’s an outlier). He was getting plenty of ground balls, but not getting away with any mistakes (Those of you clamoring for Toledo might want to know that Armando Galarraga is currently being shelled by the Norfolk Tides, much to my great sadness). The Boesch error was a costly one, though (Why can’t our corner outfielders catch the ball? I was repeatedly told that Johnny Damon would do that all the time and yet he hasn’t done it yet, but Raburn and Boesch have each done it twice).

On offense it was the Cabrera and Avila show, but there was no one on base to enjoy it. Those of you who live in Michigan can enjoy some free curly fries as consolation. I still haven’t figured out if that promotion is good for Arby’s in NW Ohio. As a minor note, I’m starting to think that abdominal strain is bothering Magglio more than he’s admitted. It just doesn’t seem like he’s hitting as well as he was beforehand.

The Tigers FINALLY got their much-needed off-day today (I was so used to baseball every single day that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself). Now they head to Cleveland for a three-game series to wind up the road trip before a challenging homestand. Cleveland just got swept by the Blue Jays, so one of these teams will be forced to get hot. Jeremy Bonderman still has a rather unsightly ERA, but that really stems from one bad start. He’s done a good job in all his other starts. I did not see his last start against the Angels, but the line score looked decent enough. And he won his other start against Cleveland this year. The Indians will counter with David Huff, whom the Tigers saw in the home opener this year. They beat him, but only because of some major defense fail on the part of the Indians. He had been one of their better pitchers this year but I’ve noticed his ERA has been creeping upwards. As for me, I’ll be at work during the beginning of the game, and I’ll have my (brief) Ernie Harwell piece up tomorrow.