Blech

So much for starting the second half off on the right foot. Max Scherzer battled command problems most of the night, but it was really odd the way he went about it, because I think he got ahead of the first four hitters that he walked. Again, lead protection was an issue, since the Tigers led 1-0. Robbie Weinhardt and Brad Thomas had issues, although there was nary a hard-hit ball up until the Austin Kearns home run. Meanwhile, the first couple innings against Jake Westbrook looked really good, because they ran his pitch count up quickly, but after that it kind of fizzled. There were too many swings and misses from guys who don’t swing and miss that often. However, one guy who did look sharp was Austin Jackson, who had really long at-bats in three of his four plate appearances. However, my attention was divided between Tigers and Mud Hens. It’s been an eventful week for Armando Galarraga. Since he was at the ESPYs on Wednesday night, I guess the Tigers decided it would not be a good idea for him to start Thursday after taking a red-eye (I did not know this, and upon getting home from work I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the score). He was supposed to start last night (while being on a pitch count, since the plan is still to call him up Tuesday), so I was really confused when his line got replaced by Scot Drucker in the box score. As it turns out, his flight got delayed and he didn’t land in Scranton until 6:00 (I’m not sure why they didn’t have him fly into Scranton the day before, though). So after all that, he finally got into the game in relief, pitching three scoreless innings against a good team (I daresay the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees could possibly be better than some of the bottom-feeders in the majors). Hopefully no more weird stuff happens and he can rejoin the Detroit rotation as planned (and stay in the Detroit rotation, of course).

Today’s a busy day with a day-night doubleheader. In the first game, Justin Verlander squares off against Fausto Carmona. Verlander, unlike his fellow rotation members, got in a bit of work when he pitched a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game, so hopefully he will not be as rusty as Scherzer was. Meanwhile, Fausto Carmona was the Indians’ lone All-Star, but he never made an appearance, and the last time the Tigers saw him, he was the losing pitcher in Armando Galarraga’s perfect game. However, it’s not like he pitched badly in that game. The final score was 3-0 and Carmona went the distance while only throwing 94 pitches (marking one of those rare occasions where both starting pitchers threw complete games of less than 100 pitches each). In the second game, Rick Porcello will be called up to make the spot start (although there have been hints that he might stay up; one of Porcello, Oliver, and Galarraga will be squeezed out). He last started last Saturday, and looked pretty good with seven shutout innings (I was at that game). Meanwhile, Mitch Talbot has been one of the most consistent starters for the Indians, although I often hear he’s due for “regression to the mean” from the stat geeks. I’d like to do a blog post on each game, but that’s not going to happen, since I work 11-7, so there will be just one blog covering both games. I wonder what the guys in the bullpen will be doing between games this time. Probably carving their numbers into their chests or something like that.