(Courtesy of Fangraphs.com)
Earned a Lecture from Leyland: Jonesy 0.1 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, -.791 WPA
This is one of those losses I'd rather not speak of -- Jones looked ridiculously overmatched by the bottom of the Devil Rays lineup in the ninth, and come to think of it, so did the others in the pen that made appearances this evening. This entire group is becoming a problem for the Tigers, as it seems night in and night out that this offense either has to produce a large amount of runs or the starting pitcher has to go at least eight innings ... if either of these things do not happen, we see disappointing results.
This really was a good performance out of Chad Durbin tonight. He held a relatively low pitch-count throughout the contest and got a lot of big outs when they were needed. Outside of the passed ball, there wasn't too much to complain about in this one from our starting pitcher. I'm very disappointed to see Chad not pick up his fifth win of the season. He definitely deserved it after tonight's outing in Tampa Bay.
This was a gutsy performance out of the Rays ... the Tigers failed to plate any insurance runs late and the opposition took advantage of it. While our lineup did a great job of getting starter Edwin Jackson out of the game after throwing A LOT of pitches, they still weren't able to take advantage of a Tampa Bay bullpen that could easily be the worst in the league. That and they struck out nine times against a guy who had a 7.78 ERA coming into tonight's contest. No offense to the Rays, but the Tigers should be scoring more than five runs against a combination of Jackson, Orvella, Stokes and Glover.
Again, good job of fighting back by the Rays tonight. The Tigers were in the position to win this game. They either needed to A.) score some runs in the later innings against a vulnerable bullpen or B.) hold the lead with the bullpen. They did neither, Jones blew the lead, and the Tigers now are down 1-0 in this series and are on a four-game losing streak.
Tough loss. The Tigers have a good matchup tomorrow as Bonderman faces Fossum, but of course I thought tonight's game was going to be a great matchup as well.
Up Next: Tomorrow night vs. Rays, 7:05 pm EST