Earned His Tiger Stripes: Rogers 6.0 IP, 2 H, 5 Ks, 0 BB
That Kenny Rogers guy is pretty good isn't he? Six shutout innings of work last night, only allowing two hits and striking out five. If you go back to last year's playoffs Rogers has thrown 29 straight shutout innings, only giving up 11 hits in the process (illegal substance allegations aside).
And it was the perfect time for him to come back and extend that scoreless innings streak; The Braves were coming into the game having been shutout in two straight games. Their offense is in a disastrous slump right now as they have faced the Red Sox and Tigers in consecutive series -- not the kind of teams you want to face when you're not on top of your game.
The Tigers' offense wasn't too spectacular last evening either. That is, outside of the sixth inning. After John Smoltz only allowed two hits through the first five frames, the Tigers offense exploded for five runs on six hits. Ordonez, Guillen, Pudge and Inge all drove in runs in the inning -- as it turns out, that's all the Tigers needed in this one.
The only negative of the night was seeing Maggs hit by a pitch in the eighth inning. What looked like a fastball that got away from Chad Paronto plunked him directly on the wrist, creating a scary moment in which Miguel Tejada's recent wrist fracture automatically came to mind. Luckily for us, x-rays after the game turned up negative and our MVP is expected to be in the lineup today.
Up Next: Today vs. Atlanta, 3:55 pm EST