Yet again, it was too little, too late for the Tigers. Yet again, it was letting a pitcher who hasn't started the season off all that well look like Cy Young. Yet again, the Tigers give up the big inning and get sunk by it. And yet again, the bullpen doesn't help matters.
Yup. Just another game in Detroit. Unfortunately, that makes a third loss in a row for the Tigers. It was not a great way to start off 13 consecutive games against Central Division opponents.
I'm re-arranging things in tonight's recap to reflect the order of operations tonight.
Whimper
Tigers starter Armando Galarraga didn't look very good right from the start of the game, which was delayed 43 minute due to rain. The Indians failed to score in the first inning, but they didn't miss their opportunity in the second, as they put four runs on the board. Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera made an ugly play in the midst of the Tribe's scoring run. He looked to second, then threw to first, tossing the ball over Galarraga's head. An Indians' home run in the fourth made it 5-0. All this came before the Tigers got their first hit of the game off Cleveland starter Carl Pavano. Tigers reliever Nate Robertson pitched three innings for the Tigers, but allowed what would turn out to be a costly run in the seventh.
Roar
Just as it looked like everything was awful, the Tigers avoided the shutout by sneaking in a run in the eighth inning. Then another. Then Cabrera homered for the first time since April 15 to make the game 6-5. Wow! We had ourselves a baseball game. ... Two other bright points involved Brandon Inge. He singled to get on base for a 22nd straight game -- out of a possible 22 -- in the eighth, and earlier he made a nice sliding web-gem quality catch.
Turning point
The Tigers had the momentum going into the ninth, but Indians closer Kerry Wood made short work of that with a 1-2-3 inning.
Comment of the game
This came courtesy of dettigionswings'stons after the game:
too little
too late
yet again