If you don't watch the Tigers on the regional FOX Sports Detroit telecast, you might not have seen the Meijer commercial with the little girl taste-testing spinach. (Here's a clip of it.) But if you have, you know how that girl feels about eating her vegetables. Tonight, I think she'd have had the same reaction to the Tigers' offense.
Uuuuch!
Detroit's lineup is strugg-a-ling, and they're just not that much fun to watch right now. And it was bad with Miguel Cabrera in the lineup. With him on the bench because of that hamstring he tweaked yesterday, the lineup card Jim Leyland filled out looked pretty ugly. (Lee detailed it nicely, over at Tiger Tales.) For the Tigers to have a chance to win tonight, Justin Verlander was going to have pitch a great game.
Roar:
The good news for the Tigers: Verlander did pitch well. Picking up right where he left off in May as AL Pitcher of the Month, he shut out the Angels for eight innings, giving up just four hits, with seven strikeouts and four walks. After three sub-par efforts from the starting rotation over the past three days, and the aforementioned less-than-stellar lineup, Verlander gave his team exactly what it needed. Any kind of offense - any kind at all - probably would've given him and the Tigers a win tonight. Unfortunately...
Whimper:
That lineup performed about as badly as expected. (Could it have actually been worse?) Six hits on the night. And two of those were in the ninth inning. (The Tigers have been good at creating ninth-inning rallies this week, but still need some work on finishing them.) Ervin Santana really wasn't pushed that hard. Going into the ninth, he'd thrown 90 pitches. And until that inning, Detroit hadn't gotten a runner past second base. (EDIT: Jen from Old English D corrected me on this in the comments. The Tigers had runners on third in the fifth and sixth innings.)
Santana had more trouble with a nosebleed - one that required him to stick a cotton plug in his right nostril through the entire game - than he did with the Tigers' batting order.
Comment of the Night:
Is it bad that when I walk into the drug store on gamedays
The pharmacist says “The usual?” and hands me some valium and a 12 pack? I really oughta look into that.
by YakAttack