Dontrelle Willis pitched with his typical mixed results. But Chad Billingsley shut down the Tigers' offense so it didn't matter what Willis did.
Willis controlled the game well enough the first few innings. It was the fourth inning that started the mess. A two-out hit, followed by a pair of walks, followed by a hit batter -- officially, anyway -- resulted in the Dodgers tying the game at 1-1.
In the fifth, a walk and double indicated Willis might be losing it. Either losing his stuff or composure, it's hard to tell with him sometimes. That was followed up by a wild pitch and an infield single for another pair of runs.
A couple of more singles in the sixth -- Jim Leyland must have been trying hard to preserve his bullpen, because the previous two innings were reason to worry -- ended Willis' day.
I wouldn't say he was bad. I wouldn't say he was good. I would say he was Dontrelle Willis, and it didn't matter what he did because his team struggled to score runs anyway.
That's because Billingsley allowed just six baserunnners in seven innings. Two, three and four in the lineup failed to produce, and the bottom half of the lineup did absolutely nothing as usual. Oh, and Austin Jackson of course had two hits. Otherwise, it was a pretty punchless, bland game from Detroit's side of things.
Oh well. At least the late game is out of the way. Time to get some sleep -- finally -- and do it all over again.
Update:
Casper Wells was optioned to Toledo. Ryan Raburn is recalled. (Jason Beck tweet.)