Making up for lost time, Miggy? Miguel Cabrera hit two home runs on the first two pitches he saw since flying home this week to be with his wife during the birth of a daughter. Trailing by two in the ninth inning, Cabrera added one more for the first three-homer game of his career.
Unfortunately, his teammates were not nearly as proficient. Cabrera's home runs accounted for all four of Detroit's tallies.
Whoops. Well that's the end of the happy-time portion of this post.
So we have two issues of which to speak.
The freshest one on our minds is that the plan to get Ryan Perry a good feeling after his implosion during his appearance on Wednesday failed. He didn't implode per se. But he left the bases loaded in the ninth inning after allowing a double, being asked to intentionally walk a batter and then hitting the next one. Bullpen-mates Fu Te Ni and Joel Zumaya did him no favors either.
If you want to assign blame, go ahead and give it there or to Cabrera's teammates in the lineup. It was a team effort, really.
This does go to further prove the point that just because the manager changes relief pitchers when one doesn't have his stuff something good will happen. There are no guarantees. No matter how you play it, fans will be disappointed with a loss.
The other issue is Dontrelle Willis. He pitched more or less like he always does. Too many runners get on base. Some of them score. He still nearly comes away from the game with a quality start and gets a free pass from those who want to give him one.
But he gave up nine hits and four walks in 5-1/3 innings. That is not good.
Period.
This month he's allowed 17 walks and 23 hits in 19.1 innings. That is not good.
Clearly, when the Tigers decide to get Max Scherzer back in the rotation -- that can't come soon enough -- Willis must be removed from it.
I feel like I've written this post before. Well, the Willis half of it, anyway.
But it needs to be said again and again and again because it happens again and again and again. The Tigers give veterans far too many chances to repeatedly fail even if better options are out there. It cost them last year when they came up a game short. It'll cost them again.
Right now, the people who are sick and tired of Adam Everett and Brandon Inge are nodding their heads in furious agreement.
If the goal this year was to spend a lot of money -- they've got that part down -- and compete to win the division, it's a successful goal. If the goal was actually to win the division, the management of the club has to stop playing veterans who have a track record of failure.
The Tigers have now lost five of their last six.
When they're watching the Twins play in the ALDS again in October, you'll know why.
Bullets!
- Carlos Guillen was deserving of his move to second base. He looked fine in all his opportunities and, I suspect, will not have any issues there as long as he stays healthy.
- Armando Galarraga pitched in relief of Willis despite being the scheduled starter Sunday. During his postgame interview, Jim Leyland said Galarraga is still scheduled to start Sunday.
- The bottom three in the lineup went 1-for-10. That's 1-for-4 for Brandon Inge, including the last out. 0-for-3 for Alex Avila including a GIDP. 0-for-2 for Adam Everett, and 0-for-1 for Ramon Santiago in place of him.
- The last 3-homer game by a Tigers player was Dmitri Young on Opening Day in 2005.
- Ugh. What a frustrating week of baseball.