As always, you could be forgiven for starting to worry if things were unraveling for Dontrelle Willis. In the second inning he'd already allowed three walks, three hits and two runs. The weather was deteriorating. It would have been a perfect time for him to come unraveled.
But you know what? He didn't. He got 12 consecutive batters out between the second inning and a double off the bat of JJ Hardy in the sixth. Again and again, he's tamping down the doubts that may arise within himself, but especially that arise among the fans.
Good for him. Actually, great for him. We all want to see Willis a success and I'm glad he is managing to do so well. It wasn't a pretty start, but he salvaged what started off as a bad one and gave his team a chance to win it.
Unfortunately, they didn't walk through that door.
The Venezuelans came through in the fourth inning for the Tigers to tie it up at 2-2 anyway. Magglio Ordonez and Miguel Cabrera hit back-to-back singles.
In the sixth, the double Willis allowed came around to score, but the Tigers were not done.
Brennan Boesch blasted a home run in the ninth to tie the game at 3-3.
Then the evil happened in the bottom half of the inning. Austin Jackson may have misplayed a hit by JJ Hardy -- can't blame him for being unfamiliar with how it might bounce at Target Field, of course -- into a triple with one out. Ryan Perry and Alex Avila teamed up to let him score on a wild pitch.
The field may have gone from indoors to out, but the Tigers still found a strange way to lose in Minnesota.
Oh well, I guess. This game was really the least of a Michigan sports fan's worries tonight.