Yes, THAT Gerald Laird.
Laird went deep in the 2nd inning, his stunning, shocking, and out of nowhere two run homer staked the Tigers to a lead they would never relinquish...thanks to Max Scherzer.
After last night's loss, Jim Leyland said one thing would end the losing streak:
"But it's a matter of some pitcher going out and sticking it to the other team."
It wasn't pretty, he had to pitch out of a couple jams, and threw 123 (!) pitches, but Scherzer did just that. He stuck it to the first place Rangers. They could only manage four hits, while Scherzer was shutting out the Rangers powerful offense over seven innings.
After seven torturous losses, Scherzer pitching like a top of the rotation stopper was EXACTLY what the Tigers needed.
In fact, it was EXACTLY what a fanbase getting ready to hop off the bandwagon needed. All may not be well, but all isn't as bad as many of us were making it out to be.
So the losing streak is over. The Tigers remain tied with the Twins for second in the Central, and gain a half game on the first place White Sox, ending their night at three games back (It could be 2.5 games if the Mariners' King Felix beats the Sox in Seattle tonight).
After the past week of crap piled on top of suck, I'll take it.
As to explain Jose Valverde's odd case of extreme wildness in the ninth, not even he could do it. Interviewed on Fox Sports Detroit's post game, Papa Grande could only say...
"I don't know what happened."
Well...that's reassuring.
The Big Potato somehow got out of the ninth inning giving up only one run. I hope we don't see that version of Valverde ever again. Scared the Hell out of me...
But Valverde's wild ride is only a postscript on the Tigers finally getting off the schneid. A win is a win, and this Tigers team needed one in the worst way.