Word of warning: I'm in bitter fan mode tonight.
Can it really be considered a true no-hitter when the Tigers' lineup is chock full of rookies, backups, and should be Mud Hens? Well, in the minds of Matt Garza and the Rays after their 5-0 win, it is...
Garza retired the final 22 Tigers in order, ultimately no-hitting the Detroit Mud Hens Tigers.
Garza had great stuff, facing the bare minimum 27 batters, only walking one...but he was facing an undermanned and under talented team decimated by injury.
The Tiger' lineup included rookies Austin Jackson, Will Rhymes, Brennan Boesch, and Danny Worth. Also playing were backups Ryan Raburn and Gerald Laird. Backup Ramon Santiago pinch hit...making the last out. Miguel Cabrera and Johnny Damon were the only Tigers in the lineup you could consider both a veteran and/or not a backup.
If I"m head moron in standing commissioner Bud Lite Selig, I'd add an asterisk. Not that adding an asterisk after a players name because of the circumstance involved would ever happen in the MLB record book, right?
When your starting lineup is full of Triple A players & backups, being no-hit is bound to happen.
When your 3, 6 and 7 hitters are on the DL, and you're throwing replacements on the field who would never have been there otherwise if circumstances weren't absolutely dire, being no-hit is bound to happen.
Hell, when you have .182 hitting Gerald Laird starting, the chances of being no-hit increases exponentially.
The weird part of the night (Yes, it gets weirder) was Max Scherzer going pitch for pitch with Garza, no-hitting the Rays for 5 2/3 innings. Unfortunately, his no-hit stuff was tainted with wildness. Scherzer walked two in the 6th (four overall), with a catcher's interference call against Laird sandwiched in-between, loaded the bases. They were then unloaded by former Tiger Matt Joyce, whose drive clanged off the right field foul pole.
That was the game right there, as a Tigers team contaminated with Mud Hens couldn't do a damn thing with Garza.
The pressure of having to juggle a gimped roster may be getting to Jim Leyland (or he was going into nicotine withdrawal, it's hard to tell), as he was tossed in the 3rd inning arguing an incorrect call. The umpires blowing a call against the Tigers? Who saw that coming?
2nd base umpire Marty Foster called the Rays' B.J. Upton safe on a steal attempt. As has been the case all season on close calls, replays showed Foster blew the call...Upton was out. Leyland proceeded to go ballistic/postal/crazy, getting himself tossed.
At least he didn't have to witness Garza manhandling his team.
For the historians out there, this was the first no-hitter against the Tigers in 20 years. The Mariners' Randy Johnson tossed a no-hitter against the Tigers in June, 1990.
It sucked then, it sucks now.
So the Tigers were hitless wonders. What has been a horrible stretch of luck got that much worse. But tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow is another game. The same Tigers who beat the Jays Sunday could just as easily beat the Rays Tuesday.
I'm not going to give up on this team just yet. They are only three games out of 1st place. Any team with Miguel Cabrera has a puncher's chance. There's also improvement to be had at the trade deadline. No-hitter be damned, this was only one game of 162.
Just. One. Game.
But my mindset has changed in one way.
I don't want anyone in the game of baseball with the last name of "Joyce" anywhere near the Tigers.