This results of this game reminds me of weight lifting. For the past five weeks, the Tigers have been challenging themselves against heavier and heavier weights. The Angels. The White Sox. The Rangers. The Red Sox. The Rays. The Yankees. Sure, they haven't been able to get a lot of repetitions in, but they've managed to get the bar up a few times.
Suddenly, they find themselves facing the Indians. Sure the Indians swept them in Cleveland just after the All-Star Break, but suddenly they feel a lot more manageable compared to the past couple of weeks' worth of games, don't they?
So suddenly we've got Armando Galarraga trying to shed the "almost" from his officially imperfect perfect game. Picking up where he left off on June 2 at 28 batters mowed down, Galarraga added 14 more consecutively. That's right. He went 4-2/3 perfect innings to open the game. Wow. Unfortunately, Jayson Nix's double went just a bit too far for Donnie Kelly to catch up to it, ending the best drama of the game right there. Still, today marked the first time since that fateful June 2 that the Tigers shut out an opponent.
Meanwhile Detroit got 16 hits in eight innings, and led Cleveland by a comfortable 5-0 margin by the end fifth inning. Highlights? Don Kelly went 4-for-4, his first four-hit game. Brandon Inge was 3-for-3. Austin Jackson added three hits, Will Rhymes two. Even Miguel Cabrera smacked in MLB-leading RBI No. 101.
By the way, for comparison? Cleveland has just three hits for the day.
So maybe it wasn't the most dramatic game. You didn't have to sit chewing your nails until out 28 27. But it sure was an enjoyable change from the past couple of weeks, wasn't it? Maybe that heavy-lifting will pay off yet.