My thoughts on tonight's heartbreaking 2-1 loss to those damn Twins can be summed up in one word.
waste: /weɪst/ Show Spelled [weyst] verb,wast·ed, wast·ing, noun, adjective–verb (used with object)
1. To consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander: to waste a dominant Max Scherzer performance; to waste a marvelous Austin Jackson catch.
2. To fail or neglect to use: to waste an opportunity to score.
3. To destroy or consume gradually; wear away: The Tigers gradually waste my hopes for this season away.
4. To wear down or reduce in bodily substance, health, or strength; emaciate; enfeeble: to be wasted by a lack of hitting or hunger for runs.
5. To destroy, devastate, or ruin: a year wasted by a long and futile season.
6. Slang. to kill or murder. What I want to do to the Twins...WASTE THEM.
Max Scherzer was DOMINANT. Nine full innings, one run, four hits, nine strike outs. 106 pitches, 76 for strikes. It doesn't get much better than Scherzer was tonight. If there is one thing we can take from the loss, it's seeing Scherzer continue to blossom into a top of the rotation pitcher.
As great as Scherzer pitched, the Twins' Francisco Liriano was almost as good. The the Tigers couldn't do much of anything against Liriano and five Twins' relievers, though they were able to scratch across a run in the 8th inning on a two out Jhonny Peralta single.
Unfortunately, Scherzer couldn't stay in the game indefinitely. So Ryan Perry came in to start the 10th inning. And it went just how you'd expect a game in Minnesota to go...badly and painfully.
Perry was ineffective for the second night in a row, starting his night off by committing a cardinal sin. He walked the leadoff man, Michael Cuddyer. The base on balls, as you'd expect to happen against the Twins, came back to bite the Tigers in the nether regions.
Cuddyer proceeded to steal 2nd, and score on a one out single from Danny Valencia.
Game over, with a gem of a performance from Scherzer totally wasted.
But as a life-long fan of the Tigers, I expected the game to go down in that fashion.
Because there's three certainties in a Tigers fan's life. Death, taxes, and the Tigers losing in God awful fashion in Minnesota.