If the Tigers were going to make a decision based on one outing, it would not look good for Adam Wilk. It wouldn't be particularly great for Brayan Villarreal either. Fortunately, we're pretty sure the Tigers don't make their decisions that way. (The decision was already made, Jim Leyland said.) Anyway, the Tigers fell to the Braves 5-3 somewhere near the Disney empire.
Let's start with Wilk. Four runs on five hits in three innings. He gave up a 3-run home run. Oy. So how about Villarreal? Three straight walks, a sac fly, a passed ball, and another walk led to a run in the fifth inning. Leyland took the blame, telling the media he asked Villarreal to work on his change-up in the game and it threw him off.
But like I wrote, the decisions were already made. Just not announced. MLive's Steve Kornacki wrote:
Tigers manager Jim Leyland said Thursday that his mind is made up on the roster, and so this one bad inning isn't going to cost him a roster spot. Leyland also dropped a pretty strong hint that Gonzalez was going to edge Wilk out of that final spot.
For his part, Wilk's quotes sounded like a guy who knew he was bound for the minor leagues. Which is fine, considering he spent most of last season with Advanced-A Lakeland.
The rest of the game? Miguel Cabrera had two hits. Will Rhymes had a sacrifice for an RBI. The Tigers were limited to five hits.
After the appearances by Wilk and Villarreal, Daniel Schlereth and Enrique Gonzalez combined for three scoreless innings, allowing just a hit between them.