BOX
KEY STAT
Bruce Chen struck out seven and allowed four baserunners and no runs in six innings
KEY PLAY
Will Rhymes getting tagged out at home plate in the sixth inning. It would have cut the lead in half and maybe altered how the Tigers approach their at-bats with a one-run deficit. Was he out? Hard to say. Sticking his hand out toward the glove of Brayan Pena proved to be his undoing I think.
KEY PLAY 2
With the bases loaded in the eighth inning, Magglio Ordonez popped out on the first pitch he saw. Obviously a hit there ties the game so it was pretty key too.
KEY THOUGHTS
Ouch. In his last start, Bruce Chen allowed five runs in five innings on eight hits and two walks to the Angels. The Tigers, with a fairly decent lineup, got rolled over by him. The only batter to get a hit the first time through the lineup was Casper Wells, and that was kind of a Texas leaguer.
Only a home run by Ryan Raburn helped the Tigers avoid the shutout.
You can't turn Austin Jackson into a part-time player. Not with that glove. He's a starter for sure. But another week of batting poorly in the lead-off spot and the Tigers are going to have to do something about it. After another 0-for-4 day with two strikeouts, he's up to 13 K's in 34 at-bats and a batting average of .176 and on-base percentage of .243. Jim Leyland did say he's giving Jackson Sunday off to clear his head a bit.
Oh, and Phil Coke. He did about as much as you could ask for. He did stumble in the second inning, and a pair of walks and pair of singles led to the two runs that led to the loss being hung on his head. But he showed some promise by striking out seven and allowing three hits. All things considered it was a nice debut as a starter, but he'll obviously need to cut down on the walks.