Indians 4, Tigers 2: 'The team's execution?' You know the rest

Welp ...

Your humble correspondent -- seriously, someone has actually called humble once. I have proof. I am as shocked as you are, but the humble thing to do is to agree with their assessment, right? -- tweeted after the Tigers failed to score with bases loaded and no outs in the eighth inning:

Tigers trying to rip defeat from the jaws of victory, or something like that

— Bless You Boys (@blessyouboys) May 24, 2012

Plenty of blame to go around. Some want to put it on the home-plate ump. I'm not one. There were maybe some questionable calls at times -- though not as many as people on Twitter complained about. ("Ball 4" to Miguel Cabrera in the seventh inning comes to mind where for an example of when I agreed with the masses.) But bigger picture here: Detroit's batters just didn't execute. Cabrera grounded out later in the at bat. In the eighth, Ramon Santiago nearly grounded into a double play, and there were two strikeouts, including one by Jhonny Peralta.

Meanwhile the defense didn't perform again either. Doug Fister allowed two runs -- on a blast by Pronk in the sixth to tie the game just a few minutes after Detroit took the lead, of course. But the bottom of the eighth sunk the Tigers, including a poor throw to home by Prince Fielder than Alex Avila could not corral. Another run came home and it was 4-2 for the final.

In all, I think it's safe to say we're seeing among the worst play of the year.

Groundhog Day.