Tigers On Top

Could that game possibly have been any weirder? My goodness. Battle of the Pheeee-noms turned into Mike Winters and Bruce Froemming competing for airtime.

It was perfectly obvious even to the semi-biased Mariner broadcasters that Pudge did not mean to “bump” Mike Winters. Pudge was merely demonstrating exactly where and how his throw had been completely and utterly obstructed. Obstruction, for the benefit of all Mike Winterses out there, is not an acceptable offense for a batter. Pudge’s throw went wild, and he was understandably livid at the lack of a call on Betancourt. In his spirited argument with Winters, Pudge’s shoulder brushed the umpire’s, and with that, the catcher was ejected. Oversensitive much? Calling an umpire one of several un-blogg-able names is an ejectable offense. Purposefully spitting in his face is an ejectable offense. But this?! There’s probably more contact when an umpire places a hand on the catcher’s back for balance as the pitcher throws the ball!!!

Later, when the Tigers were clinging to a 2-0 lead, came the other debacle. With the bases loaded, Adrian Beltre hit what looked like a close double. He overslid second, at which point Carlos Guillen attempted to tag him and missed. Bruce Froemming declared him safe. Beltre then got in a rundown–allowing the third run to score–during which Guillen narrowly failed to tag him at least two more times, with the umpire dogging their steps and calling him safe repeatedly. He slid into third with yet another safe call. Replays showed that Guillen never actually touched him, so I was ready to concede this one. But wait, there’s more!

With Beltre standing comfortably on third, Guillen got the ball back and tagged second for the cursory appeal. I’ve seen appeals innumerable times, and the umpire never fails to declare the runner safe (yet again). But this time, Froemming (with what I thought to be an evil little smile) made the out signal!! Thus more confusion and arguing ensued. I still don’t get it. That loss just tasted bad, worse than normal.

Miller had a pretty okay outing, though he constantly seemed to be in a jam. King Felix wasn’t too jam-less either, but Miller got into just one too many. With every entrance of a bullpen pitcher I groaned in agony, but none of them actually imploded, which I suppose is a good thing to take out of this. The loss shaved another precious half-game off our lead over Cleveland though, so pretty much nothing is going to make me feel better until the Tigers get on another winning streak! Maybe I need to go back to Detroit again …