Tigers On Top

That was positively wretched (except for Magglio’s ridiculous moonshot). We can’t win on the road, we can’t win at home, and everyone’s getting injured. Plus the Extra Innings package was showing the Chicago feed, for some reason, so we all get to listen to Hawk and Darrin make excuses for the White Sox. Thank the gods Jim Leyland does not believe in excuses, though he has a lot of them.

Let us count the handicaps the Tigers are currently enduring. Zumaya is still out. Rogers is out again. Sheffield is now hurting, and as John Lowe pointed out in a recent Free Press article (I would link to it if I knew how), Sheffield is near Polanco-like in how the team depends on his performance. Casey just got hit by a pitch in this game (of course, according to Chicago’s very objective broadcasters, it was entirely Casey’s fault) and had to come out. The Mayor does not come out for things that are piffling. Rodney is back, but he has never inspired a lot of confidence in me, even when healthy; and even an acceptable outing such as today merely makes me scan the sky harder for that other shoe about to fall on my head. And they’re rushing him back a bit, because Chad Durbin probably won’t be available until Monday since he is with his wife and newborn son Cade (as he should be). Zach Miner is supposedly back, but his father is having heart trouble and so we could lose him again (and again, Zach should leave the team if his father is very ill; it’s just not something happy, either for him or the Tigers). Does that about cover everything?

Oh yeah, and we flippin’ can’t WIN.

Jordan Tata started the game today masterfully, throwing ten of his first eleven pitches for strikes. Now if only BONDERMAN could have had such a first inning yesterday, we would have won. To digress, what IS it with him and the first inning? Can’t he just throw an extra, I don’t know, fifty pitches in the bullpen and pretend like the first is already finished? Jordan did an okay job today. Obviously if he hadn’t given up the back-to-back doubles, etc, it would be better, but for the most part he was solid. I was especially proud of the kid when after walking the bases loaded and having to face Jim Thome with only one out, he got the big slugger to ground into a double play to end the inning with minimal damage. It’s rather difficult to win when your team isn’t scoring any runs for you (as one of my hometown guys Matt Cain can attest), so I’m not blaming Jordan for this at all.

The offense is pretty damn anemic. Well, except for Polanco and Maggs, of course. Two absolutely classic Polly at-bats–he works the count so that he’s got two strikes (he just has to have those two strike, it’s hilarious!) then manages to beat out a base hit. And then Maggs hit that homer to pretty much an impossible place–the only homer I can think of that might’ve gone further was when either Eric Munson or Carlos Pena (I think it was Munson, but I could be wrong) hit one into the camera well.

To make things more frustrating, the White Sox broadcasters seem intent on keeping all blame for anything off their team (even as they commend Jim Leyland for refusing to make excuses). When a bloop fell among three White Sox fielders in right, it wasn’t because they failed to make a rather easy catch. It was because that, ladies and gentlemen, was an insanely difficult play that they just can’t be expected to make all the time. If a Tiger got a hit, it was complete luck, a “duck fart” that could not be blamed on the poor luckless pitcher. And of course there was Casey, who was completely at fault for getting hit by Floyd’s pitch. Shouldn’t even get first base for that.

They did give credit where credit was due to Curtis Granderson. Rabelo dove for a ball in left that juuuust sliced past his glove, and off went the runner. Rabelo picked himself up and went after the ball; just as he got there here came Grandy, flying at full speed, to grab up the ball and fire into second, preventing any thoughts of going for third. Even Hawk and Darrin were vastly impressed with Grandy’s presence of mind and hustle. After the inning ended, you could see Ryan and Crutis talking as they ran in; I hope that Ryan’s end of the conversation contained a LOT of thank yous!

Stuff like that will get the Tigers back on track (hopefully sooner rather than later). They’re not going to start lollygagging or giving up out there. They won’t start stabbing each other in the back (figuratively) in the clubhouse. They’re a team of grinders, and they’ll get through this.

To end on a semi-happy note, I attended the A’s game on Friday (that’s four games in one week, hooray!) and would like to point out some big differences between the Angels and Tigers. Every day the Tigers were in town, at least three of them would make their way to the dugout sometime before the game and just sign until no one had anything left to give them. Even Sheffield did this, I’m pretty sure. If a kid called a Tiger’s name, the guy would likely as not at least smile up in their direction and give a little wave. I saw one Angel sign, and I think he was a coach. The rest of them completely ignored all the fans above the dugout.

When players come in from the field in Oakland, the guy who caught the last out usually tosses the ball up into the stands. Knowing this, Nick always gathers a pack of small children before the game and informs them of this. As soon as the final out is made and the visitors come in, the kids will jump up and run down the aisle, standing just above the dugout. And normally the player will either toss the ball into the pack, or point blatantly at another little kid somewhere else and toss him/her the ball. The Tigers were quite good about this.

The Angels on the other hand threw maybe two balls the whole game. And rather than throwing it to the pack, Chone Figgins casually tossed his ball over to our right. Two adult Angels fans, who had come to the game looking ridiculously formal, leapt in front of two little boys, maybe six years old, to snag the ball. Did Chone come back to say give it to a kid you schmuck? Did any other Angels try to get a ball to the kids later? No. And you KNOW that never would happen with the Tygs. The moral of the comparison is Appreciate the Tigers. They’re nice to an insane level, and most teams don’t even begin to match them.