Submitted by TotalAccess on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 20:32
Rockies 3, Tigers 1 (box)
Record: 24-18 (first place)
Dontrelle Willis was not sharp, but he didn’t have to be sharp. He just had to keep putting zeroes on the board at the end of innings.
He did that five times through six innings, allowing just one run and picking up the second quality start in as many chances.
But the Tigers’ offense abandoned him and the team for a second straight day, so all you’ll see in the box score is an “L” by his name.
Detroit lost two of three to National League cellar-dweller Colorado at Comerica Park, but ended the home stand with seven wins in nine games, so I guess you can’t complain too loudly.
- Willis—OK, I admit I was out of the house for the first three innings, so I can’t judge Willis’ complete body of work today. In the box score, he looked like he allowed a baserunner or two but took care of the matter pretty smoothly. By the sixth inning, this was no longer the case. He was throwing strikes only around 55 percent of the time, walking guys, giving up hits left and right. Yet he allowed just the one run. I don’t know how he did it. Well, between all the balls, his slider was getting a lot of swings and misses, so that helped. The Tigers tested him one inning too many, so he allowed a pair of seventh inning runs before leaving with two outs. It was a decent performance, but you’d like to see him throwing more strikes. For some reason, every hit the Rockies had seemed to find the right-center field gap, too. Still, he gave the team a chance to win. At this point, I think his spot in the rotation should be considered safe.
- The offense—Would you believe me if I said Dane Sardinha–who entered the game with a lower batting average (.059) than Zack Greinke has an ERA (0.82)–drove in the Tigers’ only run? Manager Jim Leyland arranged the top of the batting order a bit for the day, the big shift being leading off with Josh Anderson and batting Curtis Granderson fifth, but it made no difference. The top five were 1-for-18, a hit less than the top five batted Saturday. Batting third, Clete Thomas has now dropped to just two hits in his last 24 at-bats. I’m pretty sure, this is what you call a big-’ol funk. On the bright side, Magglio Ordonez had two hits again, and should probably be placed back in the three-hole. The Thomas experiment has run its course, I’m afraid. Placido Polanco and Gerald Laird drew the off day. Miguel Cabrera had a home run.
- Strange scoring stats — The Tigers scored eight runs in three games this weekend. The Red Wings scored nine. In two games. That was a lot more exciting. Tigers last scored 1 run in the 1-0 win in Cleveland May 8. They scored zero May 7 at Chicago.
- Tigers’ bullpen—Brandon Lyon, who now seems to be part of Leyland’s “losing effort” slow in the relief rotation, had another scoreless appearance and got Willis out of his seventh-inning jam. Bobby Seay went a perfect four batters.
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