Opening Day-Detroit Style
When I woke up and saw snow on the ground, all I could do was laugh. Welcome to Opening Day in Michigan! As it turned out, the game wasn’t that cold and the warm sun helped out a lot. Even though the Tigers lost, there are still quite a few positives to take from the game. First, Mike Maroth pitched a heck of a game and held the Twins in check with the exception of a home run in between the new and old fences in left field. He consistently was getting ahead of the hitters, and walked none. Throughout 7 innings he only had 3 balls hit hard off him.
Also, the team looked very crisp defensively. Infante and Santiago were a lot of fun to watch in the middle of the diamond, and Munson made several nice plays. This was exemplified when the Twins had runners at the corners and nobody out. The grounder was hit to Munson who threw it home where Inge applied the tag. Inge then snapped off a throw to second trying to nab the Twins runner straying too far from the the base. While the didn’t turn the double play, it was refreshing to see the execution. Last year I would have imagined Inge’s throw going into centerfield because nobody was ready to catch it.
Offensively, the Tigers only drew one walk, and didn’t really hit the ball well. Granted, Radke was typically getting the first pitch over for a strike and staying ahead in the count. Also, he is a pretty darn good pitcher, and he is expected to pitch well. Still, there were way too many pop-ups yesterday.
All in all, a decent showing. It was nice not to have sarcastic cheering or any “Let’s go Red Wings” chants throughout the game. Plus, the bulk of the crowd stayed the whole game. And if you thought it was too cold, it could have been worse. In Baltimore there was a 15 minute snow delay, and the game went 13 innings.