The Tigers 3 game win streak came to an end yesterday on a 12th inning home run by Joe Crede. The walk-off was set up when Eric Munson threw high to first on what would have been the third out. Despite that, the weekend featured some fine defensive plays, and excellent pitching by the Tigers. Mike Maroth won his first game of the year on Friday and Gary Knotts pitched a strong game on the road for the first time this year. It seems like only last week I wrote about how he couldn’t get anybody out away from Comerica.

I just have a couple of comments about Tram’s moves yesterday. I was a little disappointed to see him pinch-hit for Kevin Witt in the 8th inning yesterday against lefty Kelly Wunsch. While Witt has only one AB agsint left handed pitching this year, he was still 2-3 with a home run in game. Furthermore, Wunsch had given up a double, a 4 pitch walk, and a HBP. Clearly he was wild and having trouble finding the plate. By going to the right handed Monroe, it invited the Sox to take Wunsch out of the game. That being said, the Tigers did tie it up, but Monroe didn’t do any of the damage. The big hit was a jam shot from fellow pinch hitter Torres. The second issue is much easier to second guess since it didn’t work out, and that was walking Konerko to get to Crede. Looking at how each has fared against Sparks the move didn’t make a lot of sense. Konerko was 8 for 33 lifetime, and 7 of those hits were singles (one was a home run). Crede, was 3 for 8 with a home run. Furthermore, if you look at their splits by situation “Close and Late” (7th inning or later and the game within a run) Crede still had the better numbers. Konerko is 3 for 22 on the season and Crede was 8 for 22.