I think tonight’s Sox/Tiger game had to be one of the most pitiful displays I’ve seen in a while. Given the fact I’ve been watching the Tigers all year that’s saying a lot. Each team was only credited with one error, but it should have been more. Carlos Lee and Ben Petrick both made bad plays in left that allowed runs to score. Alex Sanchez negated a 3 for 5 effort with two boneheaded baserunning errors. This is a game that the White Sox should have won easily. The Tigers couldn’t figure out Buerhle, and Roney was getting hit hard. But through a pretty poor sequence in the 8th, the White Sox let the Tigers score 4 runs to get with in one.
Instead of the Tigers capitalizing on the White Sox generosity, they allowed two runs to score in the bottom of the 8th. The inning could have been over had Jamie Walker cleanly fielded a comebacker. Instead, that left the door open for Ben Petrick to misplay a well hit ball into a two run double (in all honesty it was a tough play, but it looked pretty bad nonetheless).
Matt Roney has now struggled in all 4 of his starts on the road. The previous three were in definite hitters parks (Coors/Fenway/Kaufman) so it was actually hard to come to a conclusion. And even now, 4 starts is far from a conclusive sample size. However, this has been true of his relief appearances as well. Going into tonights game he had a 2.04 ERA at home and 5.06 on the road. He has 20 walks (13K’s) in 31 innings away from Comerica, and only 11 walks in 35.1 innings at home (20K’s).
Other Stuff:
-On Thursday, the Tigers scored 10 runs in a game for just the second time since September 23, 2001. They scored 11 runs total in the previous two series (White Sox and Red Sox)
-You knew that Chris Mears would give up runs eventually. Fortunately when they came, they didn’t hurt the Tigers.
-Alex Sanchez has twice as many caught stealings (10) as he does walks. Considering his OBA is .297 is it really necessary for him to create more outs? Yes he’s fast, but 17 stolen bases in 27 attempts isn’t that impressive.
-Shane Halter got the start for Eric Munson on Friday. Normally I would complain about this, but Munson has been in a serious funk lately. His average has fallen all the way to .233. Including his pinch hitting attempt tonight, he has gone 27 PA’s (9 games) without an extra base hit.
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Thanks for the plug. I just wanted to agree with you that the Tigers’ display over the last 3 games has been pretty sad – and I’m not even talking about offensively. I’m wondering if all of this talk about the pitching being the gem of the Tigers’ ballclub has gone to these guys heads.
Cricketing baseballer-Unfortunately, you raise a good point. His success rate has just been so awful lately, that something needs to change. I don’t know if he’s not getting good jumps, or not running in good situations/counts, but he’s got to do better than he has been.