Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 25, 2006
Tigers Comeback

There are so many interesting stories in today's Tigers/Royals game, I'm not sure where to start. As Julie Andrews once sang:

Let's start at the very beginning
A very good place to start

Mike Maroth did a good job keeping the ball in the park this year, but not today. After a single and a popout to start the first, the next five batters belted out two doubles followed by three home runs. Giving up back-to-back homers is bad, giving up three in a row is worse, but giving up three in a row to the Royals is awful. The three players going deep had combined for four homers on the season coming into today, and that included none from Mientkiewicz. So Maroth left the game at that point with his team in a 6-0 hole and his ERA up by over a run.

The Tigers bullpen took over and pitched great. Roman Colon took the long roll and gave Detroit 5 1/3 solid innings, giving up two runs. Meanwhile, the Tigers worked their way back with five runs through the fourth. KC leads 8-5 in the top of the eighth when things start going wrong.

Bautista left in the fourth, allowing the five runs to that point. Bobby Keppel pitched well in relief, striking out 4 and walking one in 3 1/3 innings. But when he allowed a single to the leadoff hitter in the eighth, he was out. He had only thrown 43 pitches, but it was his major league debut, and I guess Bell either didn't trust him enough or wanted him to get the win, but he brought in Burgos. Then Dessens who finished the eighth. By that time three runs had scored. The game is tied at eight.

The Royals don't score in the bottom of the inning, and Dessens starts the ninth. With one out he gives up back-to-back homers to Monroe and Thames. Then two singles. Then Sisco pitches and three more runs score. The comeback is complete and the Tigers win 13-8.

It really came down to the bullpens. The Tigers went 8 2/3 innings, allowing 2 runs on 8 hits and five walks. Not stellar, but good enough. The Royals needed to get 16 outs. They did, but eight runs crossed the plate attributed to them. Both the Royals starters and relievers now have ERAs over six; the bullpen 6.12, the starters 6.10. At least they're consistent.

So the game had everything; some good pitching, some bad pitching, eight home runs, walks, strikeouts, even a triple by a catcher. Everything's going right for the Tigers, everything's going wrong for the Royals. Just a typical afternoon at the ballpark. :-)


Posted by David Pinto at 05:50 PM | Games | TrackBack (0)
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