Earlier today, internet fans were wondering whether this would be Chad Durbin's last start and they were debating who would replace him. Would it be Andrew Miller? Wil Ledezma? Virgil Vasquez? I have to admit that I was asking the same questions and my thought was Virgil Vasquez. Durbin emphatically answered the question for us with a dominating performance versus the White Sox. He pitched 8 shutout innings allowing just 3 hits and no walks and piling up a career high 9 strikeouts.
The Tigers won 6-2 but the 9th inning was not comfortable to watch. With two outs and nobody on base, Joel Zumaya hit a batter and then walked 4 in a row to allow 2 runs. It was one of his worst outings as a Tiger and Todd Jones had to come in to get the final out.
Magglio Ordonez continued his sizzling pace with his 3rd consecutive 3 hit game and is now batting .338/.416/.584. He is 2nd on the team in batting average and leads in the other two categories. His 20 RBI are 2nd in the league to Alex Rodriguez. Ivan Rodriguez also had 3 hits and Placido Polanco, Gary Sheffield and Brandon Inge had 2 apiece.
The story of the game though was Durbin. I have a feeling he'll get another start.
Guillen Sits
Carlos Guillen was replaced by Omar Infante at shortstop today after his two error game yesterday. the day off had nothing to do with the errors though. Jason Beck reports that Guillen has a stiff shoulder which Carlos attributes to a new throwing angle. You may have noticed that he has been throwing overhand this year instead of his old sidearm motion. He made the switch in hopes of reducing the throwing errors which plagued him last year. It has not worked so he's going back to his old sidearm throws.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It was quite an exciting start for Durbin and great to see. I'm not quite so sure I'm going to expect this buys him another solid month of starts or anything.
ReplyDeleteHe'll still be on a short leash and a single bad outing in his next start could be just enough to start that discussion again.
I completely agree. It was fun to see him answer his critics tonight but this may only earn him one more start. He'll probably have to save his job every time he pitches.
ReplyDeleteI'm very interested in hearing about Carlos Guillen's injury for personal reasons (other than his presence being essential for the Tigers' continued success). When I play softball, I'm fine when I throw more three quarters which is fine for throws across the infield. However, if I throw like that from the outfield the throws tail off and/or fall short of the target so I have to go more over the top. When I do that, though, my shoulder lets me know quite bluntly (though the pain is sharp) that I shouldn't be doing that. So Carlos, I sympathize brother.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is whatever this injury is doesn't seem to affect my swing, so let's hope Carlos can say the same.