After walking a combined 13 batters in his last two starts, Jeremy Bonderman walked just two tonight in a 6-2 victory over the Yankees. Bonderman pitched 7 2/3 innings which tied him with Justin Verlander for the longest Tigers start of the year. He had a rough first inning allowing three hits and a walk for two runs but settled down nicely allowing just three more base runners the rest of the way. He was pretty efficient reaching 100 pitches before yielding to Clay Rapada with two outs in the eighth. Rapada proceeded to retire the last four Yankees in succession to secure the win.
Marcus Thames put the Tigers ahead 3-2 with a two run blast in the fifth but the biggest power source of the night was Placido Polanco. The now red hot Placebo (my father used to call him that when he played for the Cardinals) belted not one but two homers tonight. The other Tiger with two hits was Gary Sheffield who also seems to be waking up a bit.
They finished up the month of April with a 13-15 record which is not too bad considering they started 0-7 and 2-10. After getting shutout four times in the first 11 games, they also managed to lead the league with 148 runs scored for the month. On the negative side, their 4.78 ERA was the second highest in the league after the Rangers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
True, the Rangers are the only team to give up more runs, but the Tigers were the worst by a lot for a couple of weeks. I think the group is getting it together. I don't think they'll be in top five in team ERA but hopefully they can join the middle of the pack.
ReplyDelete