Saturday, April 19, 2008

Bondo wild,Tigers nipped by Jays

Dustin McGowan pitched 7 strong innings to lead the Blue Jays to a 3-2 win over the Tigers this afternoon. The Blue Jay victory evened the series at one game apiece. The Tigers managed nine hits including three each by Carlos Guillen (now batting .379) and Pudge Rodriguez but had trouble pushing runs across. They left seven on base and hit into two more double plays.

Walks continued to haunt the Tigers today as Jeremy Bonderman walked six in five innings. Jeremy now has 5.2 bases on balls and only 4 strikeouts per 9 innings on the season. Both figures are way off of last year's pace - 2.5 BB/9 IP and 7.4 K/9 IP. It's still early but that's not an encouraging sign. As a team, the Tigers have walked a league worst 88 batters.

Defensively, Miguel Cabrera made his fifth error of the year leading to another unearned run. Big errors have also been a problem for the Tigers this year as they have led to 11 unearned runs, second most in the league to the Rangers.

As it was yesterday, the bullpen was a bring spot this afternoon. Jason Grilli, Clay Rapada and Aquilino Lopez kept the game close by pitching three scoreless innings. The series continues tomorrow with Nate Robertson facing AJ Burnett.

Notes:

Placido Polanco missed another game today due to his stiff lower back. Although he doesn't use it as an excuse, the back is probably partly responsible for his .148 batting average.

Curtis Granderson takes his rehab tour to Toledo tonight in a game versus Louisville at 7:00.

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