Tigers Win! Tigers Win!

The Tigers beat the Red Sox 7-2 tonight for their first victory of the season. It wasn't without a little early drama though as it started out like the first 7 games of the season. The Tigers were down 2-0 after three. Red Sox starter John Lester held them to one hit through the first three frames. Jeremy Bonderman was struggling with his control and his defense was not helping.

After 186 consecutive errorless games, Placido Polanco made his second error in two games, this time a bobble of a routine grounder. Another simple grounder to third was turned into an error on either Miguel Cabrera or Carlos Guillen (the official scorer had a tough time making up his mind although the ESPN box score says Cabrera). The throw was a bit wide but Guillen was not standing on the bag properly. Anyway, it was another miscue in a month of blunders by the infield.

The Tiger bats woke up in the fourth inning. Edgar Renteria followed a couple of walks with a two run double to left to tie the game 2-2. Marcus Thames then smacked a two run shot over the green monster in left to put the Tigers up 4-2. Later, Brandon Inge followed a nicely executed pinch hit sacrifice bunt by Clete Thomas with a two run single. Carlos Guillen capped the scoring with a solo homer to left.

Bonderman walked four, allowed 5 hits and threw 96 pitches through 5 innings but limited the Red Sox to two runs, one earned. The much maligned bullpen then took over and pitched four scoreless innings. Bobby Seay took over in the sixth with a man on first and retired all four batters he faced. Francis Beltran got the last two outs in the seventh and Denny Bautista pitched a scoreless eighth. In typical roller coaster fashion, Todd Jones loaded the based in the ninth but allowed no runs.

Now, we don't have to read any more stories about how no team has ever made it to the World Series after starting 0-7. The question now is: has any team ever gone to the World Series after starting 1-7?