Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Miner Solid, Bullpen Perfect

The Tigers got their first win of the season tonight, a fairly easy 5-1 decision over the Blue Jays. Zach Miner had a rough start tonight allowing a run and loading the bases before anyone was out. However, he worked himself out of the jam with some help from a nice through by Josh Anderson cutting down Alex Rios at the plate. There would be no more runs scored against Miner who went 5 1/3 innings allowing just one run on six hits and two walks.

Amazingly, the bullpen was perfect tonight starting with Bobby Seay who retired all four batters he faced. Ryan Perry retired the Blue Jays in order in his big league debut in the eighth. Fernando Rodney then pitched a perfect ninth with Curtis Granderson making a catch against the center field wall. The best part about the pitching tonight was that they were throwing strikes.

All of the runs scored on home runs. Miguel had a three run shot in the first to put the Tigers in front to stay and he later added a solo blast and a line drive single. Brandon Inge also hit a solo homer, his third of the year already. According to Tigers broadcaster Mario Impemba, Inge became the first Tiger since 1954 to hit a home run in each of the first three games. It is not known whether it happened prior to that time.

3 comments:

  1. Charles ListonApril 08, 2009

    Two solid starts in a row, and decent bullpen work tonight. I'm relatively pleased with the 3 games...the only worrisome thing really was Verlander's start. Lyon wasn't very good, but I don't think that he was expected to be, and that's an easy roster changeout to make if things don't improve.

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  2. I would agree with that for the most part. Verlander can't afford to have a lot of games like that. I'm not sure how the bullpen is going to turn out but I'm not expecting Lyons to be a stopper. I'm concerned about the bullpen but no more so after the Lyons game than before.

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  3. I'm not too worried about Verlander. He just needs to calm down; he was all hyped up about getting a fast start to the season. Give him some chamomile tea and he'll be fine.

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