Mikey D

Since my baseball post a mere two days ago, the following has happened:

~The Tigers have lost two straight.

~Ryan Perry, who I talked up, has pitched less than an inning and given up three runs.

~Miguel Cabrera, who I talked about for MVP, has gone a lousy 1 for 8 and left potential RBIs all over the basepaths.

~Dontrelle Willis, who I had high hopes for, gave up seven runs in 5 innings.

What the hell? I was at the game last night, and it was very frustrating. Pitching and hitting have failed the Tigers in the last two games. Dontrelle could have given up 3 runs and pitched a complete game and it wouldn't have mattered. The Tigers were awful at the plate. Very very very poor execution.

And Luke Scott. He must hunt tigers in the offseason, because he's a Tiger killer. Two games, two homeruns EACH game. This is after hitting four off us last year!!! Just intentionally walk the guy and go onto the next guy, sheesh.

The best part of last night was Matt Weiters debut. The stadium was almost at full capacity to see this guy. He got a standing ovation each time he came to the plate and the crowd stood to watch his first at-bat. He came up with a runner on second, and cracked a line drive right at Mags. Ordonez caught it, and the runner tried to tag and move to third, and Magglio gunned him down, ending the O's threat. Grace and I jumped with joy (this was all before the Orioles beat the piss out of Willis) as the stadium's life just got sucked out of it. Grace and I were laughing hysterically and cheering as this guys first at-bat turned into essentially a double play (he finished 0-4).

As sad as it was that my favorite moment of last night was when a rookie lined into a double play, the game was still fun. Baseball is coming back in Baltimore, which is great to see. The crowd really was electric, and people are sporting all their O's shirts, jerseys, and foam fingers. There's a renewed enthusiasm. When the atmosphere is like that, everything is just more fun (even as the people shout at you that Detroit sucks). They've got a lot of nice young pieces with Markakis, Jones, Reimold, and Weiters, and whenever they get that young pitching developed, they will definitely be heard from. I'll be curious to see where they are in a couple years.

The good news is the Tigers still have a 3.5 game lead in the Central, which is turning out to be one hell of a piss-poor division. As of now, the Tigers are the only team above .500. I'm sure the experts will be laughing at the AL Central all the way to October and beyond, but that's fine. As long as Detroit gets a ticket to the October playoff party, I'll be happy. Once you're in, everyone's an equal. And in a series where we can throw Verlander and Jackson twice, I'm going to be feeling quite good regardless of who we would play.

But that's getting ahead of myself. Let's try to win a game against a last place team first.

~Mikey D