Opening day is always an exciting day. That excitement can be kicked up a notch when your team is expected to roll through the regular season and ultimately bully, mash and crusth their way through the playoffs. Unfortunately, there will be some set-backs, some let-downs and more importantly, some unexpected losses along the way.
For Tigers fans, the Royals ruined the biggest party in a really long time this early in the season by taking the first game of the year by a score of 5-4 in extra innings. Sending a baseball attendance record 44,934 rowdy bunch home from Comerica Park sunken after a day long rally of fun and anticipation of the season upon them.
Justin Verlander came out slinging and until he ran into the trouble that took him unceremoniously out of the game in the 7th inning. Does anyone else find it a bit ironic that the main focus of concern on this team reared its’ ugly face on the overcast laden skies over the “CoPa”? The bullpen played a big roll in taking the Tigers out of this game, as everyone favourite gasoline can, Jason Grilli couldn’t do the job and hold off the Royals charge. Leyland goes through 3 pitchers in the 7th and the game is shifted in favour of Kansas City 4-3. Carlos Guillen adds to a stellar opener by tying the game with his first bomb of the year and until the extra innings, the game was anyones for the taking.
The end result however, has Denny Bautista going 2 innings and giving up the eventual game winning run on a bloop single by Tony Pena Jr. only moments after Brandon Inge displayed his incredible skill and throwing arm power by riffling out Mark Teahen in what many thought would be the game-saving play. Turns out, the Royals had other plans.
Oh well, so the won’t go 162-0…(insert sad face) I’m not going to dig too deep into it, and call for an all out clean-up and renovation bullpen project. However, it is something that Leyland will surely need to keep constant focus on. How these guys react in the certain situations will be huge and they will need them to come through and perform in pressure situations more often than not. So, take not Mr. Grilli, as on paper the ‘pen didn’t give up a run until the game winning run was punched in, but anybody that watched, listened or read about the game knows it could’ve been different. We’ll keep the light atmosphere about the ‘pen for now, but will surely be critical until they perform for sure.
We’ll just have to go out there and get’em on Wednesday and have to settle for 161-1!
