Jim Leyland has promised to make some changes to a line-up that he has to this point done nothing but defend. So what exactly has happened to make him change his mind? Could it be the fact that after starting the season 0-9, the Tigers clawed their way back and played +.650 ball over their next 20 (14-6) to push them within a game of .500. All this after a three game sweep in New York where everything seemed to fall into place in their final visit at Yankee Stadium, the team as a whole looked as if things had FINALLY worked itself out.
(inaudible) what’s with this crazy (inaudible) monkey on (inaudible) my back???
The Tigers; however, flopped in their follow-up to any of the positives that that series provided and basically dumped all three against the Twins in the Metrodome. After the first two games of the series were in the books, the Tigers had only racked up a measly two runs. They seemed to have righted all the wrongs and clubbed in six runs in the opening inning of the series finale. The bats then pulled a 180°, and went back into the hibernation mode that the opening of the season brought us to familiarity with.
After nearly chasing Twins starter Boof Bonser after 2/3 of an inning, he recovered and went five more strong to lock up the Tigers bats. All this while Kenny Rogers was smoothly working his way through the oppositions line-up on his own. That is, until disaster struck. Chipping away, the Twinkies scored one in the 4th, two in the 5th and then in the 7th they popped a four-spot on the board to take the lead.
OOPS, Wrong Gambler!
Errors are killing this team, and it doesn’t seem to be a problem that is going to come to an end any time soon. Baseball is such a finely detailed game, where simple, small details really end up changing the pace of the game.
Think of this scenario, the Tigers score six in the 1st inning and when Granderson steps up for his 2nd at bat in the opening frame, Bonser has a 3-1 count on him. If he loses him, Bonser’s day ends early. However, he got the count back in his favour, K’s Curtis and the rest is history.
Carlos Guillen’s throwing error also killed the club. It lead to the winning run, and basically took away what should have been a win that would have salvaged a weekend that could have put this team back over the .500 mark.
Uh-OH! Not another error!
When will this team hit it’s stride and continue to play with the pride that they should? Changes need to be made, that’s a given, check in with me tomorrow for my ideas as to what changes have been made (pending they are made tonight prior to their opening tilt with the BoSox) and what they should do.
