Tigers at Twins: Well That's a Little Better

Recap:

Monday -- Tigers 7 - Twins 5
Tuesday -- Tigers 3 - Twins 11
Wednesday -- Tigers 1 - Twins 5

Record: 43-35

~~~

Ok, it was a lot better. Well, except for Monday. But even Monday wasn't that bad. Just the pitching.

Speaking of pitching, it was really nice to see Blackie and Slowey have solid outings. They both have been known to do this streaky, reaaaally-good-then-reaaaaally-bad stuff before. So let's hope they're both back to reaaaally good and stay that way.

While Nick's outing wasn't spectacular -- an improvement to be sure, but he still has some work to do -- I'm most impressed with Kevin's. I didn't see the game (damn you, full-time job), but I was pleased with the way he got his outs. I just hope that Kevin's ankle (he took a line drive hit to it) will be ok and that he's not in any pain.

~~~

Speaking of pain, did you see poor Joel Zumaya's injury? It still makes me sick to my stomach thinking about it. It's a good thing it's just a bone fracture, and not a ligament or tendon tear. Sure, he'll be out for the rest of the season, but a soft-tissue injury could have ended his career.

I have to wonder, though, if he throws with such force so that he breaks his elbow, he can't be doing it right, right? I mean, throwing a 100 mph fastball is awesome, but only if you can do it without hurting yourself. So there has to be something wrong with his form. Or his conditioning. Or his bones.

Anyway, I do wish him the best. Even though he's on a rival team, you never like to see a devastating injury like that. I want to beat him fair and square; not hurt him.

~~~

"I never thought home runs were all that exciting. I still think the triple is the most exciting thing in baseball. To me, a triple is like a guy taking the ball on his 1-yard line and running 99 yards for a touchdown."

Hank Aaron

So, how about those triples, huh? They've suddenly become oh so fashionable. I'd love it if the trend held on for a long, long time.

On Monday, good old Jim Thome tried to do everything he could to carry the team on his strong back and pull out a win (too bad there wasn't room for Francisco Liriano), and in all that leadership and effort and stuff, he managed to hit a triple.

Yes. Jim Thome hit a triple. Really.

Oh, how I wish I could've seen that (someone in my family just had to have Dairy Queen), but it sure sounded funny on the radio. I nearly peed my pants laughing.

Apparently Denard Span didn't want to be out-done. We all knew that he's capable of hitting triples on occasion, so he felt that he needed to make his really special so that we'd want to talk about him too. So he just went ahead and tied the team record of three in one game. It's too bad the Tigers walked him in his last plate appearance; if he had hit four, it would've been a modern-day major league record.

I was hoping someone would hit a triple today, just so it would make a nice little package to write about. But, alas, it didn't happen. Yes I know Miguel Cabrera looked like he hit a triple, but even though he wound up on third in the 4th inning, he was credited with a double and an advance on the throw home (I'm in full youth-baseball-official-scorekeeper mode, can you tell?).

To be fair, though, whenever a guy hits a homerun that literally leaves the park, it's pretty special too. Way to go Justin. I wonder if they'll put a little plaque on the plaza like they do in Baltimore. Justin has one there, too.

~~~

I'm going to Thursday night's game. I'm all set to see the Pavano-stache in person. Let's hope he goes all Snidely Whiplash on those Rays.

Who else is going?