Box Score

Summary

This was an extremely tough loss.

Detroit is off to a season like last year in terms of close games and late-inning comebacks and extra innings. This game seemed very much out of reach after the first two innings but alas they battled back to take the game to extra innings after leading in the ninth. Jeremy Bonderman took the mound and struggled in his first few innings in a routine that has become all to common. He wasn’t helped at all by the defense either as Carlos Guillen had two errors in the first inning alone.

Escobar started for the Angels and held the Tigers offense well for the first few innings but seemed to tire as the game wore on. Tigers batters worked the count numerous times and got on base through a combination of hits and walks. After breaking into the Angels bullpen they seemed to really get rolling and scored in each inning from the sixth on to the ninth capped off with a 2 run homerun by Magglio in the ninth.

Jones came in for a save and racked up his second loss of the season pitching pretty badly in the 10th inning.

Pitching

Bonderman struggled in what was sort of an odd day. He gave up eleven hits while walking only one at the same time he struck out eight. He was still pretty efficient with the pitch count but untimely errors and a slow start kept him from the possibility of a win.

Rodney was brought in for relief and pitched like the Fernando of old. This was so great to see but I was rather surprised as recent statements by Leyland seemed to indicate his next apperance would be in safe situations with the Tigers way up or far behind. Either way he appeared today and pitched two innings seeing six batters with three strikeouts.

Jones blew the save on an odd inning. I cannot fault him for giving up a ground-rule double to Vladmir but his scoring at home on a past ball was rather bad. I really hoped to see Jones comeback after a badly blown game to shut down and preserve the Tigers well earned lead. I guess that will just have to happen another day.

Leyland gave Jones a second try in the 10th inning where he pitched horribly in addition to making a throwing error that put the leadoff batter on second instead of first.

Batting

Have to commend the Tigers batters today as they battled back in a tremendous show. Every single starter reached with the exception of Neifi Perez. Sean Casey seemed to come out of his shell with two hits and a ball that nearly went yard. Gary Sheffield had a hit and a walk that scored him both times. Granderson homered in addition to striking out four times. Inge drew a walk and layed down a nice sac-bunt in the 10th. But Magglio stole the show going 3-for-3 with 2 walks and a 2-run home run in the ninth to put them in the lead.

It can never just be an easy win or loss for this Tiger team and thats a good thing.