Summary
Detroit makes it five wins in a row and put their overall winning percentage above .600 again. Verlander pitched a full seven innings and threw a game that everyone has come to expect, at least at Kauffman Stadium. Kansas City’s offense started to come alive in the eighth inning making the game a bit interesting but ultimately not able to come back from the six run deficit put up by the Tiger offense.
Offensively Detroit worked well together but some of the dependable hitters came up blank and the back of the lineup doing well. Casey (2 hits, 1 walk), Monroe (1 hit, 1 walk) & Inge (1 hit). Most Tiger batters, other than Inge, have worked themselves above the Mendoza Line at this point.
Pitching
Verlander pitched a full seven innings before allowing the first two batters on to start the eighth. He pitched pretty efficiently facing only 29 batters in the seven innings as well as striking out three. Verlander’s walk to start of the eighth inning lead to a bit of a rally by Kansas City that saw numerous pitching changes from Bobby Seay to Jason Grilli to Fernando Rodney allowing three runs amongst the four pitchers.
Justin Verlander, in a bit of an oddity, hit John Buck twice.
Grilli had the opportunity to pitch to a single batter and, while only one batter, seemed to have a hard time getting the ball in the strike zone. I know I saw him throw only three pitches but I didn’t care for what I saw.
Todd Jones was brought in to close and pitched very well. Two strikeouts and a pop up.
Hitting
Some bats were out today collectively swatting 11 hits. Some bats were very silent such as Pudge, Placido and Gary Sheffield all who drew blanks though Polanco and Sheff both also contributed with walks. It’s not too often you see an intentional walk so that the team can face Rodriguez.
Granderson was strong at lead-off with a single, triple and a walk while also striking out twice. Ordonez, Guillen and Casey each contributed doubles with Maggs racking up two. I guess it is safe to say his haircut hasn’t effected his streak, at least yet.
Overall, Walks contributed much to the game and were huge in the innings that the Tigers scored. Today they combined for seven walks.