Box Score

Summary

After an hour and a half rain delay the Detroit winning streak ended at 8 wins with a humbling loss against Seattle. After a strong showing in the first two innings, starting the game off with a homerun by Curtis Granderson, Detroit seemed unstoppable. This came to a quick end in the fourth inning with Nate Robertson giving up a 3-run homerun to Jose Guillen, who was back in the lineup after sitting out yesterdays game. Seattle’s kept up the pressure throughout the rest of the game hitting a combined .381 with seven extra-base hits.

Seattle starter Cha Seung Baek pitched an excellent complete game baffling many Tiger batters after getting off to a slow start. He was extremely efficient with his pitches throwing only 112, 77 for strikes. I’d love to say that Detroit made a bad pitcher look good but Baek deserves credit for a well pitched game.

Tomorrow will be the rubber match @ 1:05pm EST.

Pitching

Nate Robertson came out of the gates strong pitching two perfect innings. He seemed to have complete control forcing numerous ground-outs and relying on his team for defense. This ended in the fourth inning and by the fifth Seattle was just hitting batting practice against him. Nate lasted only 4.2 innings in which the Mariners were 10-for-24 with four doubles.

Jason Grilli was brought in relief during the fifth inning and allowed Seattle to continue their hitting onslaught. He had more control than in his previous outings and walked no batters this go-round, but struggled to get strikes by Mariners batters.

Ledezma and Mesa finished off the game. Ledezma didn’t allow any runs but walked two in a row to load the bases before getting out of the inning. Mesa’s outing was pretty solid, allowing a single hit and getting a strikeout.

Hitting

A bit of an off day for most through there were a few highlights. Brandon Inge racked up two more hits bringing his batting average to an even .200. Placido Polanco had a rare strikeout against Baek, he struck out swinging if I remember correctly. Carlos Guillen had a nifty triple with Casey bringing him home with a sac-fly.

After the first couple of innings the offense was anemic and by the seventh inning Leyland had pretty much conceded the game by bringing in the bench players.