Tonight’s battle of the bullpens had a very clear winner: Boston. Detroit’s bullpen, beginning with Zach Miner, was absolutely unable to constantly throw strikes which ended with a total of 10 walks allowed on the night and 12 runs. This was a tough one to watch as Detroit batters battled back to stay in the ball game on a number of occasions only to be letdown by the ‘pen.

While the large number of walks allowed was glaringly obvious tonight, the problem isn’t a new one this year. Going into tonight Detroit pitchers lead the American League with a WHIP (Walks Hits per Inning Pitched) of 1.59, the bullpen had a WHIP of 1.65.

This will get worse after tonights game. While I have no doubt that Tiger hitters will perform up to expectations, it might not matter unless Detroit pitchers can turn around their own issues. When Bostons’ bullpen ran into trouble in the seventh inning they were able to bring in Hideki Okajima to shut down Detroit. When Bostons’ bullpen began bleeding in the eighth inning they were able bring out Jonathan Papelbon stop it. Detroit has no such go-to bullpen pitcher that can be depended upon and this needs to change.

The bullpen must be more than Bobby Seay who can be depended on to get a K against a lefty when needed but not for more than an inning of work. The team cannot wait until the return of either Fernando Rodney or Joel Zumaya, both of whom are making progress.

Pitching coach Chuck Hernandez has a lot of work ahead of him to figure out how some guys who were good Triple-A pitchers, such as Yorman Bazardo, can’t buy an out in the bigs.