Well That Was Harder Than It Should Have Been

Do you always have to put the tying run in scoring position? SERIOUSLY?!?!

Okay, so that was WAY more exciting than it should have been. The Tigers just beat the Blue Jays 10-9, but they were up 9-0 at one point and it shouldn't have been that close. Nate Robertson almost got screwed out of a decision he earned with some solid pitching. Thank God they held on.

Now there are a lot of positives to take from this game, and I'll tackle those before we hit the things that make me want to pull my hair out.

Nate Robertson - 5 2/3 IP, 2 ER, 4 K's

Nate pitched about as well as you'd expect. He had pretty good command of all of his pitches and was able to limit his walks (2). His only mistake was the home run ball he gave to Troy Glaus. Other than that he was as good as you can expect from him. He even went to the dugout with a seven run lead. I'm sure he wasn't thinking there would be a chance at a no decision.

Curtis Granderson - 2 for 5, 1 HR, 5 RBI's, 1 BB

Curtis is looking GOOD at the plate to start the season. He did strike out twice, but when he put the bat on the ball he made quite the impact. A Grand Slam and an RBI triple. Not a bad day at all.

Pudge Rodriguez - 4 for 5, 1 R

As bad as Pudge looked yesterday at the plate, he looked that good today. He was able to slap the ball to the opposite field, as usual, and get on base. Very good day.

Now I would also say Placido Polanco had a good game as well (3 for 5, with a run and an RBI) but he's the absolute balls so I have come to expect that from him. He could be my favorite Tiger other than Joel Zumaya (have to love a guy who plays Guitar Hero and has a flame tattoo on his arm).

Unfortunately there was some negative things in this game as well, which usually happens when you are up 9-0 and end up winning by one run. Let's take a look at that....

Magglio Ordnez's Outfield Hijinks (tm)

During the Blue Jays comeback in the eighth, Maggs decided that playing right field was a bit too easy and decided to mess things up a bit. First he didn't run down what looked like a catchable ball (which would have been the second out of the inning) and then with the bases loaded and one out he decided to try and lay out for a ball (which didn't look like he even had a chance to catch) and ended up just sliding past it which allowed all three runners to score instead of the one runner that would have scored had he let it drop. Also pretty much every other ball hit his way looked like he lost it somewhere before he made the catch. He just looked very shaky today.

Brandon Inge - 0 for 4, 3 K's

It's gotten to the point that whenever Inge steps to the plate I expect a strikeout. The lasting image of the World Series for me (beyond the pitcher errors) is Inge's horrible looking strikeouts, which include the one that ended the Series. He just looks completely fooled right now. Hopefully he rights the ship and starts hitting the damn ball.

Fernando Rodney - 2/3 IP, 3 H, 2 ER

Through two games Rodney is not hitting the mark. He didn't look great yesterday when he lost the game in the 10th, and looked just as bad today when he allowed the Jays to get two more runs to cut the lead to one. When Rodney has command he's lights out, but when he's bad, he's really bad, but I think he'll straighten things out.

Also while Todd Jones did come in and close things out in the ninth, is there a reason he has to put the tying run in scoring position EVERY GAME?!?! This time he gave up a one out single, and then walked the next batter to put the tying and winning runs on and then got the next two outs. The man is trying to kill me. I swear to God. JUST GIVE ME A 1-2-3 INNING PLEASE!

All in all a win is a win, and this will look good in the W column, but there are definitely some things that need to be improved.