Tigers Fall in Game One; Chemistry is the Best in Leyland’s Tenure

Rick Porcello couldn’t pull together for win number nine in the first game of the Tigers/Athletics series.  (I blame John!) Porcello gave up five runs and walked a season high four hitters. The Tigers offense continued to struggle.  The Bengals were only able to muster six hits throughout the game. Brett Anderson shut down the Tigers through 5 innings, giving up just four hits while striking out seven. 

Magglio Ordonez continued to struggle, all the way down to seventh in the order. He went 1-4. Fu Te Ni made his debut last night, pitching 1 2/3 innings. Jim Leyland was overall impressed:

“He did fine. He looked pretty impressive, actually. I think he’ll do well. I’m happy for the kid.”

John over at Tiger Geist talks about the game a bit more today on his site, pretty interesting insight, as he had front row seats for the action. 

–Chemistry Talk

An interesting nugget out from Jim Leyland last night; He believes that the Tigers have the best chemistry of any team since he has been there . From the Detroit Tigers Official Web Site:

"“This is the closest team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Leyland, whose Tigers face the Oakland A’s Tuesday in the second game of a three-game set. “This is a team with guys that pull for each other.”What makes this team so close? Is it the way they play together on the field? How they spend their time off of it?“It’s all-around,” Leyland said. “We have a lot of characters. …It’s a really fun group.”A fun group that doesn’t mind being made fun of.Leyland referenced a recent clubhouse moment in Houston involving Gerald Laird.The catcher left Saturday’s contest against the Astros in the first inning with lower back spasms. Felipe Paulino allowed one run on three hits and struck out nine in seven innings to lead Houston to an 8-1 win.Laird was back in the lineup the next day.“I called it Paulino-itis. It was a miraculous comeback. He got rid of it in about 12 hours,” Leyland joked. “We had fun with him, and he handled it like a champ.”"

The Tigers will take on the Athletics in game two on the mound. The Teams have flip flop records. Armando is on the mound for the Tigers.