Rapid Reactions: Tigers Hand Toronto a Beating

Tigers 10, Blue Jays 5 (box)

• Brandon Morrow was dealing through three innings. He entered the fourth having already recorded five strikeouts while only allowing one hit and one walk, but then the wheels fell off. Brennan Boesch lead off the inning and struck out swinging, but reached base when the ball got away from one of the Molina brothers. Morrow was yanked five batters later with the bases loaded and two runs in. He would be charged with five earned runs. I don’t remember ever seeing a pitcher so dominant early completely lose it like that.
• Max Scherzer’s final line looks pretty good (and he’s 6-0), but I’m still nervous about the walks and home runs. Last time out he was amazing versus the Yanks, but he still isn’t making me feel comfortable. He hasn’t been bitten yet though.

• Al Alburquerque is fun to watch. I was skeptical that he’d be able to find the strike zone given his track record with walks, but they haven’t been able to hit him. Al Al had four more strikeouts in two innings tonight. That makes 22 K’s in 12.1 big league innings.
• This is the Victor Martinez that we all thought the Tigers signed. His two doubles and home run brought his batting average up to .293 and his OPS north of .830.
• Don Kelly was also awesome. 2-3 with a stolen base. He’ll be back in the three hole in no time.
• Joaquin Benoit still doesn’t look quite right to me. He doesn’t have the dominating type stuff that’s typical of a late-inning reliever, so he’ll struggle through innings when his command is off-kilter. He got out of the inning with out any real trouble, so maybe I’m trying too hard to look for a problem that doesn’t exist.
• Ryan Perry, what was that?
• The win brings the Tigers up to .500 (18-18). It’s been up and down the last few weeks, but they’re 15-11 in the last 26 games (after the 3-7 start to the season).

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