Tigers Drop Seventh Straight

I don’t have the patience to hash out the details of this game. The end result is what I have come to expect from the Tigers these days, and a performance by the starting pitcher that has become all too familiar as well.

Justin Verlander is the ace of the staff, no question. Last season, the MLB players voted that Verlander possessed not only the best fastball in the American League, but the best curveball as well. The result should be the best pitcher, shouldn’t it?
Shouldn’t an ace go out and decide that the team isn’t going to lose tonight, when that team is riding a six game skid?

But Verlander channeled his inner-Bonderman and meandered through the first inning, taking him 32 pitches and two runs to do so. In the second, he coughed up another run and the Tigers were staring a 3-run deficit in the face.

I don’t much care that Alex Avila homered twice and that Miguel Cabrera had three hits. Those things are nice certainly, but they simply prolonged the agony as it turns out. Even the sprawling stop by Jhonny Peralta that kept the score tied and got Al Alburquerque out of an eighth inning jam did nothing other than draw me back in and give me a false sense that the Tigers could actually find a way to win this one.

Jose Valverde was wild and it took Verlander 127 pitches to get through six innings.

Oh well, at least Scott Sizemore is getting called up. More on that in a bit.