Porcello Dominates, Tigers Win

We’ve been hearing for a long time about Rick Porcello failing to meet expectations – I suppose yesterday was what some had expected of him all along. Rick Porcello was dominating, allowing only 1 hit (and no runs) and going the full 8 innings to bypass Tigers’ middle relief and deliver the game straight to the Big Potato. Given Porcello’s splits, and the righty slant of the Bucs lineup, I expected him to do well, but the three lefties didn’t manage a single hit (or walk) between them. To say that Porcello has turned the corner would be a little premature, but for now… What more could anyone ask for?

RUNS, obviously. The Tigers offense was very nearly as bad as Porcello was good, with 5 runs in 3 games they were lucky to win one. Part of the blame I would have to assign to home-plate umpire Mike Winters, who seemed to be calling an awful lot of outside strikes. Rumor has it that’s the sort of thing that generates the phenomenon we call ‘home field advantage’, though I couldn’t tell you for sure whether Porcello was benefiting from the same wide zone. You could just as easily heap the blame on an offense that just doesn’t look that strong, and isn’t going to until a number (let’s say ‘4’) of specific Tigers start to warm up or start to ride pine.