BASEBALL
I have never heard the home crowd so brutal. Ordonez (Note to self- learn to tilde in Word Press) got booed for popping out as part of his 0-4 performance. Verlander got booed in the second after struggling in the first two innings. Jackson got booed after making 3 strike outs on 11 pitches and again after grounding out weekly on his fourth at bat. Raburn got booed for striking out and for appearing not to stick his glove out on a ball hit t left. It was probably unplayable and that’s why he didn’t stick outhis glove, but the crowd was not happy.
The game itself was one that if the Tigers were up 4 games in the Central you’d think that this was a fun, exciting game. However, when your team is 8 games back and on a 7-game losing streak the fun decreases substantially. Verlander was at 69 pitches after 3 innings. He allowed 8 base runners, but only 3 runs in the first two innings. Giardi helped him out by getting Jeter caught stealing in the first. (Giarid aslo got Granderson out in the ninth stealing, when Granderson overslid the bag, but Giardi could not help the Tigers enough.) Verlander gutted it out though and went 6 innings throwing over 120 pitches. His 121st pitch registered 100 MPH on the Comerica radar gun.
In the bottom of the seventh Avila hit his second solo home run to the Yankee bullpen to tie the game at 3-3 and you just knew that the Tigers were going to win and that the losing streak would end.
Well, you were sure until the top of the ninth. Valverde walked Granderson who was caught stealing. So he walked Texiera to replace him. Rodriguez reached on what the scorekeeper calls a hit, but what remains an E5 (Inge) on my scorecard. A single and a wild pitch scored two runs to make it 5-3. before the inning ended.
Then, Rivera.
Baseball and Not Baseball 