BASEBALL

6-5.

Brad Penny pitched six innings despite a high early pitch count as the Tigers beat the Yankees 4-2.  This was critical as the Tigers only had 3 relievers available- Schlereth, Valverde and Thomas.  His performance allowed the Tigers to avoid using Thomas as Schlereth pitched two innings only allowing a homer toTexiera.  Valverde pitched a scoreless ninth aided by a game-ending 4-6-3 double play.

For me the story of the game was the return of Scott Sizemore.  He looked a little lost at second sometimes to me- a little slow to get the ball out of his glove on some double play attempts.  He even made an error when he missed picking up a ball that he charged.  The error led to the Yankee run in the fourth as two hits followed it.  Wells prevented a second run scoring because of the error when he turned a fly out to right into a double play instead of a sacrifice fly.

You certainly couldn’t fault Sizemore’s offense.  He doubled in his first at bat to near the out of town scoreboard in right.  He should have had an RBI, but Jackson did not score from second as he had to wait to see if Granderson could run it down.  He did get an RBI in the fifth with his third hit.  (He struck out in his fourth at bat.)

It was a cold game so we retreated to the Tiger Club for the eighth inning.  In the bar part they serve a cream puff and an apple crisp each of which are fantastic. Both are served with a large scoop of ice cream.  the carmel sauce on the cream puff is light and delicious.   With tax and tip it totaled between$16 and $17 for two very fancy desserts in the ballpark.  It beats paying $8 for two ice cream sandwiches and it comes with warmth and a comfy seat.

I also narrowly avoided a cliched title like, “Sizemore Matters.”