5 in a row!

LA Dodgers 7, Tigers 12

The air is starting to get a little thin way up here, it's hard to catch your breath.

We are seeing some things that we have not seen much of this year. This afternoon the Tigers beat the Dodgers for their 5th win and 2nd series victory in a row. The game was really sloppy defensively (3 Tiger errors, 1 Dodger error) and neither starting pitcher did well- but Eddie Bonine didn't pitch as badly as Brad Penny did. One of the things we are starting to see is that the Tigers' line up seems to really enjoy weak pitching. I mean "enjoy" in the way that Tigers enjoy small, weak deer. Getting 12 runs on 15 hits and 6 walks makes it a whole lot easier for your pitcher to not be too hot, but still get a victory in their first major league game (congratulations to Eddie on striking out the first batter he faced in his Major League career).

The hitters had 27 total bases today. They had 18 last night. In fact they have averaged 15.8 total bases for this week (6/8-6/14/08). That is good enough for a Slugging % of .470 and 5.3 runs per game! More importantly, that was good enough for a 6 and 1 record this past week- by far their best week this year. Hopefully this is an awakening, a realization by the hitters that they can hit the ball and score runs on a consistent basis. Today there were 2 doubles (Larish and Ordonez) and 2 triples (Granderson and Polanco) as well as 2 homeruns (Thames and Cabrera). The only starter to not get at least a single today was Carlos Guillen.

The starters are really pulling things together. Even with Willis' 8 runs allowed in 1.1 innings earlier this week and Bonines 6 runs in 5.1 innings today the starters only allowed 21 earned runs this week for an ERA of 4.55 (by my figures). So let's see, the Starters allowed 4.55 runs per 9 innings and the Hitters scored an average of 5.3 runs per game- let me do some math here..... result = 6 wins and 1 loss!

Sunday (Fathers' Day) the Tigers attempt to complete a sweep of the Dodgers. Then they fly to San Fransisco to take on the Giants. I can finally say that I am getting excited again about this team's chances to make it exciting this year. I almost feel wrong saying this, but since the White Sox lost again today the Tigers are "only" 7 games out of first place.

Go Tigers!!