Detroit Somehow Finds A Way To Spit One Up Against The Reds

Detroit Somehow Finds A Way To Spit One Up Against The Reds

UGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH! I can't believe that just happened.

It would’ve been nice if Terry Francona had taken tonight off and just let Andrew Abbott stay in the game as long as possible, because Detroit was pummeling him. This is a guy who I know is capable of pitching some good baseball, but he’s off to a rough start this year, and the stuff just hasn’t been the same. Detroit was all over his heater tonight. For all the frustrations that we’ve had about this lineup against lefties, they’ve seen them pretty well over the last few weeks.

Per usual, Detroit had multiple opportunities to really put this ballgame on ice and failed to capitalize. This team is very weird. They’ll collect clutch hits late in games as they did on Thursday against Milwaukee, but I feel like whenever there’s an instance where they can really tack on and put a team away in the middle innings, they often come away with some less-than-desirable at-bats. It feels like they become a little bit less patient when there are men on base.

The Tigers' pitching staff as a whole does a pretty good job of throwing strikes, especially the bullpen. Jason Bennetti pointed out tonight that the Tigers have the seventh-lowest walk rate among all bull pens, but I swear there are just these nights when the entire staff has trouble throwing strikes. While not a reliever, Framber Valdez didn’t exactly set the tone by walking five and not making it through five innings. Will Vest comes in and immediately lets a runner on base and then gives up a home run. And of course, you had the error by Javy. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing; that sloppiness will cost you games at this level.

I had a whole final paragraph written that was very optimistic because I assumed Detroit would win the game when they had two outs in the ninth inning and an 0-2 count. I guess I was being dumb to assume we could have nice things. That’s just a terrible loss. I think AJ Hinch's teams have done a great job of having short memories, but that is one of those games I could carry over until tomorrow. There is no reason why this team should be giving away this many games. You are stuck with the roster you have, but there’s talent here. They need to execute better.