The back end of the Rays’ pen has been a complete mess this year as it seems like Manager Joe Maddon is just grasping at straws in the 8th and 9th innings. Tampa Bay’s bullpen coughed up the lead for the 3rd straight day, and in dramatic fashion, leading to a 5-3 Tigers win and a series sweep. Take a look at the breakdown that occurred in the 9th inning with the Rays leading 3-1:
Lance Cormier came in and pitched 1.1 innings of solid relief in an effort to preserve Wade Davis’ 1st career win. So with 1 out in the 9th, Maddon called on Grant Balfour after Cormier and Balfour promptly walked Miguel Cabrera. Maddon then called on the wreck of a pitcher that has become JP Howell and he promptly walked Marcus Thames. With runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out, Maddon went right back to the pen to get Russ Springer. Springer proceeded to give up a single to Magglio Ordonez to load the bases. Maddon left Springer in to face the tragic Brandon Inge who was 0-3 with 3 K’s in the game. GRAND SLAM! Tigers up 5-3. Next batter, Placido Polanco, triple. Maddon goes back to the pen to get Randy Choate who finally records the final 2 outs of the inning.
The Tigers just keep finding ways to win these games. That magical feeling from 2006 is officially back. The ride to October is in gear, so hop in, it’s going to be fun!
Jim Leyland left Edwin Jackson in to pitch with a deficit in the 8th inning, just like he’s done with Justin Verlander in his last 2 starts and it worked again. The Tigers rallied and got Jackson his 12th win of the year. Edwin Jackson pitched well in his return to Tampa Bay. He allowed an early inning homer…AGAIN, this time to Evan Longoria in the 2nd to tie the game at 1-1. The homer allowed was Jackson’s 21st of the year. Jackson went a full 8 innings on 126 pitches allowing 6 hits, 3 walks, and 3 earned runs, to go along with 4 K’s. He was so fired up after the grand slam, as was the entire dugout. It’s great to see the offense finally pick up Jackson who has had so little run support this year.
Brandon Lyon came on in the 9th for the 2nd straight day and notched his 2nd straight 1-2-3 save. Leyland wanted Fernando Rodney to get a few extra days of rest after his near implosion on Friday night. If Lyon keeps this up, as he has over the past 3 months, Leyland may have more 9th inning decisions to make than he bargained for. Lyon added a sensational defensive play on an Akinori Iwamura tapper to his right. Lyon darted to his right, bare-handed the ball, wheeled and fired to Cabrera at 1st for the 2nd out.
Oh by the way, America, meet Wade Davis. The prized right-hander from the Tampa Bay system made his Major League debut today against the Detroit Tigers and dominated from start to finish. He burst onto the scene by striking out the side in order in his first MLB inning. He followed that up by striking out the side again in the 2nd, despite allowing a 1-out solo homer to former long-time Ray Aubrey Huff. Huff’s homer gave the Tigers a brief 1-0 lead. The homer was also Huff’s 1st as a Tiger. Davis would hold the Tigers in check for the rest of the afternoon until handing the ball over to the bullpen in the 8th.
The rookie Davis allowed a mere 3 hits and 1 walk, to go along with 9 dominant strikeouts against a Tiger team that wouldn’t wake up until the 9th inning. Call me a pessimist or whatever, but Davis’ fastball didn’t look that impressive to me, despite the Tigers complete inability to do anything with it. That being said, it’s hard to take anything away from what the youngster did today.
Tampa got their 3 runs in 3 drastically different ways. The solo homer by Longoria was his 28th of the year as he continues his hot hitting over the past 2 weeks. Tampa got 2 more runs in the 3rd. The first came when Carl Crawford grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. The fielder’s choice allowed Dioner Navarro to score from 3rd. The Tigers caught a brief break on this play as Crawford was clearly safe at 1st, despite being called out. One batter later, Jackson would bounce a 2-strike pitch in the dirt allowing speedster Fernando Perez to score from 3rd.
With the win, the Tigers can hold their heads high yet again as they leave Florida with a road series sweep, their 2nd road series win in a row. They have beaten the Angels and the Rays in their last 2 road series’, two very tough teams to beat on the road.
The Tigers continue to walk around the league with the golden horseshoe jammed up their you know what. With the win and a Twins loss, the Tigers’ lead in the AL Central jumps to a full 7 games. The 3rd place White Sox are also losing today. A loss would drop them to 8.5 games back. The 75-61 Tigers will take Labor Day off and probably throw down some Kansas City-style ribs on their off day as they await a 3-game set with the Royals. Tampa falls to 72-64 and basically out of the race for the Wild Card.
Tiger Bites: Jim Leyland has a history of allowing his pitchers to rack up a ton of innings & pitches over the course of a season, the deeper this season gets, the more and more worried I get with how many innings and pitches Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson are throwing, they seem to routinely throw 110-120 pitches/game, I can certainly understand how tempting it must be to leave these guys in the game but with the playoffs looming, we are going to want these 2 arms to be as fresh as possible come October, this situation is worth monitoring
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