Carousel on the Bases

The night began so promisingly. Two solo home runs, by Miguel Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta, put the Tigers up 2-0. Max Scherzer, who had a couple of good to great post-season outings, got the first out of the third inning, a dandy play by Brandon Inge. That was the end of the good news. By the time the inning was over, four Tigers pitchers would take the mound, and the Rangers would score nine runs. Any hope of taking this series to game seven were dashed.

Last night's game had only one good thing about it--the outcome was so sure that I could watch without tension. And I did watch to the end, giving the Tigers a chance of coming back, however negligible it was, and in a show of respect for their season. I won't go into the gory details of how the Rangers set forth a carousel on the bases. Suffice it to say that Scherzer didn't have good control, and then Jim Leyland's nightmare came true--the Rangers were running loose in the dregs of the Tigers' bullpen. By the time Brad Penny served up batting practice late, it was a party in Arlington, and the Rangers had 15 runs.

The Tigers did mount a modest comeback. Austin Jackson finally had a big hit, albeit one that came when the Tigers were seven runs down, when he rapped a two-run homer to right. Cabrera then added another bomb, and the Tigers had five runs. Ordinarily in this series, five runs would put a team in contention to win, but that home run put the Tigers ten runs back.

So now the long off-season begins. The Tigers had a great season, winning their division by a rout. They did their city proud, and it was great seeing the gruff but sentimental Leyland tear up in his post-season interview, expressing pride and his team and giving credit to his opponent. Next year looks promising, as the best three pitchers are signed, and there's a lot of young talent. But there are some pieces that need fixing, and some players will be no doubt be gone (we can start with Penny).

Over the course of the winter I'll keep tabs on what off-season moves the Tigers make, and will turn my attention to the Princeton women's ice hockey team, whose season starts on Friday.