07-14-2006, 12:25 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Pudge Supporter
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Detroit
Posts: 575
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Smokin!!!! Tigs Win 6-4
Quote:
DETROIT -- It lasted a little longer than expected.
But after an All-Star break of three days and three innings, the Tigers got back to the business of winning Thursday night.
Three innings? What's that all about?
It's all about this: The Tigers didn't initially look like themselves in a 6-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals before a summer gathering of 31,967 at Comerica Park -- and, with an unusual silence, the crowd didn't sound like itself, either.
Nobody got antsy, though
The Tigers bided their time against Royals starter Brandon Duckworth. The fans were patient, working their Sudoku puzzles or whatever they busied themselves with before the Tigers warranted their attention.
And, in the end, it all worked out -- as it has 60 times already for the 60-29 Tigers, who also happen to be 9-0 against the Royals.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland spoke before the game about how much better the Royals are than the last time these teams met -- and the standings, at least the won-lost portion of the standings, bear that out.
When the Tigers swept four straight from K.C. in May, they left the Royals with a 10-35 record. Since then, however, Buddy Bell's crew had been 21-22.
Pretty respectable, actually.
"This is going to be an extremely tough series," Leyland said. "I'm very concerned about it.
"Despite their record -- some people out there are going to snicker when they read this -- they are a darn good baseball team. I'm dead serious."
The Royals also looked darn good with a 4-0 lead after the top of fourth against Jeremy Bonderman.
But then the Tigers came back from their break -- and K.C. began to look like a 10-35 pumpkin again. The changeover didn't take long. By the end of the fifth, the Tigers were in front to stay.
"Once they scored and got to their bullpen, that's the way they've been winning," Bell said.
Pudge Rodriguez struck the first blow in the fourth, hitting his eighth home run of the season. However, Bonderman was one pitch away from being lifted in the fifth when he went to a 3-2 count on Emil Brown with two outs.
A walk to Brown at that point and the Royals would have had the bases loaded with Mark Teahen coming to the plate. Teahen had tripled and hit a two-run home run off Bonderman. Instead of walking, however, Brown grounded out to short -- which meant Bonderman was still in the game to benefit from a rally, if one was forthcoming.
Which it was in the bottom of the fifth.
With one out, the Tigers strung together four consecutive station-to-station singles for their second run. Curtis Granderson's grounder drove in another, cutting the Royals' lead to one.
On a bouncer to third by Placido Polanco, however, Teahen not only made one error, but two -- handing the Tigers the lead.
Teahen -- the name is familiar. Isn't that the guy who made three errors at third in his rookie season vs. the Tigers last year? It is. Now you can add two more E's to his name.
Teahen failed to field Polanco's grounder cleanly, and then compounded his mistake with a wild heave to first. Both runners scored on the play. Rubbing salt into the wound, as they're good at doing, the Tigers made additional use to the double-blunder when Magglio Ordonez's single scored Polanco to make it a five-run fifth.
In effect, that was game, set, match. Neither team scored again.
Bonderman lasted long enough to improve to 9-4. He made the pitch he needed to make in the fifth to stay in the game, and also lasted a batter longer than it looked like he would in the sixth -- what with Wilfredo Ledezma making the mistake of walking in part way from the bullpen before realizing he hadn't been summoned.
"I thought maybe the bathroom in the bullpen had stopped up," Leyland said.
False alarm, in other words.
Just like the first three innings were.
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They have had a great season! Im actually proud to be a tigers fan now 
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Lets Go Tigers, Woohoo, Go PUDGE!!!! 
*Proud Baseball and Hockey Fan*
*Back in Black - Ac/Dc*
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Smokin!!!! Tigs Win 6-4
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