And as quickly as a six game WINNAR streak comes, it slides out of door as quickly as a Fernando Rodney pitch can leave the stadium. For 2/3 of the game, we saw the relatively low scoring game that we expected from Verlander and Lincecum. JV went 6 and gave up 3 runs while striking out 7. Lincecum went 7 and gave up 4 runs and struck out only 3. However, he also gave up two homers to the River Thames, continuing his “hot when he hits it” streak to a total of 7 homers in his last 7 hits.
However, in a scene we hadn’t seen in at least two weeks - the bullpen fell appear. Steady Freddy Dolsi took the loss, but it was the recently returned Fernando Rodney who took the beating. Fernando’s current ERA after 1/3 of an inning pitched is 81.01. The five run eighth inning saw our heroes go from up 4-3 to down 8-4. A pair of rally runs in the 9th fell short of the ultimate goal and the Tigers winning ways came to an end for the night.
Tonight Men Who Look Like Kenny Rogers takes the mound against somebody named Jonathan Sanchez, who is clearly not a real major league baseball player in spite of his 6-3 record and 4.26 ERA.
Kenny in a batting helmet? If there is a heaven better than this, I don’t think I could handle it.