So what better do 3 guys who grew up in the Detroit area have to do but write about and discuss the current Tigers squad in hopes that they can bring the Glory Days back to Motown. Here’s to this year’s team Restoring the Roar of 1984!
Dan Dickerson and Jim Price’s call of Granderson’s leaping, game saving catch in Cleveland this weekend.
With only one bad inning in a 3 game series, the Tigers took 2 out of 3 from the Seattle Mariners, the first series of this year’s first roadtrip, and the Tigers go into Anaheim on Tuesday with a 7-5 record.
The starting pitching and bullpen pitching were going on all cylinders. Rick Porcello and Edwin Jackson looked great in the second and third games respectively, with the Tigers giving up a combined total of two runs in those final two games. Verlander looked lights out in the first game, until they decided to play the 5th inning where SEA scored 5 runs - a couple of which were not Verlander’s fault or just flukes - an errand throw by Inge, a great sqeeze play by SEA, a rare wild pitch by JV.
The hitting was impressive, as usual - the Tigers have yet to have a game in which they get fewer than 8 hits. During the Seattle series, it seemed that everyone from Cabrerra to Santiago to Guillen to Inge were getting hits when and where they counted. Yes, Inge is hitting out of his mind this year - I will admit it - but let’s see where he’s at come July or August before I start retracting any previous slams against him.
Sidenote: Before things get out of hand - it’s useful to know I am one of 3 contributors to this page and the other 2 Tigers fans harbor no ill feelings toward B. Inge. And, in all honesty, I don’t either - I simply think Tigers fans give him too much credit for too few results. This season is looking like Inge may have turned a corner with his new batting stance and so far decent offensive numbers. Let’s wait and see where he is in July before we start calling for my retraction of jabs against Brandon Inge of seasons past.
All in all, the Tigers had an impressive showing against the M’s who had the best record in the AL coming into this series. Granted the M’s are not a superpower in the AL, play in one of the traditionally weakest divisions, and are relying on an aging Ken Griffey Jr. to fill the seats of SafeCo Field. But lets give credit to the Tigers for stellar pitching and great offense and hope that this carries into Anaheim and beyond.
Rick Porcello gave up five hits in seven innings on Sunday. He earned his official first win of his career. Porcello had three strikeouts, no walks and retired the final 14 batters he faced.
Two weeks into the season, I think we are all pleased at the productivity of the starting rotation.
ps.
zumaya could be back very soon, with bonderman and willis (holding my breath) soon behind [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4081510]
White Sox 0, Tigers 9
We played a little hooky from work today and headed downtown to watch our beloved Motor City Kitties play their most complete game this year.
A few observations from today’s game:
Go Get ‘em Tigers
Since today’s opening day, I decided to bring back the rally cry for the 1960’s Tigers… well it’s the sexy version of rally cry. Seriously, WTF is to ‘RAWRR’ at the beginning about?
We here at Restore the Roar will be downtown tomorrow celebrating our 1-3 Tigers home opener against the Texas Rangers. It should be a rousing time, destined to involve tons of laughs and pints of beer.
In celebration of that, here’s a quick little desktop wallpaper I created this afternoon for you folks at home. Just click the image above and ‘Save as…’. You’ll be restoring the roar everyday this summer. Bless you boys!
Tigers 4, Blue Jays 5
2009 Blown save count: 1
Well, it only took 2 games this year for our so-called closer to bring back the memories of last year.
Edwin Jackson throws 7 1/3 strong innings, looking almost untouchable until Rolen’s homer in the 8th. Bobby Seay come in and does his job for one batter and then Brandon “Blown Save” Lyon comes in and gives up 4 runs in 1 1/3 innings, including a sac fly to center that ends the game with a Tiger loss.
Three faces per Eric and my text messages last night: Nicklas Lidstrom, Steven Dorff and starting shortstop Adam Everett.