Saturday’s First Pitch

Leading Off
In the words of Dr. Stu Price of The Hangover fame, “What do Tigers dream of when they take a little Tiger snooze?”

It certainly seemed like the Tigers were snoozing on Friday night. The Rockies were good for 13 hits and 14 runs (seven of which came within the first three innings – TACOS!), while holding the Tigers to six runs on 12 hits.

The Good
I wish we could play the American League all 162 American League games. We may have a shot at running away with a division race every now and then.

The Rockies unleashed an offensive barrage on the Tigers, proving they’re breaking out of their funk that plagued them for all of May and a few days of June. Carlos Gonzalez was on fire Friday, hitting a double and a home run, driving in four, and scoring a run himself, and making an outstanding outfield assist to throw out his good friend Miguel Cabrera at home. Chris Nelson also continued to shine, knocking his first Major League home run over the left field fence. Todd Helton, who leads all Opening Day starters in batting average at .317, went 2-for-5 with a run scored. Troy Tulowitzki went 1-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored, and came within about 3 feet of hitting his 14th home run of the year.

Jason Hammel went 6.1 innings and earned his first win since April 30th.

The Bad
Hammel gave up four runs in the sixth and seventh innings, including a grand slam to Jhonny Peralta to give the Tigers their second through fifth runs, and Victor Martinez brought in Austin Jackson for the Tigers sixth and final run in the seventh inning. They both gave up two runs each, but Matt Belisle proved once again to be effective, and Clayton Mortenson performed very well. Both Belisle and Mortenson kept runs from crossing the plate. Belisle lowered his ERA to an impressive 2.51.

The Ugly
Nothing really relating to the game to write here, but backup catcher Jose Morales was put on the 60-day Disabled List with a fractured right thumb suffered in Wednesday’s game against the Padres. Matt Pagnozzi was brought up to fill the void, but Morales was finally getting hot right when this injury was suffered.

On Deck
Because it’s Father’s Day on Sunday, I’m going to post a weekend preview instead of a daily preview like on the weekdays. Also, look for a write-up on the Rockies and the American League coming sometime this weekend.