Tigers Defensive Woes Continue....

Game 4 of the 2006 World Series was with in the grasp of the heroes from Motown, however some defensive miscues sealed their fate late in the game.

An ugly 7th inning set the tone for the Tigers when Eckstein lead off the inning with a hard hit line drive to center field. Curtis Granderson slipped on the wet grass, falling down to miss his chance at catching the ball for an out. Instead Eckstein ended up at 2nd with yet another Cardinal's double. A So Taguchi bunt to get Eck over to third was fielded by Fernando Rodney, however he decided that the out wasn't worth getting and floated the ball over 1st baseman Sean Casey's glove which allowed Eck to score and Taguchi to get to 2nd. The Cards wound up taking the lead 4-3 over the Tigers for the first time in the game.

The Tigers rallied back in their half of the 8th to tie it up, but in the Cards half Craig Monroe blew an opportunity to end the inning by taking a bad route to a fly ball which scored another Cards run. 5-4 Card after 8 and only 3 outs for the Tigers to tie or win.

Adam Wainwright pitched a perfect 9th for the Cards to finish off the comeback victory and give the Cardinals a 3-1 series lead.

Same old Tigers it appears in the World Series this season. After having one of the better defensive teams all year they pitchers have made them look like one of the worst by fumbling and bumbling important outs late in ballgames to cost us wins.

Game 5 is Friday, weather permitting, and the Cards are going to skip Reyes to give the ex-Tiger Jeff Weaver his 2nd start of the series. Weaver pitched in Game 2, the only Tigers victory. He will face rookie Justin Verlander who was outdueled in Game 1 by the rookie Anthony Reyes. Verlander had a spectacular rookie season winning 17 games and is a show in for the AL Rookie of the Year. That will set up the masterful Chris Carpenter for Game 6, against the crafty veteran Kenny Rogers if the Tigers can somehow put together a complete ballgame.

Jeremy Bonderman pitched a decent game, but was pulled after 1 out in the 6th for Fernando Rodney with men on 1st and 3rd. Rodney struck out both men he faced in the 6th.

Not completely worried until the final pitch of the Card's 4th win, but I am certainly concerned with the Tigers lack of focus late in games. Letting Game 4 slip away was a big blow to winning it all this year and they are going to have to suck it up in a big way to pull off 3 in a row. They are going to have to do it first against the hated ex-Tiger Jeff Weaver who was traded for Jason Bonderman, Franklyn German, and Carlos Pena back in 2001. Bonderman was dealt as a "player to be named later" in the deal.

GO TIGERS!

Game 4 of World Series Rained Out

They tried to get it in, but to no avail yesterday. Thank God it wasn't either because I wouldn't have gotten to sleep last night.

So now what happens is that the rest of the games will be played with no breaks in between. If the Tigers can somehow win a couple and take it back home Game 6 will be played with the loss of a travel day and a grumpy crew of players.

It doesn't look to promising for the game to played tonight either according to weather reports so the World series may go even longer than expected into next week. Not good news for the Tigers if they may have to face Carpenter another time at least if they force it to Game 7, but possibly even more if the weather forces more delays.

At least Kenny Rogers can put some pine tar on his hand for an extra start and extra rest.

Oh yeah that reminds me. Pine tar. Kenny Rogers. Dirtgate.

Whatever. Tony LaRussa said it was no big deal. The players said it was no big deal. The MLB said it was no big deal. It's done. It's over. All the players in the league use an edge like this and unless some Cardinal fan announcing team opens their mouths about it no one ever sees it. ESPN will never let it go as usual. They beat everything to death and they are considered by me and many others to be a complete joke.

With 2 Cardinal fans in the booth for every game I want fair representation. Joe Buck (Mr. High Horse) and McCarver (Mr. Mouth) the coverage is completely biased. I want my Tiger announcers for the next 3 games. They are also Fox employees as well.

Here's to Mario Impemba and Rod Allen for Games 4,5, and 6!

Go Tigers!

Tigers Lose Game 3...

Well...Game 3 of the 2006 World Series wasn't the greatest day for me. Chris Carpenter dominated my boys by throwing 8 scoreless innings and basically making our guys look like fools at the plate.

I am not too worried. Manager Jimmy Leyland has a method to his madness I believe. He tends to use our worst pitcher against their best in the playoffs so far. Nate Robertson got the start against Chris Carpenter who is the reighning NL Cy Young. So I suppose Jim went the right direction as Carpenter shut us down and we used our worst pitcher against him so no harm no foul. We had to use him eventually so might as well have him eat a few innings in this one.

Now we get to run our top guys out against their lower end pitchers who we should be able to hit. Bonderman goes in Game 4 against Suppan in st. Louis, and though Suppan has pitched like a champ this post season I like our chances to get the bats going. Bonderman pitched a masterful game his last outing so my confidence in the kid are very high.

GO TIGERS! BRING THE TITLE TO MOTOWN! BLESS YOU BOYS!