Tigers Teach Royals: "Speed Kills"

Tigers W 8-4, (1-0)

Photo Courtesy MSNBC

Kansas City, MO- Wow. What an opening day. We had pitching aces going head to head, rookies making huge plays, and two bullpens that couldn't have been any different. And did I mention we won our first opening day since 2007?

Verlander looked good, going for 5 innings with 4 ER, 6H, and 6 SO, but Greinke looked better, 6 innings with 2 ER, 6 H and 4 SO. But guess what? It didn't matter, cus soon as the Royals pulled the one player who doesn't deserve to be in Kansas City, the wheels came off. In the 7th inning alone, the Royals Bullpen gave up 6 runs and 6 hits in an eight batter span with Sizemore showing off some great base running and AJAX getting his 1st major league hit with a 2 run double (JAX also showed off his arm some, throwing out Jason Kendall at home, thwarting any chance KC had at a comeback, see above). Tigers just looked good to be honest and with every Tiger except Laird reaching base during the game (Yes, even Everett who went 4-48 in spring training got a hit), the offense looked like a coiled spring. But the Tigers Bullpen is really what got me going...

Zumaya, Coke, Perry, and Valverde combined to pitch 4 innings of no run ball, with 3 H, 1 SO, and 1 BB. Do you know what this means? It means we don't have to cover our eyes anymore from the 7th inning on! Every pitcher out of the Tiger's bullpen on Monday hit at least 95 mph on the radar gun. Zumaya was throwing bullets, topping out at 102 but hitting 100 in about 85% of his pitches. Perry was hitting 98 mph before Valverde came in to do the same. These guys looked great, ready to put the hitters in a position to win the game, which is exactly what we're looking for.

I just want to say, "Bless these boys." Just like Christians celebrated the resurrection on Sunday, Tigers fans hopefully did the same on Monday.

A pop-up in the first inning ended up hitting the ground in front of Royals third baseman Willie Bloomquist for an error Monday. -Courtesy of the Kansas City Star

NEXT UP: Tigers @ KC, 4/7 at 8:10 pm ET, FS-D and MLB.TV