Well, nothing caps off getting swept by a team from the worst city in America like losing a 14-inning tear jerker to a team inspired by a Chuck Norris television series.
Stranding 16 men in 14 innings in pretty sad, but throw in base running errors and you're bound to have a bomb threat on your hands. I mean, what else am I supposed to do with my time if I can't even expect the Tigers to score in bases loaded situations? So Damon claims he was deeked by Nelson Cruz after he lost the ball in the lights of what turned out to be a base hit single by Boesch in 11th. He only moved up to 3rd from 2nd and of course, Carlos Guillen, doing his best Gary Sheffield impression, grounded into a double play soon after. (By the way, why the hell is Guillen playing second base behind the bag? It's actually his lack of range in the 7th that allowed two straight ground balls pass him on the left, which led to a bad hop ball that bounced over Santiago's head at short stop and allowed a run to score... Texas's last run until the 14th...) I don't feel like the Tiger's played particularly poorly at any point, but after stranding 11 runners in Saturday's extra inning loss to the Indians and 26 over that entire series, it's just starting to become a very disturbing trend...
On a lighter note, Cabrera is still in the hunt for the triple crown, and his performance last night was evidence that he busted out of that 2-14 Cleveland slump. 3-6 with 2 R and 3 RBIs. His two solo home runs were pretty impressive, but neither timely (Mags threw in a solo home run as well... hit these with people on base fellas!). Cabrera is .013 behind Hamilton in BA and 1 home run behind Bautista. He leads the AL with 82 (!) RBIs.
Lastly, it's time to address Brandon Inge. Looks like he'll be out 4-6 weeks with a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal. That's fancy doctor talk for "he fucking broke his pinky finger." I don't think this is terrible as it may seem. I'm a huge fan of Inge and think he's an excellent ball player. But his bat hasn't been electric recently, so getting a chance to get Rayburn, Kelly, or Santiago/Worth everyday playing time could provide some extra power in the bottom of the order. Further, Inge's defense hasn't been quite what it was in years past, so a break for his knees might not be the worst thing. Bottom line is Tiger's suck right now and we need someone to get in there and mix things up. Either the players will do it or like I said, I'm going to do my best Unabomber impression over the phone...
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