Mariners secret weapon backfires

Tigers 2-1 Mariners (15 innings)


Wow, what a painfully long game. I know that a win is a win, but the offense is starting to revert back to its April/May form, and a number of hitters are slipping mightily. That said, the pitching today was excellent, led by a 9 inning gem from Nate Robertson, a solid showing from Zumaya and capped off by a Jones save. The Tigers escape Seattle with a split as they come back home to face the Sabathia-less Tribe.

Although we're trained to fear the worst during games like this, the Tigers set themselves up to win deep in extra innings by working pitch counts and making Seattle burn through pitchers, whereas their hitters were doing the opposite, letting Nate off easy by often swinging at the first pitch. Tiger hitters drew 9 walks while the Mariners had 5 (2 intentional), and in the 15th inning the M's resorted to throwing their backup catcher Jamie Burke out on the mound. Arthur Rhodes apparently had a tired arm and was unavailable to pitch, so it was Burke tossing BP fastballs and coming away with the loss.

• Robertson's line: 9 IP, 4 hits, 2 ER, 2 BB (both intentional), and a big strikeout of Raul Ibanez. He was only hit hard once on the day as he allowed an RBI double for the M's only score.

• Zumaya's: 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 2 BB and 3 K's. It's the most impressive outing from him that I've seen since he's been back.

• Between both teams, in a 15 game, only one player had multiple hits: Pudge Rodriguez with 4 (all singles).

• Ryan Raburn had a mammoth home run in the 5th that tied the game at 1. It came on a full count, and in the split second before he started to uncork his swing, I cringed as it looked like Ball 4, easily. Then it went really far and I forgave him instantly.

• Edgar Renteria: 0 for 7 with 2 K's and 5 left on base. You could say he's in a bit of a slump. It was either his last at-bat or the one before it where he swung and missed at a pitch that was literally about a foot and a half outside. He would've need two bats to reach it. And he's frustrated. Shit, we're all frustrated. But I'd feel at least .01% better about how big of a bust he's been if they would just stop playing his "Who's Your Tiger" commercial. He's nobody's fucking Tiger. Edgar's parents don't even root for him anymore (I hear they're big Bobby Seay fans).