MLB: Day Eleven

Posted on | April 12, 2007 | No Comments

The first few days of the season I wrote a lot about the struggles of the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers. Last year’s World Series winner and runner-up, respectively, didn’t start out the season very well. Perhaps now we can completely put that story line to bed.

Since beginning the season 2-4, the Cardinals and the Tigers have now rebounded for a combined record of 10-7. On Wednesday the Cardinals won 3-2 and the Tigers won 4-1.The Cardinals won their fourth straight game by beating the Pittsburgh Pirates. Chris Duncan hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth inning to put the Cardinals ahead by a run and the Cardinals went on to win their fourth straight.

Meanwhile, the Detroit Tigers are now 5-3 and they’re at the top of the American League Central. However, the Tigers have to be at least a little concerned over their lack of hitting. The Tigers have got great pitching but their bats have not yet begun to produce great results.

Second year pitcher, Justin Verlander, pitched his second great game of the season. In fact, Verlander has now pitched in 2 ball games and he has yet to give-up an earned run. But he has yet to get a win either.

Last night Verlander threw seven strong innings. He gave up just 3 hits and no runs. But he left with the game tied 0-0 because the Tigers bats have continued to struggle. The Detroit hitting were silent all the way into the 12^th inning. And the Detroit pitching kept the Tigers in the game.

In the top of the 12^th the Detroit Tigers finally got some much-needed runs. With the bases loaded, Craig Monroe hit a grand slam with 2 outs. That homer propelled the Tigers to a 4-1 win. The Tigers are now 5-3 on the season.

On Wednesday the Atlanta Braves continued to roll. They beat-up on the Washington Nationals by a score of 8-3. The Braves are now 7-1 on the season and the Nationals are now 1-8. Is the Braves success a product of them being great or the Nationals being horrible?

So, as teams wrap-up one series and move onto another, we’ll continue to get a little better feeling for who the good teams really are. The more teams that play each other the less there is a chance that a team is just winning because they’re playing bad teams. On Thursday all the teams will move-on and begin a new series either Thursday or Friday.

Related posts:

1. MLB: Day One Hundred and Eleven
2. MLB: 2 Huge Match-Ups in the American League
3. MLB: Day Twenty-Eight
4. MLB: The Twins are Charging Hard
5. MLB: Twins Still Charging… Braves Charging Too

Comments