Interleague Play Begins

Although the Detroit/Colorado "rivalry" doesn't quite have the sizzle it did in the 90s when the Red Wings and Avalanche were consistently at each others' throats, the Tigers and Rockies managed to put a pretty entertaining game together and - best of all - the Tigers got the win. Porcello had another very strong outing (6.0 IP 1 ER 6 H 2 BB 3 K) to win his fourth consecutive game. Leyland referred to him as "Nolan frickin Ryan" - high praise indeed for a 20 year old. The Nolan Ryan comparisons might be a tad bit hasty, but the fact remains that Porcello has been outstanding in May, going 3-0 and allowing only 3 runs in 3 starts. The future looks very, very bright for the young hurler.

Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez also put forth a strong outing - 7.0 IP 3 ER 6 H 1 BB 7 K. Gerald Laird scored one of the runs with a very heads-up play by scoring from third on a wild pitch that did not get far away from the catcher at all. The other two runs were courtesy of a two run blast from Binge who continues to boggle my mind both by batting .279 and leading the team in home runs (12). I keep telling myself that Binge has to cool off eventually, but we're now 40 games into the season so it's not as though he's just pulling a 2006 Chris Shelton impression. Maaaybe this is legit?

The second game of the series pits Armando Galarraga against Jason Marquis, formely of the Cubbies. Galarraga has been brutal since his great start (last 4 games: 0-3 10.90 ERA 9:12 K:BB) and is very close to losing his spot in the rotation. Not many expected Armando to repeat his impressive performance from last year, but he certainly was not expected to be this bad. I hope he can find some way to right the ship because it would be very unfortunate for him to fall from grace in this manner. His struggles have been somewhat masked because almost everyone is talking about the D-Train's last start when he threw 6.1 innings of one hit, no run ball last Tuesday (5/19) to get his first win as a Tiger. This is way too early to say since it was only one good start (and he was very shaky in his first outing), but I'll do it anyway obviously... how amazing would it be for the Tigers if Willis returned to anywhere near his 2005 form? The Tigers already have one of the best performing rotations in baseball so far this season (fourth in the AL in team ERA @ 4.17) and to go from possibly being forced to cut a guy you owe $22 million to having a legit starting pitcher would be stunning. Keep the train rolling Dontrelle.