A Tale of Two Double Plays

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."

Actually for the Tigers this year it has, for the most part, been only the best of times. Everything just seems to be rolling the Tigers' way as they have now opened up a 3 game lead atop the AL Central. Minus the Royals, the rest of the Central seems to be collapsing as we approach a quarter of the way through the season. The Twins have lost 6 of the last 7, including a 4-game sweep at the hands of the rejuvenated Yankees. The ChiSox have only won 3 games so far in the month of May, endured a 20-1 shellacking last night and their infield minus Konerko has combined to hit a robust .222 - thanks Alexei Ramirez, Chris Getz and Josh Fields! And the Indians? Well, they're just terrible. It's like watching the guys from Major League prior to when they decided to become plucky and lovable by slowly undressing a cardboard cutout of Rachel Phelps. The real world 2009 Cleveland team could really, really use a montage right about now. It's still early in the year, but I like Detroit's chances to win the Central - and they'll need to to make the playoffs since the wild card will almost assuredly be coming from the East this year.

Although resurrected-from-the-dead starter Edwin Jackson needed a staggering 132 pitches to do it, the Tigers completed their sweep and season-long dominance of the Rangers on Thursday. Count me among the Tigers fanbase watching the game pulling their hair out and yelling at the TV for Leyland to give Jackson the hook in the 8th after he walked the first batter of the inning... and then after he gave up a towering, near-homer double to Hammerin' Hank Blalock... and then after Cruz blasted a two run double to tie the game... and then after he walked the pathetically floundering Chris Davis (currently in the midst of an 0/16 slump)... but Leyland made it work and his faith in Jackson paid off after Miggy hit a bloop single to center to score what ended up being the game winning run. To be fair, Jackson was still throwing very hard in the 8th (he reached 97 several times) but he was clearly laboring and I can't help but feel that Leyland's over zealousness to show faith in his pitching staff is going to bite the team in the ass eventually. But we won, so who's complaining?

The real story beyond Jackson's somewhat-shaky, but decent outing (8.0 IP 3 ER 7 H 5 BB 7 K) was two key double plays in the game and the overall much-improved defense the Tigers are displaying this year, however. In the second inning Clete Thomas caught a ball in medium-depth right field and then gunned the runner at home for the outfield assist and inning ending double play to save a run. Then in the top of the 9th with the Tigers leading 3-2, Rodney got himself into trouble with runners on first and third with one out, but got the incredibly underrated Michael Young to ground into a game-ending double play. Rodney is now a perfect 8 for 8 in save chances so far this year. Rodney tends to dick around when he is not pitching in a save opportunity, but he certainly brings the intensity when he needs to.

Much of the success of the pitching staff this year can be attributed to the improved defense across the board. Inge has been positively electric at third (and just hit his team-leading 12th dong of the year), Miggy has done a much better job at first this year and the Everett/Santiago timeshare at short has been gobbling up ground balls.

In fact, the only real negatives this season have been Armando's regression after a hot start (it's rumored that when Bonderman returns that Galarraga and not D-Train would be the odd man out in the rotation, barring a great start on Saturday) and Magglio showing his age (.256 2 HR 17 RBI). Miggy has fallen 7 HR off the AL-leading pace (15, Carlos Pena) but when a guy's hitting .381 that's "probably" just quibbling.