The Rangers final game in the Detroit series was an odd one. First off, due to the doubleheader, we needed a spot start, that it was chosen to be Dave Bush.
Who did a decent enough job Three innings, three hits, three walks, and no runs allowed. He only went three innings, so it was really a bullpen game from the start. I thought he’d go more than he did, especially as when he came out, he only had 71 pitches. Way high for just three innings, but he didn’t look awful when he came out, I figured on four at that point. Oh well.
He was followed by Mason Tobin, who did pretty well. Went two innings himself, allowed just a hit and a walk – no runs. He looked good.
What didn’t look good was what was next. Mark Lowe. Blown save, allowed the two runs the Tigers got to tie the game in the sixth. Given we had just scored our two runs in the top of the sixth, it was a momentum killer, for sure.
Arthur Rhodes kept up his end of the bargain with a perfect inning thrown in the seventh.
Even Darren Oliver was OK in the eighth, but he went back out in the ninth, and allowed the winning run in the bottom of the ninth for the loss. Bummer.
Offensively, we didn’t string much together. We had a double by Michael Young, and eight other singles. That was it. That seems like a lot of hits when I play the “not a lot of offense” card, but the Tigers did a good job at spacing them apart, and keeping us off the scoreboard. Managed to string enough together in the top of the sixth to score our two runs then on RBI singles by Nelson Cruz & David Murphy.
That was it, though. Dropped a series for the first time this year, 1-2 in Detroit. Which is better than we have been playing there lately, which would have been 0-3. Sigh.