Okay, okay…we get it. Justin Verlander has great stuff. The 23 year-old chopped our lineup down last night as if they were the Single-A and Double-A hitters he dominated a year ago in the Tigers farm system (he posted a combined 11-2 record with a 1.29 ERA with 20 starts in Lakeland and Erie). He threw his first career major league shutout last night, breezing to an 8-0 win, and improving to 6-3 on the season with a 2.70 ERA.
Doug Mientkiewicz said afterward that Verlander "had as good a stuff as I've seen in the big leagues." Bell said "that was as good a stuff as I've seen in a long time…" And while I'm sure they were telling the truth, it seems like we've said similar things about six or eight other guys who've mowed us down this season.
Jeremy Affeldt on the other hand struggled most of the night—giving up 8 ER in 6 IP. They jumped all over him for five runs in the second inning and they tacked on three more in the fifth. But let's be honest, we had little chance to win this game anyway. We only had five hits—two of which came in the ninth inning after Verlander started to get tired. The only positive I could see was the Bell sat Berroa again and let Blanco play short. Unfortunately, Bell said that he's planning to play Berroa for the next three games.
The losing streak now stands at ten games. And look at the next three pitching match ups of the series:
Runelvys Hernandez (1-3, 6.75) vs. Kenny Rogers (7-2, 2.91)
Mark Redman (0-4, 6.88) vs. Jeremy Bonderman (4-3, 4.66)
Denny Bautista (0-2, 3.75) vs. LHP Mike Maroth (5-2, 2.45)
I don't like any of those match ups. Bautista has the best chance, but who's going to bet against Mike Maroth right now? We might be headed into New York with a 13-game losing streak. We've lost 14 in a row in New York, so we could easily take a 16-game losing streak into Oakland. We're already 0-2 against them this season. If we got swept there, we'd be taking the daunted 19-game losing streak into Seattle.
How pathetic has the season turned out to be when we're simply hoping that we won't lose 19 in a row again?
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
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