Written by Despite a rumor to the contrary, it appears Pavano still has his mustache and yes, I sadly did spend the better part of the afternoon stalking my twitter account waiting for verification on the yay or nay. Sad.
Kubel is still dealing with swelling and soreness so he didn’t swing a bat today but, according to Phil Mackey, Thome was feeling better and will be available to pinch hit. That being said, we’ll still be doing piece-meal lineups for a couple days.
| Detroit | @ | Minnesota |
| Jackson, A, CF | Span, CF | |
| Rhymes, 2B | Casilla, A, 2B | |
| Damon, DH | Mauer, C | |
| Cabrera, M, 1B | Cuddyer, 1B | |
| Boesch, RF | Young, D, LF | |
| Peralta, J, 3B | Valencia, 3B | |
| Kelly, LF | Morales, J, DH | |
| Avila, C | Repko, RF | |
| Santiago, SS | Hardy, SS | |
| Verlander, P | Baker, S, P |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | R | H | E | |
| Detroit | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 19 | 2 |
| Minnesota | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 15 | 2 |
It’s bad enough losing a game like this one, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that burning through the pitchers doesn’t put Friday’s game at risk, also. There were SO many opportunities to win this game. 15 hits is great… but you know it would be nice to get ONE extra base hit instead of all singles. The guys certainly put out the effort tonight (which is more than we can say for 2B umpire Cowboy Joe West, who flat out sucked).
We have to hope nothing is seriously wrong with Scott Baker’s elbow, but when your starting pitcher has to leave after 2 innings, it’s a bad omen. Jeff Manship performed admirably in his 4 innings pitched. I wish I could say the same for a few other members of the bullpen.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that a call has been made to Rochester for a couple of pitchers to help out this weekend against the Rangers. Let’s hope for the best! – JC
