(no subject)

Man, making my sports blog round is pissing me off this morning. It's going to be a while before I make my peace with last night's game.

This is just so typical of the luck Nate Robertson has had this season. He threw a one run complete game against the Yankees and lost. He threw one pitch against the Devil Rays and got ejected because our first batter had gotten hit, and so Nate threw behind their first batter (behind, mind you, there was no contact), and the umpire jumped the gun even though a warning had not been issued, and then in the third when Kazmir threw behind Vance Wilson, the umpire did nothing in spite of the warning he had finally issued before the second inning.

And now Nate throws a beautiful two-hit two-run gem against one of the scariest lineups in baseball, leaves with the chance to actually get the win for a change, and the Tigers lose 10-7 in extra innings. Nate has a 5-10 record in spite of his abilities because this is the kind of shit that has happened to him all year long. It makes me want to fucking cry, it really does.

Some people are insisting on being reasonable about Alan Trammell, which annoys me because the rationality with which they are arguing leads me to suspect that they are probably right, and I would rather be mad.

It's just - yes, your closer exists for a reason. Yes, absolutely, have him ready to go if Nate so much as gives up a base hit. But Nate has plenty left, and he has two complete games this year, and we know he can go the distance if you ask him to. So ask him to. Don't use your closer just because he's there, especially when your starter has shut down a major offensive lineup with little effort and said closer has been a pretty big question mark since you put him in the role.

I'm not going so far as to say Tram should be fired. Obviously, the front office knows a little more about his qualifications than I do, and they are working on building a winning team, so if they think that Alan Trammell can helm that winning team, I'm not gonna question 'em. And if they think Alan Trammell needs to be fed to piranhas and they decide to bribe the Devil Rays into firing Lou Piniella so they can scoop him up - okay, I would wonder about that, because what the fuck, but my point is, I'll bitch and moan about Tram all I want, but I'm not going to demand his job. I won't be especially surprised if he does get fired after the season ends, though, and I know that if he does everyone will point to last night as the straw that broke the camel's back.

Oh, and check out how defensive he is in this article. Sounds like he knows he fucked up and won't admit it. No one gets as defensive as someone who doesn't want to admit to a mistake. News flash, Tram: No one is "second guessing" you. That term implies that we are only questioning you after the fact, when, in fact, we started questioning you the second we saw Rodney warming up in the bottom of the eighth. We are first guessing you, because everyone on the planet except for you knew what a Grady Little move that was. We all saw disaster coming.

And just because I don't want it to get lost in the mess, I will end by mentioning Craig Monroe's grand slam one more time. Craig, that was hot, and I love you, and I'm sorry it was wasted, but thank you for making the final score rather less humiliating.

(no subject)

You know, I was afraid that this would happen this year.

My two boys, Boomer and Bondo, facing off. And only one can get the win (or, the way things have been going, neither). Like this series hasn't been insane enough already?

I'll be on AIM, twitching, if anyone cares to be twitched at.

(no subject)

Being as Pudge is working my nerves big time lately not playing right now, and Vance has been stepping up a lot better than we thought he would, I am temporarily replacing my Pudge icon with a Vance icon. The Pudge icon will return when Pudge grows up and stops acting like the universe is out to get him heals and can play again. I was starting to feel a bit silly using an icon for a player who doesn't care to play anymore hasn't been in any games except one for like a week and a half. Sadly, I could not find a beaming happy Vance picture, so you'll just have to imagine beaming happiness when I use this icon in a beaming happiness context.

TRVIA QUESTION: This picture also provided another of my icons. Which one?

I will address the game in a bit. And, to warn my fellow Sox fans, I will use this icon when I do it.

(no subject)

Whoops, I lose. I really need to stop thinking I can predict series outcomes. Or the outcome of a game. Or even the outcome of an at bat. Because I AM ALWAYS WRONG. If I say something is going to happen in baseball, it never happens. I know this. But I did it anyway.

And haha it worked am I good or what? I told you I knew what I was doing, offspeed!

Okay, I'll admit it now. Fellow Sox fans, crucify me if you like, and I will meekly accept it, but I was rooting for the Tigers. I couldn't help it. I am wired that way. The more certain I became that the Sox would sweep - and there was no doubt in my mind - the more I wanted the Tigers to at least take one game. Be it fact or fiction, I've always rooted for the underdog, even before I knew what an underdog was. It's made me pick favorite characters like Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and Joxer the Mighty. Hell, it made me a Red Sox fan - the day after the 2003 ALCS, when I'd had time to process what had happened, was the day that really cemented my love for the team. Had they won, I'm not sure my sudden new obsession would have sustained itself and become genuine love. I think it might have faded over the offseason.

And what's more underdog than my beloved Tigers, who have lost eighteen squillion of their last eighteen squillion and six games, coming up against my beloved Red Sox, first in their division and on a winning streak? I know, logically, that I should support the team in contention who needs the wins to stay that way, and not the team whose season I've given up on, but who ever said logic has anything to do with baseball?

And honestly, I am very attached to the part of the Tigers rotation we saw. I love Sean Douglass for sucking at life when he was an Oriole, going to AAA, and coming back to kick ass for us. I love Nate Robertson for not going on a killing spree after watching beautiful start after beautiful start go to waste. I love Bondo because he is Bondo and he is twenty-two and was an All-Star candidate this year and I am so excited about his career I can hardly contain myself at times. As I've said before, I've become a real pitching enthusiast this year, even though it's the area of baseball I know the least about, and when my favorite boys are on the mound, I want them to get those wins.

Which is why today's game was the one I was most excited and anxious about. Bondo, who very quickly became the player I probably enjoy watching the most, and Boomer, who I was excited about having from the second he signed. At the moment, each is probably the best in his rotation and I was anticipating a possible pitchers duel, and also anticipating my own fatal heart attack.

So, really, it was sweet of Boomer to get that out of the way early.

That first inning was weird. Last time he did that badly, I had to go out and buy beer to survive the rest of the game. Against any other team, I think I would have had to do the same thing. But with this one, I was cheering with each hit and each run, and then wincing when they showed him looking gobsmacked and angry.

Ha, and Bondo made me twitch a bit too. He was good, but not as good as he can be, and his control left a lot to be desired. (beckla30 also pointed out to me that he was leaving his pitches up a lot, which is one of many things I need to spot on my own. I wish the umpires we get stuck with didn't suck so often. I bet I'd be a lot further along if I could see a consistent damn strike zone from game to game. Or inning to inning sometimes. But anyway.) And the reason the Sox are first in their division is their offense; if that wasn't so solid, they'd have fallen victim to their pitching long ago. So, Bondo was makin' me a little nervous there. But in the end, he did just fine.

Speaking of offense! I love offense too. And when the Tigers offense is on, it makes me so happy. (By the way, I just checked the GameCast play by play, and somebody fell asleep during the first inning, because according to that PBP the Sox won 5-1. I love GameCast.) I love watching them jump all over bad pitching, and I really love Chris Shelton and his bazillionth homer that turned out to be the game winning run. I find it very hard to believe that Shelty just came up like a couple months ago. It feels like he's been here forever. Does anyone remember what it was like before we had Chris Shelton?

Series thoughts in general: Battle of the Shitty Bullpens! WOOOO! Did you guys know that the Red Sox pen has the worst ERA in the American League? Did you know that the only reason this is is because the Tigers pen was pretty damn good before the trade deadline rolled around and Very Terrible Things happened? Yeah. So the last few innings of each of those games were pretty suspenseful, and that's a key reason why I expected the Sox to sweep. The offense should have owned the Tigers pen, and mostly it did. Just, you know, not quite enough, and they can thank their own bullpen for that.

Okay, I've been writing this for like an hour, so I'm done now, and I can't believe I get to spaz like this all over again next week.