ODLB: Tigers-Royals, Innings 1-3
March 31, 2008
Filed under: Detroit, Tigers, Royals, AL Central, MLB Live Blogging, Kansas City
Whoa, that’s a big picture of Miguel Cabrera. And, with this awkward segue, this might be a good time to tell you I have big expectations for Cabrera and the Tigers this year — I’m predicting the Tigers to win World Series, Justin Verlander to take home the Cy Young and Miggy to win the MVP.
Of course, maintaining objectivity might be a little difficult: I’ve been a Tigers fan my whole life and have been a little tipsy on the Tigers-flavored Kool-Aid ever since Dave Dombrowski traded for Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis back in December and then signed each of them to long-term contracts. So needless to say, I’ve been waiting for Opening Day for a long, long time.
Fortunately, Mother Nature is cooperating: it’s cloudy but (relatively) warm and dry. The Royals are the first up to face the Detroit juggernaut this year — the first pitch is about to be thrown …
Top of the First: That didn’t take long — Verlander gets David DeJesus to ground out at first.
Okay, that’s a little scary: Carlos Guillen leaves his leg in the basepath for the throw to first, resulting in a minor collision. Needless to say, first base isn’t second nature for Guillen just yet. He gets tagged with the error.
And Mark Grudzielanek gets the first stolen base of the season …
Alex Gordon does not appreciate called strikes. We have our first thrown bat and player chirping with the umpire of the season, too.
Jose Guillen pops out to Placido Polanco to end the inning. The Tigers are up after the break.
Bottom of First: Gil Meche has the ball for the Royals. Gil, this is as good of time as any to tell you that I’m sorry. I made fun of the Royals for signing you last winter, then ate my words all summer when you were not only not horrible but actually quite good.
Wait, did Meche just get Renteria to strike out on three pitches? And then Polanco to ground out on first? He’s the definition of a fast working pitcher right now. Has he even thrown six pitches yet?
Gary Sheffield picks up the slack by drawing the walk.
Magglio gets the base knock to put two on for Cabrera’s first at-bat as a Tiger. FSN color guy Rod Allen notes that Cabrera “has never played in front of a crowd like this.” Maybe not on Opening Day, Rod, but there was that little thing called the 2003 World Series …
Miggy hits it deep, deep … fly out to center. Royals up.
Top of Second: Verlander proves he can work fast, too, getting Billy Butler to fly out on the first pitch.
And now Mark Teahen flies out on the second pitch. He means business.
Okay, this is ridiculous: Ross Gload saw just three pitches before flying out to right field (with Magglio and Brandon Inge coming too close for comfort to the first outfield collision of the season). Three up, three down, Verlander threw all of six pitches for the inning.
Bottom of Second: Lead-off double for Guillen — it went over DeJesus’ head and rolled all the way to the wall. Beatiful.
Pudge is up and showing a surprising amount of patience, taking two balls before swinging to make it 3-2. The guy drew all of nine walks in 2007, might he get his first on Opening Day? …
… no. Meche gets Pudge swinging.
Meche gets Jacque Jones swinging, too. Will Inge leave Guillen stranded out on second?
No! Inge didn’t even have to do anything, taking four straight balls for the walk. Who walks Brandon freaking Inge to get to the top of the Tigers’ batting order?
And this is why walking Inge was a bad idea: Renteria knocks it up the middle, bringing Guillen home and putting runners on first and second. Tigers 1-0.
Polanco didn’t come to the ballpark today to leave the bat on his shoulder: he swings at the first pitch, flying out to shallow right field. Inning over, Tigers up 1-0.
Top of Third: Verlander takes the mound. What’s the over/under on number of pitches thrown this frame? Six? Seven?
John Buck sees five pitches but strikes out. Tony Pena sees five more but also strikes out. Joey Gathright sees only two before grounding out. Verlander finishes the inning with 12 pitches. Yeah, I took the under, but I’ll take two strikeouts.
Seriously, if you were heading out to the game today, I hope you got an early start: we’re flying through this game right now.
Bottom of Third: Meche gets Sheff on a checked swing. Did he go around? Ah, the replay says yes. Good call.
Was there even an offseason? Nobody told Magglio: he just smoked a double to the right field wall. He’s 2 for 2, and as Rod Allen points out, he’s as locked as he was last year.
And Cabrera grounds out to short.
Magglio learns the hard way that Jose Guillen has a bionic arm with laser sights. Carlos Guillen lines to right field, prompting Magglio to round third and head for home. The first play at the plate of the season had little suspense: Maggs was out by a mile as Guillen got the ball perfectly to Buck without a bounce. Maybe Magglio forget Guillen signed with the Royals — I guarantee there are thousands of people watching at home who did.
That’s all for the first leg of this live blog — check out innings 4-6 here.
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