[cknox0723]

Originally Posted by cknox

After a ground ball out, Carlos Pena cracks his third single in five innings, but Rondell White goes down on strikes and things are looking up.

They are somewhere in the clouds after the bottom of the inning, which starts with the top of the order. It ends with the bottom of it. Ramon Vazquez kicks it off by beating out a slow ground ball to the left side, and then Adam Kennedy turns on a hanging curve and hammers it past the Northeastern alumnus Pena and into the right field corner. He ends up with his eighth double of the year, and our third base coach Pasqua plays it safe and holds Vazquez at third. "Buddha" Ordonez takes a slow walk to first, and then we begin to careful chisel out the 'W' in 'victory'.

Slowly...slowly...Frank Catalanotto hits a hard ground ball into the hole that shortstop Adrian Beltre makes a nice play on, but his only out is at second. Detroit pitcher Perez is removed at that point, but his pitching line is not, as Raul Gonzalez singles home Adam Kennedy for his third run batted in of the day. After a Frank Thomas walk, Eric Munson hits a sharp ground ball to second that takes a funny hop on Omar Infante, who gets too flustered by that to make a play. Yorvit Torrealba brings an abrupt end to the inning by hitting a ground ball that Infante isn't flustered by, but it's seven to one and we can't possibly blow this one. Really.

But even if we could, we certainly can't blow an eight-one game. Ramon Vazquez lashes a one-out double in the very next inning, and Adam Kennedy singles him home haste post haste. Loaiza is perfect in the seventh, and our poor, much-maligned bullpen, due for a good outing, gets two solid innings from Akinori Otsuka to finish it off. Appropriately, or maybe not, Detroit's twenty-seventh out is Ivan Rodriguez swinging through some sweet, delicious, sharp, melted cheddar. Yummy.

Our wins aren't supposed to happen this way, but it's as tasty as that melted cheddar cheese every single time.




DET 1 CHW 8

WP: E. Loaiza (2-1) - 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 6 K
LP: B. Perez (1-2) - chased in the fifth, charged with seven runs altogether

Esteban Loaiza, Pitching Cyborg: For all of the crappy movie plots out there, one about a pitching robot from Tiajuana who captures border jumpers in his spare time might actually be reasonable. Especially since it could be advertised as 'Based on a true story!' Esteban Loaiza has allowed nine hits, five walks, and one run in his last sixteen innings. He has fanned nine and won both games. Fifteen runs of support has helped but the man has pitched damned well and even though it was oh so easy to hate him last year, I don't want this ride to end. So let's oil you up again, Esteban!