The losing, it seems, may never end, as we're now on our third losing streak of longer than five games (
and it seems like forty), but I still don't think we're a club that can only win 30% of our games, regardless of what the standings show ("
Tell your statistics to shut up, Charlie"). After loads of rest,
Esteban Loaiza will start today against a recently ferocious
Tigers team, led by a roaring
Izzy Valdes, who stymied us to one run and a couple of hits over eight plus innings just six short days ago. OK, six long days.
Loaiza gives up a leadoff single to
The Book Nook, but after a strikeout, a fielder's choice, and a force out, a rare scoreless inning is in the books for
Bad Bahn. It's all about the rest.
Valdes allows but a free pass to
Magglio, and it's zeroes for both sides after one frame.
Carlos Pena fulfills Grady Fuson's dreams with a two-out double in the second, but I put on my managerial hat and intentionally walk
Junior Spivey to bring up the pitcher.
Loaiza falls behind 2-0, but summons up some strength and coaxes
Valdes to ground out to short, keeping the game scoreless. Our slumping trio of
Borchard,
Vazquez, and
Crede go down in order in the bottom half, and this game is taking the same shape as so many losses of the past. Save me,
Esteban.
Nook Logan leads off the third with his second base hit, but for the second time, doesn't care to add to his stolen base total of 25, so
Loaiza gets a couple of ground balls and throws a beautiful curve to
Rondell White with the count full to leave the speedy
Detroit center fielder on second base and the score still at zip-zip.
The new masked man,
Jason LaRue, leads off the third with a booming double off the wall in left-center, but
Loaiza fails to get a bunt down and eventually grounds out to third. The count runs to 2-2 on
Hacktastic Julio, leading off today in an attempt to take some pressure off of
Disillusioned Ramon Vazquez, and much to my surprise,
Lugo lines the fifth pitch of the at-bat to right field for a two-bagger of his own.
D.Y. grounds to short for the second out, but
Mags Ordonez follows with another double, giving him his team-leading thirty-fifth run batted in.
Brad Fullmer grounds out to finally end the inning, but we're up 2.
In the top of the fourth,
Jermaine Dye lines a one-out single back through the middle, turning me into Nostradamus, gloom and doom and hellfire and all of that. Sure enough,
Loaiza hangs a curve and
Carlos Pena crushes it to right-center...but
Mags runs it down.
Ernie Spivey takes two pitches wide and lines the third hard, but right at
Brad Fullmer, and the inning's over. Hey. Who says we don't get the breaks sometimes?
The three popsicles go down in order in our half of the fourth, though
Joe Crede gives a 2-2 curve a ride, only to see it land in
Rondell White's glove some twenty feet short of the fence.
Loaiza turns the trick on the
Kitties in the fifth, though, so all is well.
Jason LaRue leads off the fifth with his second base hit, but
Loaiza botches the bunt again, and
LaRue's forced out at second some fifty seconds after his second hit. (
Mental note - No more bunting with E. Loaiza)
Hacktastic Julio raps into a double play, and
Valdes's work provides a nice lesson in efficiency, or maybe efficacy.
With the heart of the order up for
Detroit in the sixth,
Loaiza resolves to drive me insane, running the count to 2-0 on
Adrian Beltre before inducing an easy ground ball to short. Then, he runs the count to 2-0 on
Rondell White before
The Third Part of the Nursery Rhyme hits a shot to deep left that
D.Y. chases...chases...and finally runs down near the wall, though the mental picture of that isn't very aesthetic. Mercifully,
Mike Lieberthal grounds
Loaiza's second pitch to second, and it's still 2-0 after five-and-a-half. Deuces wild in that inning.
After
D.Y. goes down feebly to start our half of the fifth,
Mags follows with his second double to left-center, and
Brad Fullmer follows suit with a shot to the opposite gap, scoring
Ordonez to make it three-nil.
Joe Borchard quickly falls in a two-strike hole, and of course makes an out, but it's encouraging to see him at least hit a fly ball instead of striking out yet again. And
Ramon Vazquez follows with a base hit of his own, plating
Fullmer and increasing our lead to four. He pilfers second, which proves to be unimportant because
Joe Crede raps the next pitch right back to
Valdes to end the inning, but this is encouraging. 4-0.
In the seventh,
Loaiza sets down
Jermaine Dye and
Carlos Pena to assuage much of my worry.
Ernest Spivey draws a two-out walk, but then the pinch-hitter makes me chortle.
Ty Wigginton. I'm from the metro-New York area - of course I'll laugh at that. Predictably,
Wiggy pops out to right, and we need just six outs for our first win since seemingly last year.
Franklyn "
Chuck And Duck"
German comes on for
Detroit for the bottom of the seventh, and after
Jason LaRue's retired for the first time today,
Loaiza's due up. Not trusting the 'pen much, I let him hit, and he whiffs.
Julio Lugo cracks a double (
another chortle - "past a diving Wigginton"), but
D.Y. grounds out to likely cap off a rather lousy oh-for-four day. No matter - six outs, six outs, six outs.
Loaiza starts the eighth by running the count full on
Exavier Prente Logan, and his sixth pitch is a fastball right on the black. Solid.
Omar L'Enfant follows with a base hit, but then comes the pitcher's slot, as Alan Trammell apparently double-switched in keeping
Ty Wigginton in the game. Chortle.
Tony Giarratano pinch-hits and goes down looking, and I decide to give
Loaiza a shot to end the inning. Encouragingly, he responds and
Rondell White can manage but a weak ground ball to second which
Ramon Vazquez fields easily and flips on over to
Brad Fullmer for the third out.
T.J. Tucker rocks the heart of our order to sleep in the bottom of the eighth, and it all comes down to the top half of the ninth. I decide to let
Loaiza go until he gets into trouble, but he retires
Lieberthal on an infield pop-up and
Dye on a strikeout before
Carlos Pena hits his second double into the right field corner. I give
Loaiza one more batter, and he gets ahead 1 and 2 on
Junior Spivey before contact's made. All
Spivey can manage is a weak ground ball up the middle, and
Hacktastic Julio charges it beautifully, secures it in his glove and in one quick motion guns it across the diamond. Holden Culbreith pumps his right arm, and
Esteban Loaiza's got a complete game shutout.
DET 0 CHW 4
WP: E. Loaiza (3-7) - CG, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 109 pitches
LP: I. Valdes (4-4) - 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 1 BB, 0 K (
too many balls in play, so sayeth the DIPS theory)
Game Ball Goes To... Much as I want to reward
Jason LaRue, who made all those awful memories of
Mike Piazza fade a bit further into the past,
Loaiza hasn't pitched this well since...well, last year. Or ever. You know how that is.