Saturday Afternoon at the Park

You’d think that with his blog’s namesake starting a major league game for the first time this season on Saturday, someone like Rogo of DesigNate Robertson would honor the occasion by attending the game in person. Dedication ain’t what it used to be, folks. Although Nate's debut wasn't a total trainwreck, the cars did seem to want to teeter off the track a bit at times. He got hit around a little, and wasn't helped out by some shoddy defense. He was only out there for four innings after pitching on three days rest, so I'm sure judgment will be reserved for another outing.

Mi Magglio had the Tigers' only RBI of the game in the 8th inning. That pretty much tells you our offensive anemia was in full effect.

A funny thing happened at the game. A friend of a season ticket holder I know was there and we were chatting about baseball. He was a casual fan of the game, saying he liked all sports, and has season tickets to the Pistons. Somehow, he got it in his head that I knew a lot about baseball. Some of us were talking about how Galarraga would be back up soon with the club, and he asked whether Robertson would be sent down to make room for him at that time. I said no because of roster expansion September 1. You'd have thought I deciphered the Rosetta Stone, he was so impressed. I felt like such a sham. He kept high-fiving me throughout the game for what he saw as my many baseball triumphs. I promise you I wasn't trying to impress him. He had had a few beers, too, so that should tell you something as well.

I was a little concerned about the bullpen, seeing as we were a man short at the time with two more games left in the series, but Zach Miner did a nice job eating some innings. Ryan Perry looked terrific in the 8th, but was the victim of another error in the 9th.

Anyway, I don't know about you, but it's exciting being in a pennant race, even if we haven't been playing our best baseball all the time. Fun to see the White Sox go on tilt. I'll be at the Cell later this month for a Tigers/Sox game, so I hope Ozzie is in rare (I mean, usual) form.