Judging the Royals

Games » Detroit Tigers

Lee Judge

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If you were walking around shaking hands after this one, you’d have to make a lot of stops. Willie Bloomquist hit in the three-hole for the first time ever and responded with a double and a game-winning homer in the 12th. Brayan Pena broke a hitless streak with a single and then a double that sent the game into extra innings. Kila Ka’aihue hit a double and a home run, driving in two. Mitch Maier had a couple hits. Dusty Hughes ands Jesse Chavez combined on a scoreless 8th. Phil Humber threw three scoreless innings and wound up with the win. And Joakim Soria slammed the door in the bottom of the 12th.

But don’t forget Sean O’Sullivan.

In the second inning, Sean gave up three runs on a double, a single, a triple and another double. In the previous two games the Tigers had beaten the Royals like a rented mule. (Where the heck do you rent mules, anyway?) The “Uh-oh, here they come again” thought had to cross everyone’s mind. It would’ve been understandable if the Royals had curled up in a ball, taken their beating and gotten on the plane for Cleveland.

Instead, O’ Sullivan came out for the 3rd and went right after Johnny Damon, Miguel Cabrera and Brennan Boesch, getting them on just eight pitches. Sean didn’t give up another hit until the 7th.

One of the things you want know about a pitcher is how they react to stress. When things start going bad, do they give up? Do they change their approach? Or do they continue to compete?

Sean O’Sullivan weighs 230 pounds and about 220 of it appears to be heart.

Oh, yeah…

And he didn’t walk anybody.

They’re STILL better than they were…

Once in awhile someone will ask me how I can stand to watch this much bad baseball. That’s when I tell them they’re wrong. There’s a difference between being bad and losing. This team isn’t winning consistently, but they’re not bad.

I think this was their forty-sixth one-run game, their fifteenth or sixteenth extra-inning game and coming into Detroit something like 19 of their last 23 games had been decided by two runs or less.

That’s not bad baseball.

This team continues to battle, regardless of the situation. They put on two-out rallies. They don’t make the dumb mistakes and clownish errors that plagued them in the past. People say they’d just like to have a decent team to watch. Well, you’ve got one. Winning is hard and winning consistently is harder still.

Front-running is easy.

Kila at first…

Billy Butler has 17 points on defense after 125 games (remember, he often DHs). Yuniesky Betancourt has 128 defensive points after 116 games. Some people have taken that as proof that the system is unfair. I’ve argued that rewarding the people that handle the ball the most makes sense and that a quality first baseman has a lot of opportunities to make outstanding plays.

I don’t know if he’ll keep it up (his defensive reputation is about average), but Kila Ka’aihue has scored 12 defensive points in just 20 games.