Generally, one game doesn't mean all that much. But it's possible that Thursday's will loom large as the one that signified that Dontrelle Willis (above) is back on track.
The D-Train worked six shutout innings, walking just two, fanning six and allowing a mere four hits, all singles. He wiped out two of the baserunners with ground-ball double plays and a third with a strikeout-caught stealing DP.
He threw 101 pitches, 57 of them for strikes. Not a great percentage, but workable.
One game doesn't mean he's back to his Florida Marlins form — he has, for the season, walked 10 and struck out nine in 18 innings — but he certainly wasn't the train wreck he's been since joining the Tigers two-plus years ago.
Other notes:
He threw 101 pitches, 57 of them for strikes. Not a great percentage, but workable.
One game doesn't mean he's back to his Florida Marlins form — he has, for the season, walked 10 and struck out nine in 18 innings — but he certainly wasn't the train wreck he's been since joining the Tigers two-plus years ago.
Other notes:
- Carl Pavano pitched well, but his inability to hold runners burned him. The stolen base in the first inning, coupled with reserve catcher Drew Butera's poor throw, resulted in the first Detroit run. Young Butera would do well to realize: If slothful Magglio Ordonez can steal off Pavano, there's no point in throwing on Austin Jackson.
- Dan Gladden, in a rambling monologue on the evils of pitch counts and newspapers, called Jim Leyland "Sparky Anderson" and Justin Verlander "Jim Leyland." I was hoping he'd have cause to drag old Sparky back into his rant and call him "Verlander" just to complete the circle, but the inning didn't last long enough.
- Then there's to good part of Gladden as a broadcaster, the concise, often sarcastic encapsulation of a player. Like his take on Ordonez: "He doesn't like to chase fly balls."
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