Game 4: Angry Young man

Tragic number: Still 2. The cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die ... for at least another day.

A weird game indeed Thursday, starting with the pregame flap over the video supposedly showing Joe Mauer stealing signs and relaying them to Jason Kubel. If he wasn't, it won't hurt in in the long run if other teams think he does; if he was, shame on Gerald Laird for using such transparent signals that Mauer can pick them up immediately.

Or perhaps, as I told a Detroit fan who happens to be my supervisor, he can't use camouflaged signs with Justin Verlander pitching lest he confuse Verlander.

Anyway, on with the weirdness. Marcus Thames got hit by a hanging breaking ball from Scott Baker; Thames took offense and retaliated with a cheap shot slide far from second base with an elbow aimed at Orlando Cabrera's crotch. The umpire at second, Lance Barksdale, could have — should have — ruled it a double play. He didn't, so tensions got to mount a bit there.

Then Jose Mijares had some sort of brain cramp. Apparently he was peeved because the Tigers were taking bases through defensive indifference. (Note to Mijares — if your manager doesn't care if they take second base, you shouldn't care either). So he threw a pitch behind Adam Everett. Had he buzzed Thames, I think people would have understood. This one was just stupid. So the umps warned both benches, and Jim Leyland got ejected on the same principle that frequently gets Ron Gardenhire ejected: Their guy throws at us, and you're going to eject our guy if we retaliate? That's stupid.

So then Jeremy Bonderman threw behind Delmon Young and nailed him in the back knee, and Young knew who to blame. Mijares. We had the odd spectacle of a hit batter about to charge his own dugout. (Photo above).

Menawhile, Bonderman and Laird got ejected, Bonderman for throwing at Young — which everybody knew was coming — and Laird for telling the umpire how stupid it was to throw out Bonderman. Which it was. The guy who should have been ejected was Mijares.

Call this game a monument to stupidity and leave it at that.