Tigers Pound 14 Hits and Route Rangers in Season Opener
April 15, 2009
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Detroit Tiger manager Jim Leyland talking to Field Security Chief Scott Smith
The scoreboard at Comerica Park on Opening Day 2009
(Special to MyBayCity from Tom Baird)
The Detroit Tigers are coming into the 2009 season with a certain amount of guarded optimism of making the MLB playoffs. After making a couple of trades over the winter months there is some hope that things will be a little better for the 2009 campaign.
The 2008 season saw the Tigers finish in last place in the Central Division of the American League. Manager Jim Leyland is a very stoic person who doesn't get to excited or too down after each game that the Tigers play. Now entering his fourth season as the skipper of the Tigers Leyland feel that he has the tools to make a run at the playoffs.
A few of the key moves make since the season ended was to see Todd Jones and Kenny Rogers retire. Gary Sheffield was released just before the season was to start. With the additions of shortstop Adam Everett and pitcher Edwin Jackson should fill a couple of holes that were present last year.
The Tigers opened the season on the road in Toronto in the Rogers Centre. It was a good thing that they did because the weather wouldn't have cooperated if they were not in a domed stadium. The Tigers dropped 3 out of the 4 in Toronto. There were a couple of bright spots in the games in Canada with Brandon Inge and Manuel Cabrera getting off to hot starts and new acquired Edwin Jackson pitched a strong game before the bullpen handed it away.
Now it was to Comerica Park for the 2009 Season Opener on Friday April 10th which happened to be Good Friday. This in itself caused a little uproar in the Motor City itself. While on a sunny day with the temperature hitting 58 degrees the Tigers opened the 2009 campaign in front of an overflow sellout crowd of 44,588.
Having been to over 30 Detroit Tigers openers over the years this year's crowd was the football tailgate type of crowd. People arrived early in the parking lots surrounding the ballpark and fired up the grills and starting the partying well before game-time. In checking out the crowd outside the Park after the fifth inning their were thousands of people sitting around enjoying the sunshine watching and listening to the game on their satellite T.V.'s and radios.
The Tigers jumped all over the Texas Rangers early on by getting out to a 7-0 lead after four innings. All of the usual pre-game activities occurred with a tribute to the former long-time Tiger announcer George Kell before the game. Also moving was the Military fly-over just after the Star Spangled Banner. Probably the surprise of last season Armando Galarraga was the starting pitcher and threw 7 strong innings giving up only 1 earned run.
All of the Tiger bats were thumping on this day with the Tigers pounding out 14 hits en-route to the 15-2 victory over the Rangers. Manuel Cabrera lead the day with 3 hits and 6 RBI's including his fourth inning grand slam. Polanco, Ordonez, Larrish and Laird all pounded out 2 hits each. Brandon Inge now a fixture at 3rd base made some outstanding plays at third.
The Tigers got some strong relief work from the bull-pen on Opening Day. The Texas Rangers came into the game as one of the hottest teams to start the 2009 season with a 3-0 record. The Rangers have some of the finest young talent in the American League this season and will be a team that will have to be reckoned with by the end of the season.
The Detroit Tigers got off to a great start on the Opening weekend with a three game sweep of the Rangers again with some strong pitching performances from Justin Verlander and Fernando Rodney. The Tigers with the 4-3 start for the first week is much better than lasts year terrible 0-7 start which lead to the last place finish. Well maybe this is a sign of things to come for the 2009 Detroit Tigers.
I'm sure that Manager Jim Leyland would love to see the return to the playoffs just like the 2006 Tiger team that made it all the way to the World Series. This would be a much needed shot in the arm for the State of Michigan during these challenging times here in our state.
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Tom Baird |
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