When it comes to playing the Tigers, I can't really muster up any righteous Baltimore indignation about Detroit. I have nothing against the city that's often mentioned in the same breath as our own baseball town for things like the declining manufacturing base, the murder capital of the USA, and having a recent mayor indicted for some extremely tawdry stuff and ultimately resigning in disgrace. I've never met anybody from Detroit I didn't like, and though there is probably some event in the Baltimore baseball annals where we lost a big game or series against the Tigers, it was too early to penetrate my consciousness. So you know, I'd like to sweep them because I like seeing the Orioles win, but it's nothing like the frothing rage towards the likes of New York or Boston.
Armando Galarraga, with his should-have-been-perfect game, has been one of the biggest topics of this season. We'll be seeing him tonight and hopefully we won't take long in dashing his hopes of getting a perfect that actually counts in the record books. It's not the first time the O's have met Galarraga this year, having slapped him around to the tune of 10 hits and 3 walks in 6.2 IP - yet with only 3 runs scoring because of one of those "can't buy a hit with RISP" games that were so common in the Trembley and Samuel portions of the season. The O's lost that game because pretty much the entire bullpen sucked. And also because they left 17 men on base.
Jesus, how did we as fans survive the months of April through July? Every time I look back on it, I am shocked.
The Mentor takes the mound for the O's. Kevin Millwood leads baseball in losses, and I think that about sums up his season. He sprinkled in some 8 inning outings but mostly you're happy if he goes 6 innings and gives up 4 earned runs. Hitters have a .300 average and a .831 OPS against him this season. And in his last outing against Detroit he went one inning and gave up five runs. Also, Miguel Cabrera has a .344/.382/.625 slash line against him in 34 career PA. Cabrera has missed a couple of games with tendinitis in his left shoulder and may not be in the lineup tonight. We can only hope!
You've probably read it elsewhere, but an interesting twist to tonight's game is that Jim Joyce - who blew the call in the woulda-been-perfect game, is in this umpiring crew. Jim, don't give him too many guilty makeup calls, okay? Go O's!