Game 1 (Final Score: 3-4, Angels win)
The Tigers started Wilfredo Ledezma against the AL West leading Anaheim Angels of LA, or whatever their name is. To motivate the team, he gave up a first inning run on a Garret Anderson single (0-1). Fortunately Kelvim Escobar gave up a first pitch solo home run to Marcus “the River” Thames in the top of the second (1-1). The score remained tied until Ledezma allowed base runners on a pair of singles by Anderson and the light hitting Juan Rivera in the fourth. Up comes Steve Finley and out goes Ledezma’s third pitch for a two run triple (1-3). Things stayed quiet until the sixth when Dmitri Young and Thames waste the leadoff walk drawn by Ivan Rodriguez and Rondell White’s one out single by grounding out to second and watching strike three respectively. Ledezma imitates Escobar’s sixth by issuing first base to Rivera on a lead off walk and getting Orlando “You want to pay me how much?!” Cabrera to fly out. The similarities ended there because it seems Finley liked second base so much the last time on his way to third, he decided to double himself there, scoring Rivera (1-4). Jamie Walker enters the inning and gets out of it when Finley’s age catches up to him as he tried to steal third and Jose Molina pops out. In an effort to make things close, Rodriguez and Carlos Guillen hit back-to-back doubles off Escobar and his relief, Scot Shields (2-4). A White walk is followed by a Young double scoring Guillen and we have a ball game (3-4). This valiant rally is snuffed out by another Thames strikeout and a Ramon Martinez groundout. Franklyn German holds the score close with a 13 pitch eighth inning allowing the Tigers the privilege of facing Francisco Rodriguez in the ninth. Ugh. Carlos “176” Pena pinch hits for Omar Infante and promptly become Carlos “174” Pena. Nook Logan sees 10 F. Rodriguez pitches before whiffing on strike three. Brandon Inge walks on the 23rd pitch of the inning bringing up I. Rodriguez who grounds out on the 24th.

Game 2 (Final Score: 2-1, Tigers win)
Jeremy Bonderman was sent to the mound to halt another losing streak against Bartolo Colon. It was a quiet game until the bottom of the third when Dallas McPherson decided to atone for his throwing error in the top half by hitting Bonderman’s first pitch into the seats in right field (0-1). The only event that occurred to break the tedium of the middle innings created by good pitching and poor hitting was the ejection of both Craig Monroe and Alan Trammell in the top of the fifth. Monroe didn’t like the close call at first and slammed his batting helmet on the ground right after crossing the bag; Trammell didn’t think Monroe’s action warranted an ejection and argued until he got tossed. It seemed that this was part of Trammell’s master plan because Carlos Pena and Jason Smith managed a single each. Nook Logan advanced Pena to third on a fielder’s choice giving Brandon Inge runners at the corners with two outs. Two pitches later Logan was picked off at first to end the inning. The top of the eighth featured a leadoff single by Pena who was advanced to third on Colon’s balk and Smith’s sacrifice, and scored on Logan’s single (1-1). Inge sent Logan to third on his single and Ivan Rodriguez got him home on his sacrifice fly and our first lead of the series (2-1). Inge made it to second on Steve Finley’s throwing error (it was his arm that felt his age this game) giving Carlos Guillen a man in scoring position, who he wasted with a foul out to left field. Bonderman held serve in the bottom half Colon did in the top half of the ninth, which brought Troy Percival a chance to ice his old mates. Percival allowed only one base runner on a Vladimir Guerrero single and finished the inning in 12 pitches (9 strikes). For those of you that are complaining about Trammell’s game management, please note that’s a victory by one (1) run.

Game 3 (Final Score: 10-1, Tigers win)
The rubber match featured starters Mike Maroth and Jarrod Washburn duking it out to see if the Tigers could win a series in Anaheim for the first time since Jimmy Carter was president. Brandon Inge continued the Tigers’ winning ways with a leadoff home run in the first (1-0). That was pretty much all the scoring. OK, I guess the third inning was pretty exciting, if you like that kind of thing. The Tigers batted around with Omar Infante, Nook Logan, Brandon Inge, and Rondell White (RBI) all collecting singles, Dmitri Young hitting a double (no RBI – White scored on the error by Garret Anderson), and Ivan Rodriguez (3 RBI) hitting a triple (6-0). That was it for Washburn, who was replaced by Kevin Gregg. Gregg proceeded to no hit the Tigers the rest of the inning but gave up a run anyway. Craig Monroe, Infante, Logan (RBI), and Inge (RBI) all walked (8-0). The two guys with long faces in the dugout were Carlos Guillen and Ramon “I can’t believe I’m still getting a million dollar major league paycheck either” Martinez who didn’t reach base safely. Maroth threw two scoreless innings and looked good even with the sixth inning solo shot by Robb Quinlan (8-1). This run was quickly earned back with interest by the Tigers in the bottom half when Chone Figgins scored White on his throwing error during Monroe’s infield grounder with two men on (9-1). With Monroe on second, Martinez made me feel bad for insulting him by doubling Monroe home (10-1). Ex-Tiger Esteban Yan finished the sixth with an Infante fly out. The game went scoreless the rest of the way and the Tigers earned a sweet series win on the road.

Hitters AB R H RBI BB TB AVG SLG
C Guillen 12 1 4 1 0 5 0.333 0.417
O Infante 6 1 1 0 1 1 0.167 0.167
B Inge 11 2 4 2 3 7 0.364 0.636
N Logan 10 2 3 2 1 3 0.300 0.300
R Martinez 8 0 2 1 0 3 0.250 0.375
C Monroe 6 2 0 0 1 0 0.000 0.000
C Pena 4 1 2 0 0 2 0.500 0.500
I Rodriguez 11 2 2 4 1 5 0.182 0.455
J Smith 3 0 2 0 0 3 0.667 1.000
M Thames 7 1 1 1 0 4 0.143 0.571
R White 11 2 3 1 1 3 0.273 0.273
V Wilson 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.000 0.000
D Young 13 1 4 1 0 6 0.308 0.462
Totals 103 15 28 13 8 42 0.272 0.408

Pitchers IP H R ER BB SO ERA WHIP
J Bonderman 8 4 1 1 0 8 1.76 0.50
F German 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
M Ginter 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
W Ledezma 5.1 7 4 4 3 3 7.06 1.96
M Maroth 8 3 1 1 2 2 1.76 0.63
T Percival 1 1 0 0 0 0 0.00 1.00
J Walker 1.1 0 0 0 1 1 0.00 0.91

My apologies for the unreadable nature of the statistics. Anyway, those are totals calculated for only this series and I used the box scores at ESPN. Any mathematical and typographical errors are mine and I welcome corrections.

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