Rays 6, Tigers 9
Record: 35-23
Attendance: 15,420
Miguel Cabrera was off balance and had to compensate by flailing at the off speed pitch by Blake Snell. His right hand came off the bat and his left followed through the strike zone, but tens of thousands of swings over a lifetime put his muscle memory to work and he got the barrel of the bat on the ball sending it over the left field wall for a grand slam, the sixth of his career but the first since 2013. It was a grand moment for the gimpy 36-year-old former star and future Hall of Famer, and he trotted around the bases like royalty to the cheers of the 15,000 fans and a dugout full of younger players who will never forget the moment.
Unfortunately for the Rays, the moment was also a sign of the season slipping out of control.
Cabrera's Grand Slam broke open a tight game, the Rays 2-1 lead changing to a Tiger 6-2 lead. They added three more to make it 9-2, which was plenty big enough as a lead to absorb the other Grand Slam of the day, Willy Adames's in the top of the eighth. And that was it, 9-6.
Except it was worse than that because Cabrera's heroics came off ace Blake Snell, who left the game after the fateful pitch: four and a third innings, six runs, seven hits, two walks, a pair of wild pitches, and the loss (3-5). Fans, management, broadcasters, and teammates are tired of waiting for their Cy Young pitcher to begin pitching like Cy Young. Not enough fast balls. Too many off speed pitchers. Bad command of the strike zone. Too many balls into the dirt. In short, he's been as erratic as Alvarado and Castillo--and several others on the Durham-St. Pete shuttle. These guys are going to have to step up or the season can get ugly very fast.
Hitting, pitching, defense, each has suddenly become way off the high water mark of April's fast start. It's not too late to right the sinking ship, and as usual these days, it's going to be up to Charlie Morton (6-0) to make it happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment