Uh Oh

Tigers fans might wake up this morning with pessimism in their bones, as they fell behind the Cardinals last night 2-1 after getting shutout by Chris Carpenter. I turned the set off after Joel Zumaya stupidly threw the ball into left field trying to start a double play at third base (?!) to give the Cards a 4 run lead. I didn't miss much.

Full credit goes to Carpenter, but this series will be over quickly if Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco, and Ivan Rodriguez continue to struggle at the plate. So far they are 0 for 34 in this series. Granderson is not a true lead-off hitter, as he strikes out way too much (the most Ks in the AL this year). And what happened to Polanco, who wore out Oakland? The broadcasters mentioned the Cardinal pitchers are busting him inside. Clearly some adjustments have to be made.

As for the brouhaha surrounding Kenny Rogers and the mysterious substance on his hand in Game 2: after reading and listening to all the scuttlebut on this (it couldn't be avoided on the off-day, when reporters had little else to comment on) I suspect that he did have something illegal on his hand. But there are two additional points to be made--if putting pine tar on your hand makes you pitch that great, and many pitchers do it (if less blatantly than Rogers), then why aren't other pitchers throwing as well, and two, I imagine Tony LaRussa didn't make a bigger deal of it because he knows some of his pitchers do the same thing, and didn't want Jim Leyland having the umpires undress his pitchers on the mound. Doctoring the baseball is a rule more honored in the breach than the observance, and it seems that it is almost winked at.

This tempest in a teapot may become a completely moot point if the Tigers can't get their bats going, and Rogers won't pitch again in this series unless Detroit can win at least one game in St. Louis.