Brad Penny Loses His Beard, Wins the Game

All of those Tigers fans who were on the fence (or fell off of it) after yesterday's loss can breathe again.  The Tigers not only won their game, but thanks to the Baltimore Orioles, they are back in a first place tie with the Cleveland Indians.  All is well again, right?

Well, before we breathe too easy, it was a bit tenuous from the start.  After Brad Penny cruised with an 11 pitch 1-2-3 first inning, he had a hiccup in the second, allowing 3 runs and forcing the Tigers to once again, play from behind.  I'm sure many of us watching the game were wondering if Penny would pitch deep in the game after that, and lucky for us, he pitched a pretty solid game before giving way to rookie Al Alburquerque in the 7th, getting the last out.

But the Tigers scoring was simple: solo home run for Brennan Boesch, a two-run single for Victor Martinez (which doesn't happen unless Leyland sends the runners on 1st and 2nd during Miguel Cabrera's groundout), and the feel-good hit of the day, Carlos Guillen with an RBI single for what would be the winning run.  All that, and an Indians loss, and ALL that talk about giving up the season, just 24 hours ago, is off now the Tigers are tied for first.

Sure, it's never fun losing to the White Sox, especially 2 out of 3 in your own yard, but it happens.  They're gone now, time to forget about that and move on.  The Tigers have Monday off, and they'll host the Oakland Athletics for 2 before hitting the road to Minnesota for what will be an important 4-game series against the Twins.  Tigers fans will almost definitely give their team the business if jettisoned IF Scott Sizemore, dealt to Oakland earlier this season for RP David Purcey, has any kind of success/impact on the outcomes of these next 2 games.  In the end, the Tigers will be fine if they can win these next 2 games, thus salvaging the homestand to a degree.  Just hope that even the average fan can still keep in perspective that this is still a marathon, not a sprint.

Chin up, fans.  More consistent outings like that from Brad Penny, and Max Scherzer (who looked good despite the lack of run support) and the Tigers will be fine.  Keep the pressure off of the taxed bullpen, hit the ball like you're supposed to.  Easy, right?