An Unexpected Win?

I viewed last night's game as a bit of a "throw away game," mostly because of lowering my expectations whenever one Brad Penny takes the mound for the Tigers.

Easy to think that, not just because of Penny's season-long inconsistencies, but add that the Tigers had made Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde, the back end of the bullpen, unavailable for last night's game.  Also add Tampa Bay Rays pitcher David Price, young stud lefty who in his short career has dominated the Tigers.

Add in the cliche, "the games aren't played on paper" and we have ourselves the Tigers 5th straight win.  I wouldn't call Penny dominant by any stretch either, as he missed the strike zone on his first pitch to almost everyone he faced.  And with a few missed opportunities against Price early, it could have spelled doom for the winning streak.  Instead, Penny gutted out 6 1/3 innings of work and only gave up 1 run.  Remarkable, as he wasn't getting adequate run support, albeit vs a good young pitcher.

The bullpen did the rest, with Daniel Schlereth and Ryan Perry pitching the rest of what would be an interesting 7th inning, as Schlereth would allow the bases to load up with Rays before Perry was brought in to get the final out.  Enter Phil Coke, who'd failed as a starting pitcher this season, to pitch what would end up being a 50 pitch, 2 inning save as the Tigers would win 2-1, also thanks in part to a 2-run seventh inning in which "Titanium Catcher" Alex Avila and Jhonny Peralta drove in runs for the Tigers.  Coke struck out 5 batters, and ended the game with a 10-pitch battle against Ben Zobrist, with 2 runners on, by grounding out to Miguel Cabrera to end the game.

Nobody should expect to win every game, but in that same thinking, nobody should expect to lose what I just called a "throw away game" either.  The Tigers beat Price for the first time in his career, and have given themselves a chance to win this 4-game series tonight with Max Scherzer on the mound.  And thanks to that win, the Tigers own a 6 game lead over Cleveland (who split a doubleheader yesterday) and 6.5 over Chicago, who lost in walk-off fashion vs the Angels last night.

I myself will take victories like this all the time, even though those last 3 innings were gut-wrenching with the Tigers moderately erratic bullpen.  A win's a win, and that's ultimately what matters.