A New Way To Lose

Fernando Valverde, having worked his ninth inning magic in the last three games, had the night off.

Octavio Dotel assumed the closer's role, and came in to pitch the ninth with a 2-0 lead.

What followed was something not even Valverde has managed to pull off. 

Walk, walk (pitches not even close to the plate), wild pitch, passed ball. One run scores. Double by Jesus Montero. Tie game. Runner bunted to third, John Jaso's sac fly scores him. Game over; the way the 2003 Tigers (43-119) would lose them.

Of course, if the Tigers had scored more than two runs, Dotel's meltdown wouldn't have mattered, and Doug Fister's return would be the subject of this blog entry. Fister threw seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and zero walks. Another excellent outing by a Tiger starter wasted. 

Over the weekend, Hinge by himself drove in almost as many runs (four) as the Tigers scored (five).