Sunday Bloody Sunday

Well, as good of a day May 5th was for Michigan Sports (Tigers, Pistons, Red Wings, Rampage, Whitecaps, and Floyd Mayweather jr. all won), Sunday was just as bad.

The Tigers started rookie RHP Virgil Vasquez against the Twins on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, and he promptly gave up 4 1st inning runs, on the way to a 16-4 defeat. Torii Hunter was the big culprit, hitting 2 home runs, and driving in 7 in the victory. Vasquez only lasted 2 2/3 innings in his debut, and all the Tiger pitchers seemed to have a problem with keeping the ball down in the strike zone. All elevated pitches thown by the Tiger hurlers ended up evading fielders, and creating lots of runs.

It didn't get any better for the Tigers last night, as they fell 7-1 to the Boston Red Sox. Japanese pitching sensation Daisuke Matsuzaka (pronounced Di-su-k, not "dice-k" as everyone insists on pronouncing it in the baseball world) pitched a complete game, with his one run against being a home run by Curtis Granderson, and Bobby Seay gave up 4 runs in relief of Nate Robertson, as the Tigers' bullpen struggles with inconsistancy early on in the season. But there's another chance tonight, and with the season not quite 1/4th of the way through, the Tigers are still in first place, and look to maintain their 1 game lead over 2nd place Cleveland.

The 'Stones were up next, looking to close out the Bulls in 4 games, and instead found themselves on the wrong side of a 102-87 scoreline. You knew the game was not boding well for the Pistons when Tayshaun Prince missed 2 consecutive free throws in the 1st quarter. Detroit never really seemed into this game, and only a late comeback prevented the score from being worse than it was. Detroit looks to close out the Bulls again tonight, at the Palace, and avoid going back to the United Center for a game 6.

And finally, the Red Wings took one on the chin as well, falling to the Anaheim Ducks, 4-3 in OT. With all the injuries the Red Wings have accrued to their Defenseman, it's no wonder they struggled in this game. And though the Wings won game 1 against the Ducks due in large part to a couple of fluky bounces that went their way, this time the Ducks were the beneficiaries of the flukey bounces, as their 2nd goal barely squeezed by Dominick Hasek and the post, and their 3rd goal was because the puck got stuck in Dom's leg pads. Game 3 of this series takes place tonight at the Pond in Anaheim, and the Wings need to win this one, just to guarantee the split in Anaheim.

So, hopefully Tuesday will be better to Detroit fans than Sunday was, and hopefully we'll have some time off from 1 series. We shall see.