Tigers Ripped Off in Beantown

I finally got around to watching the Tigers game.  You want to know what I think, right?  I think this:  The boys can say, "We wuz robbed," and the boys would be correct. 

With the bases loaded and two out in the 7th inning of a scoreless game tonight in Boston, Austin Jackson completed his ten-pitch at bat by checking his swing  for sure on a 3-2 Clay Buchholz heater which was high and out of the strike zone for sure, but on the appeal first base umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled a swing and a miss and rung him up and that was that.  The Tigers should have had a run in on a bases-loaded walk and a 1-0 lead with the bases still loaded.  Jim Leyland barked about it, but there was nothing he nor anyone could do, becuase this is how baseball works.  On balls and strikes (and everything else, mostly) once the umpire decrees, it doesn't matter if you've got Perry Mason defending you, you are out.  It doesn't help one get the call if one leads the American League in strikeouts as Jackson, now with 53, does.

Max Schlereth came on in relief of Ryan Perry with two out in the 8th inning of the 0-0 game after Perry had retired the only two hitters he faced in relief of Phil Coke.  Schlereth walked the first hitter he faced, Carl Crawford, on a 3-2 pitch before .212 hitter Jarrod (gee, I really thought it was "Gerald") Saltalamacchia banged a wall-ball high off the monster near where it meets the center-field wall and Crawford, running on contact with two out, scored the only run of the game standing up.

Victor Martinez led off the 9th with a two-strike double off Jonathan Papelbon and pinch-runner Andy Dirks made third with one out via a Jhonny Peralta groundout.  It would be the last ball the Tigers would put in play.  Alex Avila took the first pitch which was about as grooved as a Papelbon pitch gets before the Red Sox closer went up the ladder to get Avila to swing at two which were probably out of the strike zone.  Up came Ryan Rayburn, fourth in the AL when it comes to striking out, and he also gazed lovingly at a first pitch he could have driven to who knows where if only he'd swung.  He too would go down flailing, (strikeout number 48) and that was that.  A tough loss for the Tigers if ever there was one, in the rain, the mist and the fog in Boston with the game-tying run at third with less than two out in the 9th and Detroit unable to deliver the goods.

Nice outing by Phil Coke, so there is that, at least.  7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER.  And all for nothing.