After Wednesday afternoon had started so promising, leave it to Jose Valverde on an 0-2 pitch to leave a baseball up, and to give up a home run when you are trying to get out of town and win a series. After Justin Verlander was so brilliant on Wednesday afternoon, he was only one strike away from a nine and four record. And then Drew Smyly walked the leadoff man, which is a cardinal sin. And then we get to Papa Grande. What can I say about him? He had the nerve to leave an 0-2 cookie, which the Royals promptly hit out of the ball park. You just can’t do that. More on Valverde later. Moving on to Phil Coke, he knows better then to give up a big hit! With the game tied at two, we will never know what the Sonoma California native was thinking. Apparently no one in the Tigers bullpen had their head on right on Wednesday. You just simply can’t give up five home runs and expect to have good results, and yesterday was home run number five that Valverde gave up. You just cannot do that in the major leagues. So that brings up the question of what kind of team we are going to see on Friday night. The team is allegedly in first in place in the Central Division. Are we going to see Fielder and Cabrera drop balls too? Will they cost their team the game too? This has nothing to do with Justin. The spotlight is clearly on Papa Grande and Phil Coke. Both of them need to have their head examined. If I were Jeff Jones, I would sit down and get deep in their heads and try and figure out what the deal is? You just can’t do that! As far as Austin Jackson coming back on Friday, all I know is that he better be ready to get back to work in the leadoff position. Now going on to the Tigers bullpen, I don’t care that four people don’t know what their purpose on the mound is. When your starter has a 2-0 lead and pitches his guts out, he deserves better results than the eight and five record that he now has, because Jose Valverde doesn’t know how to close a game. Valverde should never be allowed on a major league mound again! As far as Coke, it’s just baffling to see him pitching so poorly and give up a winning run on a big hit. I’m sorry this article is so rough, but something needs to be done NOW! We can’t allow games to get away, especially if we want to make a deep run in the playoffs. Jose Valverde needs to be banned from the Tigers forever!
