St. Louis collects 'W' while Detroit bats catch Z's
DETROIT -- The Fall Classic logo was painted crisply on the grass. The bunting was draped with care all over the ballpark. The bars around Comerica Park were absolutely jammed by mid-afternoon.
But the darndest thing happened when the World Series returned to Detroit for the first time in 22 years on a classic autumn evening.
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| Whether at the plate or in the field, nothing goes right for Brandon Inge in Game 1. (AP) |
Wait. You mean, those wood thing-a-ma-jigs were the Tigers' bats?
Really?
"The majority of hitting is timing," third baseman Brandon Inge was saying following Detroit's 7-2 dud of a return in the franchise's 10th World Series appearance. "When you're off for that long, when you're not seeing live pitching day-in and day-out, your timing is off.
"Even if it's a fraction off, that's the difference between an out and a base hit.
"By no means is that an excuse. To be honest, there are no excuses. We should have hit better than that."
To be honest, the Tigers' return to the World Series was perfectly encapsulated in Inge's attempt at fielding Juan Encarnacion's ground ball with runners at second and third and Detroit trailing St. Louis 4-1 in the sixth inning.
He bobbled it. Then he picked it up. Then he rushed his throw home. Then he was trampled by Scott Rolen, who was rounding third on his way home from second, and called for obstructing the base runner.
Inge was charged with two errors on the play. The official scorer was merciful. Count the original bobble, and Inge could have been charged with three errors.
"Anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong right there," the poor guy said.
As we were saying about the Tigers stepping back into this thing called the World Series. ...
