Ballpark Banter- Off the schnide

It took 8 games, 7 more than anyone expected, to finally erase any possibilities of a 0-162 season. Such has been the mood around baseball as of late, but finally, the people of Detroit can breathe. The Tigers earned their first win of the young season with a 7-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night at Fenway Park. The win puts the Tigers at 1-7 in 2008.

Edgar Renteria led the offensive outburst, going 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, and Carlos Guillen scored three runs. The Tigers supposed vaunted offense had been dormant so far in the year, only scoring 15 runs in its first seven runs. Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez each added one hit apiece, but neither has been themselves through the first week and half of the season. It took a few Jon Lester pitches in a four-run fourth inning to get Detroit rolling before they was a fresh sence of confidence flowing throughout the visitors dugout. This type of swagger was all but left in Lakeland, Florida as the club headed north to open the season.

This club has been questioned repeatedly on sports talk shows across the country this week as headlines were coming in along the likes of "Will the Tigers EVER win a game?". That was the consensus feeling throughout baseball as this momentum sure looked to be heading in the wrong direction. It definitely is way too early to be making any statements like that and writing the Tigers out of the playoffs. But with expectations so high, there really isn't any reason to blame the folks who thought like this.

There has been nothing but gushes of amazement over the Tiger lineup in the last four months-- precisely ever since Miguel Cabrera fell into their lap. Fair or not, this team was suppossed to be the most dangerous lineup any organization has put together since... well, since never. There was talk of scoring 1,000 runs and averaging 10 runs per ballgame, and all sorts of gaudy statistics.

I guess these feats can still be accomplished since it took us all of ten days to witness the unimaginable-- an 0-7 start for Detroit. But realistically, this should prove to us that there is a reason why umpires roll the baseballs out and why percieved underdogs like the Kansas City Royals strut into town believing they are the Yankees. As much as fans and the media wish to rave about certain teams-- which is undoubtedly good for the game-- baseball still has to be played and there is an opponent on the other side of the field who is going to try and have a say.

This ballclub the Tigers have assembled is way too good to continue to play the way they have been playing. This is a slump, no different than any other seven-game skid teams will face in June, or August, or any other time of the year. It just so happened to come right out of the gate, therefore beckoning for national attention. A few bad breaks, and the absence of Curtis Granderson , set the Tigers on a tailspin that took a few games to come out of. So be it.

Now this win doesn't really mean anything if Detroit drops its next four games. They certainly need to string together a nice little streak over the next month or two and resestablish themselves as the power atop the AL Central. But the reason why the Tigers won't revert back to their early losing ways is fairly simply: they were not as bad of a team as they were showing, they were just in their own heads. Once the Tigers lost the third and fourth and fifth games, they started to listen to all of the early chirping flying around on the air, and started dwelling on their winless start.

That is what happened, and that is why one win against a good club can turn it around as fast as Nick Swisher took Justin Verlander deep on Sunday Night Baseball. The pressure is off of the Tigers. They no longer have to worry about getting that first one in the win column. They can proceed to being the team that they are capable of being.

It took a strong effort from Jeremy Bonderman to right the ship in Boston. Bonderman was not on his game by any means nor did he have anything resembling his best stuff or command. What Bonderman did do exceptionally well on Wednesday night, though, was battle and keep his team in the ballgame. Bonderman denied a bad performance and was simply not going to accept an eigth loss.

Over five innings of work, the right hander walked four and gave up 1 earned run. This game was important for a couple of reasons for the Detroit pitching staff. First of all, Bonderman took the ball and gave them an outing from a starter without getting torched. Detroit's starting pitching has been putting pressure on an already depleted bullpen. By leaving the game with his team ahead, Bonderman gained some confidence not only in himself, but in his teammates as well. This is the type of game that could set the tone for the rest of the staff. Pretty? Not close. Does that matter? No way.

Secondly, this was the first game of the season that Detroit's bullpen had to play a key role in a tight game, and actually got the job done. With Rodney and Zumaya on the shelf, the Tigers are leaning on some unknown faces to get crucial outs down the stretch. This hadn't happend up until Wednesday night, and was a big reason why the Tigers were losing ballgames. Detroit used three arms before handing the ball over to closer Todd Jones, albeit a non-save situation.

This was a crucial game for the bullpen to save a lead and carry the team to the finish line. The only thing that will prevail over a depleted roster is confidence of the players who are currently active. The Tigers have no control over the pieces that are currently missing; they must find a way to get the most out of the names that are on the backs of the jerseys today, and tomorrow, and the next day, until the regular come back and fill their roles.

Luckily for this ballclub, the confidence movement has begun. The incredible weight that was the expectations of a historic offense and an automatic World Series championship was lifted off of their shoulders and dumped in the Boston harbor in the span of nine innings-- never to be seen again. It is time for this mojo to set the ball rolling so the Tigers can get back to playing the brand of baseball that we have expected from them all season long. Relax, Motown mumblers, the worst of the 2008 season has come and gone and is long out of sight.