Monday, June 01, 2009

Jeremy Bonderman Has Impressive Start in Toledo

Although the Tigers pitching staff is among the best int he league statistically to this point in the season,that doesn't men we couldn't always use another arm for the rotation, or in the pen. Jeremy Bonderman missed much of last year with a blood clot that ended his season.

Sunday night for the Toledo Mud Hens, he pitched eight shutout innings against the Charlotte Knights, allowing five hits and no walks.

Bonderman struck out five, and 66 of his 98 pitches were strikes.

With Armando Galaraga struggling he may just find himself in the rotation there, and Armando may have to go figure out what is going wrong.

Willis had a couple of great starts after his return, but wasn't as effective in his last start, however.

Both Willis and Armando are going to get more opportunities of course, but Bonderman may take a start from one of these guys at some point just to see if he can help the squad. If everyone is looking good then all the better. Someone can pull bullpen duty and we are even better off, or deal for some more help. At least we don't have Bartolo colon cleanser as one of the guys we have to depend on ;).

Wings go up 2-0 on Penguins in Stanley Cup Finals

In one of the oddest things I have ever seen in professional sports, the Wings and Penguins played back to back playoff games. I can't think of any pro sport where I have ever seen Finals games played on consecutive nights.

Didn't matter though. The game went the same as the first. Both teams played pretty closely, but the Wings just squeezed 2 more goals into the net than the Penguins could.

The man from my hometown Muskegon, Michigan, Justin Abdelkader scored his second of the series in the third. Both goals putting the Wings up 3-1 and icing the win.

The odds favor the Red Wings in their bid to become the NHL’s first repeat champion since they did it in 1997 and ’98. Teams that win Games 1 and 2 at home have captured the Cup 31 of 32 times. Pretty good odds, but as we know odds are meant to be overcome, and this series has been played much closer than the 2-0 lead would indicate. The Wings do have some good insurance online though since they only need to win 2 out of the next 4.