Wasted opportunity....

As I sat here at my mac at 1am in the morning, watching the Tigers in St Petersburgh, Florida, I wondered what could and what should have been. The offseason hope, Cabrera/Willis, the optimism, the people mouthing world series already, october here we come. And yet, here the Tigers were, a mere two games over .500, and a handful of games out of first place in the AL Central. Nate Robertson's got an ERA over 6. Justin Verlander's under .500. Dontrelle Willis is in A ball. Edgar Renteria's AL struggles continue. And Armando Galarraga leads all Tigers pitchers in wins. And then we flick back to reality for a second. It's the top of the first against the first place Rays. Scott Kazmir's on the mound. When Kazmir's on, he's one of the best lefties in the game. But he couldn't find it in the first. He couldn't keep his front side in long enough, and he kept flying open and missing the zone. He walked Granderson, he walked Guillen, he walked Ordonez. Kazmir put 3 ducks on the pond without one swing of the bat from the Tigers. (minus Polanco popping out). So i'm thinking, wow, bases loaded, one out, against one of the best arms in the game. You don't get many opportunities like this. Here comes Cabrera. The table was set for a big inning, to knock Kazmir out, start off the series the right way. But no. Cabrera pops out, and Sheffield manages to walk to score one run. But that's it. Wasted. Done. And the Rays end up winning the game 5-2. See the pattern here? It just felt like that one inning epitomized the whole season for the Tigers. When it looked like they could put it all together, they blew it. Take the first game of the White sox series a couple weeks back. carrying a lead into the 9th. Here comes Jones. And a two run homer later by Jermaine Dye and we're done. Hell. There's still a ton of baseball left. So we can only hope. Make Farnsworth the closer. And start finding some consistency. Please!