Let’s take a look at the game’s best and worst performers, as brought to you by WPA (win probability added).
Predictably, Bruce Rondon was the Tigers’ weakest performer while Nicholas Castellanos was their best. On the Red Sox side of things, Chris Young came out on top while Rick Porcello was bringing up the rears. (Honorable mention to reliever Matt Barnes, who was the Sox’s best pitcher in terms of WPA.)
The Detroit Tigers wasted a solid performance from starter Daniel Norris—Norris clearly didn’t have his best stuff but gave the Tigers six innings of 3-run ball—and a Nicholas Castellanos go-ahead homerun when Bruce Rondon and Kyle Ryan stumbled in the eighth inning.
The Tigers got a few strong performances in their 6-5 comeback (after giving away the lead) win over the Red Sox.
As you might expect, starter Michael Fulmer gave the Tigers a very good chance to win, while K-Rod and Rondon struggled.
Opening Day in Detroit has become somewhat of a holiday for Tigers fans, complete with hours of tailgating, food and drink—lots of drink—and raucous fun. Oh, yeah, and some Tigers baseball, too.
Today’s home opener featured the 2016 Rookie of the Year winner—no, not Gary Sanchez—Michael Fulmer. Fulmer would be taking on a vaunted Boston Red Sox lineup that was recently bitten by the flu bug. Bitten so badly, in fact, one of their players had to be placed on the 10-day disabled list!
More after the jump!
Yeah, Thursday’s game was a major dud. Matt Boyd struggled to throw strikes and got bombed, then Anibal Sanchez came in and got bombed all over the park. The vaunted offense couldn’t muster much off James Shields. The less said about today’s game, the better, actually.
(The season’s not actually over, though. It just felt like that on twitter.)
Stay tuned for today’s Game Graph. It’ll be a real humdinger, as Jim Price likes to say!
The Tigers looked soggy in every sense of the word—and your friendly neighborhood blog was bombarded by a couple randos and harangued for not giving up on the team two games into the season—but no matter. TOMORROW IS THE HOME OPENER.
There were really no surprises as far as best and worst performers go according to WPA (win probability added). JaCoby Jones stood out for the Tigers, while Melky Cabrera did so for the White Sox. On the flip side, Sox ace José Quintana didn’t gave his team a chance, while Shane Greene left a mess for K-Rod to clean up in the ninth.
Honorable mention goes to to K-Rod, he of the .088 WPA (he also had the highest leverage index of anyone who appeared in the game).
Glass Half Fulmer 