Tigers, A's Matchup Proved To Be Full Of Duels
By Michael Whalen
This was a great series for the Tigers and the A's as they both pitched really good. The first game it went into the 15th inning tied 4-4; both teams were pitching extremely well, including one of the A's other soon to be stars Justin Duchscherer, who pitched 5 innings of 1 hit ball which proved to be the difference as the A's scored a run in the top of the 14th and the first run scored in the 9 innings as the Tigers lost the series opener.
The second game proved to be another battle with the starters being the future stars of each orginization. As Bonderman faced his old team and pitched superbly but not good enough as he was out dueled by the A's up and coming star Rich Harden as Bonderman and the Tigers took another tough loss 2-1 with the Tigers offense shutting down and providing no runs for their starter.
The next game was another battle and it was the battle of X-Teammates as last years Tigers ace Mike Maroth faced off with former Tigers teammate and ace Mark Redman. The game started out in the Tigers favor as their offense woke up and scored 2 runs in the first inning when Ivan Rodriguez hit his 6th Homerun of the season after a Carlos Guillen triple, then the Tigers scored another run in the 3rd inning Rondell White hit a triple while scoring Guillen, by this time they had 8 hits and only 4 more the rest of the way against Redman which proved to be enough as the Tigers avoided the series sweep and beat their former ace 3-1.
Source: mlbwebtalk.com
I think the Tigers and A's pitching is starting to warm up big time, I thought the Tigers were in trouble with it but now its coming through and the A's keep on getting more and more good rookie pitchers.