No Juan again. My gut feeling says we’ll never see him in a Tigers uniform, as the Tigers come to Arlington the last four days of July (aka the trading deadline). I’d be surprised if he’s going to be here then. I could be wrong, but my guess is that he’ll be somewhere else (probably Baltimore).
Anyway, we clobbered Detroit tonight 13-5. Rafael Palmeiro got it started early with a home run in the first inning. He then proceeded to get a couple more hits and RBI’s for a total of 3 hits and 4 RBI’s. Luis Alicea continues to be a most pleasant surprise this season, now batting .333 and going 3 for 4 tonight with 4 runs scored, two walks, and two RBI’s. I really have to admit that I was leery about him, but he’s done a great job this season (so much so that I picked him up on two of my fantasy baseball teams
Pitching wise, we had another “eh” performance by Darren Oliver, who might be taking a trip to the disabled list if this “dead arm” thing keeps up. He gave up five earned runs in 5.2 innings. However, our pen was great again – Crabtree & Perisho combining for 3.1 innings of shutout ball. That looked good, especially from Perisho.
We come back home for the Diamondbacks this weekend. That ought to be a tougher challenge, and the way we played on the road this trip doesn’t fill me with a lot of confidence.