Detroit Tigers lose to Houston Astros 14-7 – MLB Spring Training
Detroit Tigers lost to Houston Astros 14-7 at the Osceola County Stadium in Kissimmee, Florida on Tuesday, March 27 in their Grapefruit League encounter of the 2012 Major League Baseball Spring Training Session.
Jim Leyland is taking his time picking the best possible pitcher for the starting spot on Tigers’ pitching rotation. Andy Oliver, Duane Below and Drew Smyly are competing for the available spot.
Smyly, who is inexperienced at the MLB level, will make his second spring start against St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if he can impress the skipper to make his dreams come true.
"I'm not a performance guy," he said. "I'm watching everybody, like all the coaches are and Dave (general manager Dave Dombrowski) is. We'll try to put our heads together and try to decide which guy makes the most sense for us."
"We're running `em out there as fairly and as often as we possibly can, and at some point we have to make a decision," said Leyland. "I'm leaving that one open because I don't know what my GM is going to do. My GM has a tendency to surprise you."
The Tigers suffered only their fifth loss of the season. With 15 wins, five ties and 5 defeats this spring, they have shown that they are the most dominant force in the American League Central Division.
Although the Tigers were the winners of 2011 AL Central title, they were unable to live to their immense potential in the post season, failing to reach the World Series finals.
However, with added strength in their pitching and hitting attacks this season, the Tigers will be hoping to bag the World Series title for the first time since 1984. Tigers’ hitting line up looks stronger than ever before.
After acquiring Prince Fielder on a nine year $214 million contract earlier this year, the Tigers will be hoping to score runs on almost every MLB ballpark. Justin Verlander is expected to lead the pitching attack. The 2011 Cy Young Award winner will be
assisted by the likes of Drew Smyly, Jacob Turner and Andy Oliver.
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