And on the 85th day, Curtis Granderson rested. But Edwin Jackson did not.

photo by Samara Pearlstein

Here is something that I enjoy: win-quality pitching resulting in a win for the team and an actual Win for the starter. Simple, poetic, just, sane, and not as common as it should be when it comes to the Tigers. But on Friday Edwin Jackson pitched a win-worthy game (7 innings, 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks), the bats put up a few runs early on Cliff Lee, and the bullpen did not manage to Ruin Everything. Awwwwwww yea.

–This is the Negro Leagues Tribute Weekend (the tribute game itself is Saturday), and there was some sort of passing-of-the-bat ceremony before tonight’s game. The bat was passed along and signed by Willie Horton, Rod Allen, Marcus Thames, and Curtis Granderson. Now, I love Rod Allen, you all know that, but one of these things is not like the others…

–Polanco was wearing the Breathe Right strip again.

–Edwin Jackson never ices his arm after starts. Edwin Jackson does not believe in inflammation, or ice.

–Granderson was supposed to have the entire night off, but had to come in when Josh Anderson took a direct hit off the right tricep. It immediately swelled up and turned reddish purple, and Anderson kept flexing his fingers like he was losing feeling in them. He took his base and tried to stay in the game, but he probably couldn’t throw, so Grandy had to come in after the inning ended.

Quoth Rod Allen: “He’s tryin’ to run that one off. You can’t run that one off, young man.”

–Ryan Garko hit a ball off of Jackson, right around his hip/butt. The ball practically soared over to first, I guess because Edwin Jackson has a rubber butt. Garko made the bad decision to dive instead of running through the base, so Miggy had plenty of time to get him out.

–No players at all had multi-hit games today. On both sides, everyone who got a hit got only that one hit. There were 11 hits total between the two teams.

–Rod Allen: “Laird out there to conversate.”

–Is Joe Smith the most anonymous pitcher ever, or is Joe Smith the most anonymous pitcher ever? He has absolutely no defining characteristics except for his weird submarinish delivery. Seriously though, just try to describe him. He’s a clean-shaven generic white middle reliever named Joe freakin’ Smith. Amazing. Even his ERA is a middle-reliever-tolerably-average 4.58.

–Joel Zumaya came in, threw a couple of pitches, and started shaking his hand. The trainer ran out. Zoom had a cut on his thumb, which had opened up and was bleeding. He had to come out of the game, but in the dugout after he just had a little bandaid on it, so it probably wasn’t too bad, just bad enough to prevent him from pitching.

He was 2-0 on the batter when he was pulled, and Bobby Seay allowed the walk, which was charged to Zoom. So Zoom had the curious experience of throwing two pitches total, and officially issuing a walk.

–The River Thames hit a homerun in the 8th. Coming back into the dugout he high-fived everyone except for Jim Leyland. He shook Leyland’s hand.

When he hit it my dad said, “Country strong!” LITERALLY NOT FIVE SECONDS LATER Rod Allen said, “That was country strong!”

–Clete Thomas only wears a batting glove on his bottom hand, I don’t know that I had noticed that before.

–Words you never, ever want to hear: “It’ll be Fernando Rodney. It’s a non-save situation.” Did Fernando pull us out of this one? Yes. Did Fernando make it unnecessarily stressful and close? YES.

The game was 5-1 when Fernando came in. The first batter of the inning reached on an error. The second batter walked on four pitches. So there were two men on, nobody out. Rick Knapp came out to share his thoughts on the situation.

The third and fourth batters flew out. Two men on, two outs. The fifth batter had a middlingly long at-bat with a couple of big, heart-attack-inducing foul balls, then walked.

THE TYING RUN CAME TO THE PLATE.

So, yeah, whatever, the sixth batter grounded out to end the game. That’s not the point. The point is that a potentially game-tying situation NEVER SHOULD HAVE ARISEN, but it DID, because Fernando Rodney hates me and feeds upon my suffering.

–Brandon Inge might be in the Home Run Derby. I CAN’T EVEN. I am flailing. I don’t even know what to say, except for HOLY CATS and LOL FOREVER.