Bonderman!!! One word describes the dominance of this game for the Tigers. Jeremy pitched one of the best games in his career shutting down the powerful Indians line-up. Detroit has now shutout Cleveland twice this year and have six total team shutouts, which leads the league and is double the nearest competitor. Bonderman worked eight shutout innings before giving way to Jones for his ninth save in ten opportunities. With the victory by the Twins over the White Sox for the second straight game the team sporting the Olde English D moved to within a half game of first place. Bonderman took a no-hitter into the fifth and only gave up three hits in his eight innings. Jeremy walked three batters and struck out eight. He kept the ball down in the zone and as Tigers announcer Jim Price would say “he had good late movement.” Bonderman allowed two hits leading off the sixth to put himself in a jam with the heart of Cleveland’s order coming up. He got Peralta to line into a double play to Polanco and calmly struck out Hafner to end the threat. Jones, of course, made it interesting in the ninth as Bonderman left after throwing 98 pitches. The Rollercoaster allowed two hits before finally preserving the shutout. Detroit now has four starting pitchers with a least four wins in the middle of May.
Chris Shelton broke out of his power slump in the third inning blasting a 419 ft HR to left center off of Sabathia. The homer was Shelton’s first extra base hit of May after a torrid April. The Tigers took advantage of sloppy Cleveland defense in the sixth as two errors lead to a Magglio Ordonez RBI single. The final run was added in the top of the eighth as Pudge Rodriguez’s eighth double brought in Ramon Santiago who had two hits from the leadoff position.
Detroit looks to bring out the brooms for their first ever sweep of the Indians at Jacobs field. They have to like their chances as Mike Maroth shutout the Indians early in the year and it seems he has their number. Also the Tigers will be facing Jason Johnson and there was a reason they did not look to resign him to stay in the D.
*** OEs 3 Stars of the Game ***
#3 Todd Jones – Save (9), 1 IP, 2 Hs, 0 Rs, 0 BB, 1 K, 4.35 ERA
#2 Chris Shelton – 2-4 with a run scored, a HR (11) and 1 RBI (22)
#1 Jeremy Bonderman – Win (4), 8 IP, 3 Hs, 0 Rs, 3 BBs, 8 Ks, 3.74 ERA
