ALCS Game One: When It Rains, It Pours

So…good news or bad news? We always like to start with the bad news first.

-Delmon Young is out for the ALCS (if we were to make it that far, he would hopefully play in the World Series).
-Magglio Ordonez is out for the rest of the postseason.
-This means that Don Kelly and Ryan Raburn are probably going to be playing every game of the ALCS. Don Kelly and Ryan Raburn.
-Two rain delays yesterday knocked Justin Verlander out way, waaaay too early, and are probably contributing to his mediocre performance thus far in the postseason.
-Alex Avila is a zombie.
-It appears that Wilson Betemit lost his eyesight, although this is not confirmed by the Tigers organization. Those "swings" he was taking on those Neftali Feliz fastballs were…disturbing, to say the least.
-Our offense choked in the most unfortunate and unpleasant way, with a total of fourteen (!!!) strikeouts and missed opportunities with runners in scoring position. Who are we, the Yankees?
-We lost.

So…yes. This is not good. And now we have to wait for the rain to stop--again--as Game Two has been delayed until tomorrow at 4:30. Guess who has class at 4:30? All three of us. Thanks a ton, Weather.

Indeed, we are depending on Raburn, DK, Santiago, Inge and probably Dirks to pick up the pieces that their fallen brethren have dropped. Eek. We also need Jackson, Cabrera, Martinez, Peralta and especially    Avila to step up and produce. Otherwise, we're screwed.

So, is there any good in this situation?
-Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry were amazing last night. Well done, boys.
-The Tigers are only one game back. A game.

Not much to brag about, but it's not like hope is Lost. These unfortunate circumstances are the kind of thing that can rally a team together, can motivate them to win. Or it can be the kind of thing that breaks a team. But we're not going to talk about that.

One last thing: Max Scherzer, Dougie Fister and Rick Porcello are going to have to pitch out of their minds to support our battered offense. Plus, unless their names are Joaquin Benoit or Jose Valverde, we're not really fond of seeing much of our bullpen this series.

Sure would be nice to leave rainy Arlington with the series tied. It's time to go hard, or have a rough time when we go home.