ATLANTA – As the innings wore on this afternoon, the hours left of competitive regular season baseball turned to minutes, the eulogy of this year’s Detroit Tigers team was written.
On one hand, it’s surprising it ended this way, their bats gone silent, their inconsistent offensive ways paralyzing them at the most inopportune of times. On the other hand, it wasn’t surprising at all.
“When we go cold, we go cold,” one Tigers coach said late last month.
And here they were, against a last-place Atlanta Braves team injected with energy in the final game at Turner Field, needing a win and help to keep their postseason hopes alive, cold again.