04-14-2008, 03:08 AM
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 | Contributor | | Last Online: 12-20-2008 02:06 AM Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Santa Clara, CA
Posts: 5,895
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| Re: TIGERS 08 SEASON THREAD
Leyland finally ripped into this team for the way they are playing: Tigers' offense remains in hibernation Quote:
Dormant for a couple of years, manager Jim Leyland spewed ash and anger following the Tigers' 11-0 loss Sunday, when for the first time ever at home the White Sox hit two grand slams.
As explosions go, it wasn't much, especially when compared to the loud corrective measures Leyland took in his first season, when he thought the Tigers had mentally packed up early for an upcoming trip.
That's the sort of thing that can cause the magma to rise, though. He can tolerate the slumps, even one such as the 2-10 Tigers find themselves in. He also can tolerate the lack of hitting, such as two consecutive shutouts on the heels of which the Tigers left Chicago.
They lost 7-0 on Saturday, 11-0 on Sunday, and now have been blanked four times in 12 games.
Leyland stands by his players through thick and thin, but when the frustration is compounded by a lapse in the long, arduous process of simply grinding it out, it's time to jolt the players back into place.
He doesn't ever mean it personally. They don't take it personally. It's strictly business.
But whatever set it off, perhaps the amount of lame first-pitch swinging the Tigers did late in the game, Sunday was the day Leyland took his team to task. But it could have been that the root of what he said after the game actually was what he talked about before it.
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