Playoff Blogdome: Tigers at Athletics, Game One

Tracking the blogs the day after Game 1 of the ALCS:

• Athletics Nation. Tonight was essentially George Costanza's opposite day. At least on the defensive front. And it wasn't just the Jimenez error, although that was huge. Swisher not getting an out on the Granderson play. Chavez missing a ball that he vaccuumed up during the regular season. It just wasn't the A's on the defensive side. If that's the right way, I don't wanna be right.

• Detroit Tiger Weblog. So far the extent of Sean Casey's injury still isn't known and won't be until (1.) he wakes up, and (2.) he gets some diagnostics (i.e. MRI). What we do know is that my fears have come to fruition and Neifi Perez will be getting the nod at shortstop with Carlos Guillen going to first. This is my problem with Perez. It isn't that he's bad to have as a 25th guy, it's that Jim Leyland uses him as a 10th guy. I know that we're not supposed to criticize Leyland, but the decision to carry Infante/Perez/Santiago was a poor one.

• Mack Avenue Tigers. Seriously, don't write Oakland off after one game. I've read some opinions, writers and normal folk alike, and it would be a mistake to see this as an easy series. Oakland is a team that can get very good, very quick.

• The Pastime. Well, that was a weak attempt. The Tigers took advantage of too many Oakland mistakes tonight to take Game One. Macha needs to use his deep pen. Zito was done an inning before he was pulled, and the Oakland pen shut out the Tigers for the rest of the game. Hope Jerry Crawford doesn't get back behind the plate. His strike zone was awful tonight. There's a reason his 2006 stats were so out of line. His strike zone is terrible. I'm still confident that the A's can pull it out.

• Condition Oakland. I'm never happy when the A's lose, but to lose like this is just unacceptable. They rocked Nate Robertson for 6 hits and worked 3 walks with runners on base every inning - and got none of them home. They hit into 2 inning ending double plays and then with runners on second and third with NOBODY OUT Robertson strikes out three in a row. The A's beat themselves, Detroit had nothing to do with it.

• Nate Robertson's Gum Time. The funny thing is, I didn't change a whole lot from my New York start. People are like, "Oh, gosh, what's going on? Robertson's starting. Look what happened in New York." It wasn't about that. I went at them just like I went at New York. A few things could've gone differently — the ground ball that I should've fielded, maybe a pitch called my way, just a few things. And that's baseball. You've got to accept it. I can't sit there and pity-party about that. That's just the way it went. But I still felt good about how I went at them. I didn't shy away from them, and I didn't shy away tonight. I went right at them.