The Low Down on D-Town

BY CHRIS ZADOROZNY, Staff Columnist

In the final Low Down on D-Town, the Tigers salvaged a game on their first road series, the Pistons inch closer to the offseason with more losses, and the Red Wings are down 2-1 in their series with the Nashville Predators.

Detroit Tigers: The Tigers wrapped up their first road series, and they lost two of three against the Chicago White Sox over the weekend. Before that, they played the Tampa Bay Rays, and won two of three at home. The Tigers are currently 6-3 and first in the American League Central Division.

In the Rays series, the Tigers scored a total of 16 runs, while only allowing 6. Phil Coke won the first game, while Colin Balester won the third game. The second game of the series, it was ace vs. ace (Justin Verlander vs. James Shields). Verlander, unfortunately lost that battle, but only in the ninth inning where he lost control. It was Verlander’s first loss of the season, and only one starter has a win right now.

After coming out of their first homestand with a record of 5-2, the Tigers looked to carry the momentum to the South Side of Chi-Town. That didn’t work out so well, as their bats went silent. The Tigers mustered only eight runs in the three game series against the White Sox, winning only the last game of the series, 5-2. Max Scherzer pitched well, but the bats didn’t help in the first game of the series, dropping that 5-2.

Adam Wilk, a call-up for injured starter Doug Fister, pitched exceptionally well in his first major league start, but again, the Tigers couldn’t give him any run support. The Tigers fell 5-1.

Luckily, the Tigers were able to grab a win, and get some runs this past Sunday. Rick Porcello got the first win among the Tigers starters this year, and backup catcher Gerald Laird hit his first home run in a 5-2 win over the White Sox.

They are continuing their road trip to Kansas City, playing in their second game tonight in a three game series. After the three game series, they return home in an American League Championship Series rematch against the Texas Rangers. In case any of you want to know, Verlander pitches on Sunday against Neftali Feliz.

Detroit Pistons: The Pistons have had a pretty horrible April, and it seems they are ending it that way too. They have dropped their past two games, picked up a rare win before that, and then dropped the previous three. The most recent loss came against the Chicago Bulls at home, losing 100-94 in overtime. Rodney Stuckey had 32 points, leading the Pistons, while Joakim Noah countered with 20 points to lead the Bulls.

Before that game, the Pistons fell to the Milwaukee Bucks 113-97, also at home. Brandon Knight led the way for the Pistons with 25 points. The Pistons play the Cleveland Cavaliers at home tonight, at 7:30 p.m. before hitting the road for one of their final two away games against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday evening.

Detroit Red Wings: It’s playoff time again in Hockeytown, and the smell of octopus is in the air. The Red Wings started the playoffs as the fifth seed in the Western Conference, meeting the Nashville Predators, a familiar rival at the fourth seed. The Predators have home-ice advantage as they started the first two games at Bridgestone Arena.

The Red Wings dropped Game 1 in Nashville, in a close game, 3-2. Nashville scored first, but Henrik Zetterberg tied it up in the second period, before Gabriel Bourque scored his first of two goals, including the game winner after. The Red Wings tried to crawl their way back in a game full of penalties, but couldn’t quite make it. The two least penalized teams in the league combined for 17 penalties and 34 penalty minutes.

At the end of the game, Predators defenseman and Captain Shea Weber gave Zetterberg a cheap shot, by punching him in the back of the head, and then slamming his head into the glass, deliberately. The referees only assessed him a two minute minor for roughing, which didn’t carry over to Game 2.

Game 2 was a whole different game for the Red Wings as they came out flying early, and Todd Bertuzzi got some revenge for the Zetterberg cheap shot. Big Bert fought Shea Weber, evening up the teams, and the Wings scored two in the first period to take the lead. Nashville came back, but not before Franzen had a shot go off of his leg and in, which ended up being the game winner, in a 3-2 win for the Red Wings.

Game 3 was back in the Motor City with the Red Wings gaining momentum. It didn’t seem like it though, even with The Joe fired up. Weber scored first for the Predators in the first period, and sloppy play in the first by the Red Wings seemed to have cost them in the 3-2 loss.

Pavel Datsyuk pulled another one of his “Datsyukian Dekes” by stealing the puck from behind the Nashville net and putting it behind Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne before he even knew it. Zetterberg scored late in the third period, but it was too little, too late for the Red Wings.

They look to Game 4 tonight at Joe Louis Arena, where the fans will be rocking. With the best home ice record in the league over the past year, the Red Wings will look to use that to their advantage and tie the series at 2. If not, Nashville will take a commanding 3-1 series lead. Go Wings!