The Tigers take on the Oakland Athletics in Game One of the American League Championship Series this evening in Oakland...
The question of the day is which pitcher will give his team the best chance to win.
Both Barry Zito and Nate Roberston have pitched well all year. Zito has a better record but Robertson has a better ERA. Robertson has had the problem of not getting any run support whatsoever when he shuts down an opponent. The same could hold true today, but what will be interesting is if he can even shut down the A's offense to begin with.
Judging by history, this game looks to be low scoring. Robertson shuts down the A's, but either Zito shuts down the Tigers as well, or the Tiger bats don't wake up and the game goes to the bullpens with a 2-1 score or something like that. However, it is important to look and see how Nate has pitched in big games this year.
Go back a week. Seven runs against the Yankees. The Tigers were still in the game in the fifth inning, but then everything they did to get back, they lost when Robertson gave up his last two runs. Go back to July. Huge series in Detroit against the White Sox. The Tigers won two of three, but they lost the game that Robertson pitched, and badly.
Can Nate Robertson be a big game pitcher? The answer should and could be yes, but he has yet to show that he can handle the pressure. He battles and battles in what are big games, but when they get over the hump of being big to being near-colossal, Robertson has been giving up that extra run or two that makes it hard for his team to come back.
What is interesting is that Nate has pitched each season and gotten less strikeouts per nine innings than he did in the year previous. It seems that when he needs the big strikeout, he gets it, but he has also become more of a finesse pitcher like Kenny Rogers. Give credit to Rogers, he helped drop Nate's ERA a full point, but he took away the important strikeout almost completely from Robertson's repertoire.
Even Kenny Rogers will tell you that you can't just be a finesse pitcher. Hitting your spots is one thing, but you will give up a lot of hard luck singles when you jam pitchers and work the outside of the plate. Two in a row, and you may be needing that strikout to keep a run from scoring. Rogers knows that. This is the same guy who pitched the game of his life striking out eight in less than that many innings in Game Three of the ALDS.
Robertson needs to gain that fire. Granted, there is no pitcher that shows as much emotion as Nate Robertson on the mound, but more than once, he will have to get a strikeout of a good hitter at an important time. You can't hope for popouts against a good hitting team. When there is a runner at third, most anyone in the Oakland lineup will be able to lift the ball to the outfield to get that all-important run home. Attacking the hitter and getting him to swing and miss may be the only way to win this game.
Nate Robertson has that ability. He shouldn't go back to the pitcher he was. That guy would strike out eight, but give up six runs in the meantime. However, he should be able to use the best of both worlds and come up with something nasty when it is needed. He has shown flashes of that over the course of this season, and if he can put the two together, he could pitch a three-hit shutout. He's got that in him.
Now if the Tigers could just score some runs when he pitches...
