Tiger meat

Indians right-hander Jake Westbrook is actually off to a decent start when he's not facing the Tigers. Not that you'd know it to look at his stat line (0-5, 5.36 ERA), which screams "start the bus for Buffalo."
In starts against Minnesota, Chicago and the Los Angeles Angels, Westbrook is Mr. Hard Luck. He's 0-3, but has a Pedro-Martinez-circa-1998-esque 1.50 ERA. In those starts, he has had less than two runs of support per game from an Indians offense that is still apparently carrying PVC pipe for bats.
In two starts against the Tigers, however, Westbrook is carrying a burden no pack mule would want: 0-2 with an obscene 33.48 ERA. That's 16 earned runs in 4 1/3 total innings, and obliterates his performance in the other three starts as far as his stats are concerned.
In Wednesday's 10-3 loss to Detroit, Westbrook allowed a career-high nine earned runs and was replaced by Jason Davis in the third inning. Just about every pitch coming out of his hand was up and straight. As Charles Nagy could tell you, flat and belt-high is virtual suicide for a sinkerballer throwing about 90 miles per hour.
Westbrook had the best ground-ball to fly-ball ratio of any pitcher in the American League heading into Wednesday night's game. Usually, pitchers like that don't give up a lot of home runs. In his starts against Detroit, though, Westbrook can count a grand slam to Marcus Thames and a two-run shot off the bat of Craig Monroe as the souvenirs he's served up.
The ironic thing, as has been well-publicized, is that Westbrook was excellent against the Tigers last year, with two wins in three starts and a 3.41 ERA. He probably owes a relief appearance against the Tigers last April to saving his career as he knows it. In relief of Jeff D'Amico, he set down 21-of-21 batters, and was set on a course for the AL all-star team last season.
Turns out, he must have owed the Tigers one.