Tigers 4, Blue Jays 2: W(h)ither Aaron Hill

Jim Leyland was wrong, but it felt so right.

Perhaps oddly, the eighth inning in which the Mark Rzepcynski and Shawn Camp combined to blow it and allow the go-ahead runs didn't get my goat nearly as goatingly as the broken dreams of the top of the sixth. Here's how that one went: Escobar singled, youngster Eric Thames struck out (these things happen), Bautista ripped one down the line and passed the diving haters, so that's runners on first and third, one out. Adam Lind was quite rightly intentionally walked -- for serious, Lind has been a beast of a dude for weeks now -- setting the stage for an Aaron Hill first-pitch dribbler to the right side and a double play that went Cabrera --> Avila --> Cabrera --> despair to end the inning.


If it were only that Aaron Hill was not hitting, that would be awful enough, in that Hill seemed as though he would be our everyday second baseman for years. But it's more than that: he's having more trouble in the field than you could ever expected, too. Hill, at his best out there, is terrific. But when he's not getting a handle on the ball turning (or not turning, in fact) the double play, it is like, what is the deal Aaron Hill? He is just in no way going to be our second baseman going forward. His pretty team-friendly contract is structured such that the Blue Jays have to decide after this season whether or not they want him for several more years at rates that seemed completely reasonable based on the career trajectory it looked like he was on. But his actual career trajectory is shaped like a tragically disappointed and unstirrable wang.


It's sad.


KS