PREGAME: Ah, the rubber game. Zach Miner takes the hill for Detroit and he’ll be opposed by Ian Snell. Snell has struck out 7.15 batters per nine innings this year, but he’s only fanned 9 in his last 3 starts (16 2/3 innings).
And in the irony/coincidence department, Chris Shelton is of course facing the team that left him unprotected in the Rule 5 draft. The Pirates let him go because his defense wasn’t good enough for the NL. Shelton has made 3 of his 4 errors this season in the last 2 games. One can’t help but wonder if he’s pressing, or if it’s just one of those things.
Game Time 1:05pm.
I doubt it, It’s probably just a coincidence. But hey, I’m sure he’s happy to not be a pirate now!
I think Leyland gave the team a talking to and they are trying to make sure that this game isn’t close.
Miner has a no-hitter in the 3rd. Wow!
White Sox are already ahead of the Cubs again, so we got to keep on winning most of our games. Will the White Sox ever hit a slump?
Perfect game gone, but Miner will take a no-hitter into the 5th inning.
They did… luckily it was the same week we played the East.
I wonder if any of the guys that griped last year have apologized to DD for their attitudes about the Farnsworth trade?
Kenny Rogers is only Tiger All-Star
http://shop.mlb.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2405399&clickid=body_rv_txt
Scroll Down the Jerseys.
Jones on verge of 6th loss of season. This has to be a team high.
Well Jones has got to be the Cardiac Reliever.
Good lord… are we lucky to have gotten out of there with 2 wins.
A couple of thoughts:
I didn’t see the game on TV. Was the D as bad as it sonded? Particularly Ordonez?
The Pirates let Shelton go because…. he didn’t have a position. He sure didn’t this weekend.
Zach Miner has been a find. Including Toledo he is 11-0 on the year.
Rodney has been pretty bad. Jones has been pretty lucky. Zumaya is easily our best reliever right now. I don’t know that I would move him to the 9th though. It is pretty demoralizing for the other team when he comes in in the 7th or 8th with a lead and just gasses the other team.
Cubs lead the Sox by 5 in the 9th. Maybe they can hold it…… well now the bases are loaded so……
Oakland and Seattle have both been playing ok; this should be a tough trip.
One all-star is a crock.
Cubs win! Cubs win!
There are two Tigers only who I hate to see in any game.One is away with his own troubles, and the other is ToddJones.I can’t even say his name in 2 words.His fellow pitchers must hate him for losing or close to losing their well pitched 7 inning leads.Can’t Mr. Illitch buy out his contract and send him home to bed without supper?
Sheesha Bum
First off we should not be scared like that on a holiday weekend,,, we are off work and supposed to be relaxing
Second Rodney is having the same slump that Jones had earlier this year. Z was even getting gased for a while way back. Its fine that it is spread out. A win is a win. Pretty or ugly they all count. Just let your mind roll back to 03,04 & 05……………. how many of these close ones would have been washed down the tubes because of mental errors or giving up?. OK now your back. What about Brandon Inge, He is playing decent D this year. He has made many plays that other thirdbase men would not have, so if he has an error or two, so be it.
Look at where we get production….. Game after game its this guy or that guy. Today its Vance “I’m a part time back up, here for the defence and oh by the way hittin’ 300” Wilson and Big Red.
I think after the end of this year we will all get a team picture to hang in our basement or office to remember the kinda out of nowhere team these guys are. I was at Lakeland this spring for a couple games and the talk back then was maybe we can play 500 and wouldnt it be nice to “maybe” make the playoffs. Well Tiger fans look where we are. In first place and lookkng decent at the turn. We all love to come here and read up and stoke each other about another game this team just won.
Billfer what are you going to do during the all allstar break to keep us ammused?. I am sure it will be good.
Have a great nite everyone…..
There are only two tigers players that i dont care for. 1.shelton 2.inge. The only reason shelton is in the game is for his bat and he’s not doin anything with it. Inge stinks at the plate too. But i think he will come around. He is one of the best deffensive players at third base. (not the best just one of them).
Im going to say my favorit players have to be 1.granderson, he is a young player with grate tallent and he will only get better.
2.Todd Jones, yes i said it todd jones. Ok he has blew a couple of saves but look back at what he has accomplished. I would put him in before rodny. Dont like him eather.
3.Puge, One of the best cachers of all time.
4.Maggs, he is just an outstanding player
They had a bad game. Who cares?! They are still in 1st
Loved another “ugly” win yesterday. You can’t always win pretty and every win will definitely be important when it is all said and done. I never like facing a team that has been down on their luck for a long stretch as the Pirates had.
Leyland had every right to be concerned with this series and I am glad we took 2 out of 3 and got on the plane for Oakland.
On a side note, why are there no afternoon home games on Saturdays for the remainder of the season? Our church softball team was looking to attend a game, but coming from 3+ hours away makes a 7:05 pm game too much of a stretch. It would not look good for our softball team to skip church on a Sunday to make it to one of those afternoon games.
It won’t keep me from coming this summer, though. I want to get together with some friends and see a game at some point.
Knobler reported the time was changed for the Saturday, July22, game when Oakland comes to town, so it’s an afternooner.
http://www.mlive.com/tigers/weblog/
…we are off work and supposed to be relaxing…
Speak for yourself Steve! 🙂 Just kidding. I worked all week-end, but thankfully am off for the holiday and on vacation after that. Sweet…
The Tigs were lucky to come away with 2 wins against the Pirates, they could have easily been swept. They were so bad at times it was almost comical–I doubt we’ll hear any calls for Rodney to take over at closer anytime soon. In fact, they were sooo bad I’m not even worried-no one can play like that all the time. (Can they?) This week-end was a temporary melt-down, which fortunately didn’t hurt them too much. The Cubbies did their part for us too.
Guys, Rodney didn’t pitch that poorly. He does take way too long on the mound, but they were bloops and balls hit right to the fielders. In Saturday’s game, they just couldn’t make the outs. He should have been out of it 3 or 4 times, and some tough strike calls. I still have confidence in Rodney, more than Jones. Jones gets good defense, Rodney slows the game down, probably screwing up the infielders a bit. Magglio seems to hate playing outfield, he just stops running if he isn’t absolutely sure he is going to get the ball. Also, there is something to say about not yet having the mental strength to handle bad clubs when nothing is at stake. The Pirates are not a good team, i don’t care what Leyland says. Sean Casey gets all the strike calls, and he is horrible. The one guy that was scary was the Sanchez kid, man, he always gets a clutch hit. By the way, if you can ever go to PNC Park, go, it is amazing, great park. And the dude in the Tiger was awesome, he was actually wearing a Tiger, ha.
Kurt,
Thanks for the note on the time change for July 22nd. Maybe we’ll be able to make that one.