Game 113: Twins at Tigers

PREGAME Dating back to last September, the Tigers have beaten the Twins 8 straight at home. The last time that happened was 1981/1982.

Nate Robertson will try to keep the streak going. In his last start he limited the Devil Rays to 2 runs in 6 1/3 innings before taking the 2-1 loss. In his last start against Minnesota he picked up the win despite allowing 5 runs in 6 innings. He got that win because the Tigers got to Brad Radke early an knocked him out after 4 runs in 3 innings.

Radke takes the hill again tonight for the Twins. This should make Craig Monroe happy. Not only is Monroe hitting as well as umm, anyone, he is 15 for 31 lifetime against Radke.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME Remember back before last night’s game when the Tigers held a double digit lead in the Central? Ahem.

The Tigers didn’t play a bad game, they just got beat. Nate Robertson was solid. The offense had no trouble getting men on base with 11 hits and 2 walks. The problem was that all but one of those hits were singles.

The biggest lost opportunity came when the Tigers loaded the bases with nobody out. They did so much right that inning. Carlos Guillen followed a leadoff single by Ordonez with an 11 pitch walk. Dmitri Young hit a rocket single to right that was hit hard enough that Ordonez really didn’t have a chance to score. Craig Monroe does his job by hitting a line drive to left field on an 0-2 count. Unfortunately it happened to be at Jason Tyner for the first out. Even more unfortunate for the Tigers was that Tyner flung a bee-bee home and easily cut down Magglio Ordonez who was trying to score.

You could question Ordonez coming home on the play when he was about by a couple steps. Yet if the throw bounces or is a couple feet up the line he probably scores. It wasn’t a bad gamble and you just have to give the Twins credit for executing.

The next inning the Twins took the lead on a jam job double by Joe Mauer.

And such is baseball. The Tigers have had the ball bounce their way a ton this year. It didn’t happen for them tonight, and the Twins played a very good game. Yet the Tigers still brought the go ahead run to the plate in the 9th against one of the best closers in the league. Good game, good effort, the Twins just happened to be a little better tonight.

14 thoughts on “Game 113: Twins at Tigers”

  1. Dang it. I thought they were gonna pull it out again. I’m still impressed with the way they keep fighting till the last out though.

    We’ll get em tomorrow.

  2. yeah, I just hope they aren’t starting to get complacent…they’re going through a spot of ‘best team in years’ hype…

    God bless ’em. They deserve it (with a capital ‘D’) but things usually start getting suspect when the talking heads are totally on yr side…

    Tomorrow I’m going to the game…first one I’ve made this season…it’s going to rawk!!!

  3. Not the best outing. Not being able to score with bases loaded w/ no outs was the killer, but these guys don’t let that happen very often. We’ll get em tomorrow.

    Did anyone see Kirk Gibson on the Best Damned Sports Show, last night. He showed alot of class. Giving Jim Leyland his due for what this team has accomplished this year. He let everone know he loves the Tigers and is pulling for them every day.

  4. well, tonight we lost. It happens. Reason? Simple: they got the hit when it counted, we didn’t. Robertson can’t be faulted, he pitched well. We got hits, just not at the right time. Such is life; never expected to win ’em all. Tomorrow is another game….. 🙂

  5. I saw Gibbie and it was pretty good. I also enjoyed his description of Sparky keeping them loose for the 84 playoffs.

  6. Can somone give me the low-down on what Adam Miller’s role will be this season, now that he’s on the 40 man roster? I know his backround, but is he really that good and mature enough to contribute to our team this year? Did I miss something?

  7. Everything I’ve seen suggests that Miller’s role come September will be mop up duties in blow outs and run aways so the more experienced relievers will be ready for the close games. In short, he won’t get a lot of innings.

    Of course the way this season is going, he’ll blow people away and become an important arm in the bullpen.

  8. The SI/BP piece is a must-read. Best paragraph of the article:

    “But by any reasonable standard, the team’s successes vastly outnumber their mistakes. Trading Ramon Santiago for Guillen by itself outweighs the combined impact of just about every bad decision this administration has made.”

    As I’ve pointed out previously, Guillen’s numbers are at the Jeter level. So DD basically got a Derek Jeter for (1) no players in return and (2) 1/5 the cost.

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