PREGAME: The rubber game of the series is a matinee edition. Jeremy Bonderman returns to the rotation after battling blister and cut issues. Bondo’s last turn against the Angels saw him get lit up by the Angels and shoddy defense by Carlos Guillen.
The Tigers will be doing battle against Ervin Santana. Santana has been victimized by 11 homers this year, 9 of which have come on the road.
Catch this one on FSN if you can because Ernie Harwell will be in the booth. If you forgot to DVR it, you can catch the replay at 7pm
Game Time 1:05pm
POSTGAME: What’s not to like about today’s game? A 12-0 thumping leaves a lot of people smiling.
The offense was decidedly top heavy with 11 of the 13 hits being picked up by the top 5 hitters in the lineup (Omar Infante pinch hitting for Maggs picked up one as well).
Magglio Ordonez is simply hitting crazy good right now, and really doesn’t have a peer in the MVP race right now. These things of course aren’t decided before Memorial Day but doesn’t he have to be leader in the clubhouse at this point?
I was just thinking the other day that while Carlos Guillen was hitting pretty good his power number weren’t quite what we were accustomed to. Three homers in 2 days will help to fix that and push his slugging percentage all the way to .551.
Jeremy Bonderman was quite good. He nearly matched his season total in free passes, but it didn’t hurt because there wasn’t a lot of hard contact against him. He could have finished this game with his pitch count under 100 going into the 9th.
Instead Wil Ledezma, the much maligned Wil Ledezma, came in and picked up a 1-2-3 inning. Hopefully it is a sign he’s righting the ship. With Mesa being awful and Fernando Rodney with shoulder tendinitis the Tigers need some of the other guys to step up.
And with only one inning of relief needed today, the Tigers bullpen will be completely intact and available going into this weekend’s series with Cleveland.
Bonderman needs to go deep in the game today. No Rodney again due to “tendinitis” in the shoulder according to John Lowe’s Blog at the Free Press.
Well, he must be back to his old self. Typical Bondo 1st.
Ugh.
Wow, DP!
Don’t you love it!
I love hearing Ernie. He could read me the dictionary and I’d be content.
Very soothing.
Man these guys sure are swinging the bats. Every inning is like Christmas.
A thorough pounding today. I think Maggs could hit a BB shot from a gun, he is really dialed in.
Lets hope Bondo can go a coouple more.
Steve
Guillen is one of the best. 2 homers as of now.
Take back your shoddy defense comment.
Neifi gonna homer this inning? or at least get a hit, he seems to do that with a huge a lead.
What a pounding today. good to see that Bondo walked 5 I think and still went 8 innings throwing under 100 pitches.
Ledezma threw 15 pitches, 12 for strikes, to get through the 9th. Maybe it’s the turnaround for him. I hope so, I love his stuff.
Good to get Ledezma a no pressure inning. We have to hope he regains his form. A day like today could help him back on that road.
Clearly all Ledezma needs to pitch effectively is a 12 run lead. 🙂
To me there’s no doubt Bonderman is the ace of this staff. If Rogers were active there might be a question, but as it is, Bondo’s da man. Our bullpen struggles, so he gives us 8 shut-out innings. He’s the go-to guy and it’s such a treat to see the team score so many runs for him.
Speaking of a treat, can I just say how jealous I am of anyone who went to the game today? What a perfect day to be at the ballpark.
Last night either Price or Dickerson said he had asked Magglio if the ball looked really big to him at the plate right now. Magglio’s response: “And slow.”
Maggs just took over the AL lead in RBI’s and is 3rd in BA. He’s a joy to watch right now.
So, who thinks KC can sweep Cleveland? I wouldn’t go so far as to send them champagne 🙂 but I would be mighty pleased.
Alex Gordon is finnaly starting to hit. With Dotel back….they are going to start playing .450 ball from here out.
I picked the Royals to win 70-ish games this year.
And who would Tigers fans take if they could only keep one? Bonderman or Verlander? I’d personally take Bonderman. I think he’s mentally tougher.
That’s probably the hardest question to ask, if you throw out all the contract stuff, etc, and just talk about the pitchers. I like Bonderman and think he just has an incredibly high ceiling. But I’m not as sure about the mental toughness. Blowing multiple big leads just makes me question it. I haven’t seen anything to think Verlander isn’t mentally tough, either.
Verlander just seems to have stopper and ace and consistency written all over him. I tend to pick Verlander in this debate, but it’s really, really difficult to pick. Great situation to be in!
I for one am looking forward to the Indians series this weekend. Wish I was going, but hey…….. thats what the radio and TV were made for. Hanging with the fam and scooping up some Tiger ball.
Steve
Carma – why take back the comment? Guillen made two errors in the first inning that day and it cost Bonderman and the Tigers. It was shoddy defense. It really doesn’t have any impact on how well he hit the ball today.
Well, the Royals have their work cut out for them. They’re down 5-0 in the first.
Even so, picking up a game on the Indians while we play the Angels and they play the Royals is a pretty solid series.
Bonderman or Verlander? Sheesh, could you ask a tougher question? Right now I’d pick Bonderman, he tends to go deeper in games and I love his K:BB ratio. However, having both of them is a rich feeling.
I’m glad we don’t have to pick Verlander or Bonderman. Just think about how good things will be when we get Rogers and Zumaya back.
Man, I thought our offense would be good this year with getting Sheffield – but wow! They are on some kind of tear and not just against the bottom-tier teams.
Great game.
Isaac or Ishmael?
Completely off topic, I was at the game yesterday and I realized that I was impressed by the game Rabelo calls. Obviously Bondo had stuff going, but I really liked the sequence of pitches, and he also seemed to have the ability to calm Bondo down when a flying-off-the-handle seemed imminent. Also, since his painfully hard pressing to get that first hit, he looks like a solid MLB hitter. Maybe not the ‘catcher of the future’, but he certainly seems good enough to be at least the backup catcher for a long time when we lose Vance or Pudge.
Kurt: Bondo did give up a good amount of 1st inning leads and that concerns me, but Verlander did as well, granted he was just a rookie. I think if Bonderman ever developes a league average 3rd pitch he’s got Curt Schilling type dominance (especially with the K:BB ratio this year) in him. But it’s a good thing we don’t have to make that choice. I would love to see Bondo-Verlander-Robertson in tact as long as possible with Andrew Miller and a 5th starter thrown in there. That rotation would be heaven-sent.