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PREGAME: The Tigers enter the final leg of a 10 game road trip by journeying to Arlington. When I was a kid it seemed that Channel 4 always televised the Texas series, so when ever the Tigers head down to take on the Rangers I always think of George Kell drawling out “and the Tigers’ll be in ARlington on Tooosday night.” I miss Kell.
Anyways, things are getting back to normal for the Tigers. Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge return to the lineup tonight and Fernando Rodney was officially activated from the DL. The Pudge-as-leadoff-hitter experiment seems to be over because for the 2nd straight game, Omar Infante it atop the lineup against a southpaw.
The southpaw in question is John Rheinecker who is fresh off a AAA rehab stint as well as the 60 day DL. He’s a late substitution for Vincente Padilla. Rheinecker split time in the rotation and pen for the Rangers last year accruing 70 2/3 innings. He allowed 6 homers, 104 hits, 19 walks and 28 strikeouts. So people will put the ball in play against him.
The Tigers counter with Nate Robertson who is still trying to right the ship. Robertson hasn’t made it through the 6th innings since May 2nd. His biggest problem as of late is walks with 10 over his last 3 starts, and only 8 K’s.
Game Time 8:35
{ 58 comments… read them below or add one }
104 hits in 70+ innings? Wow.
Looks like another rough start for Nate.
Probably time to get a long reliever up in the pen.
if nate can’t find his fastball, why is he throwing fastballs to Sosa when Sosa’s been terrible lately? There was just a piece on Baseball Tonight with kruk showing how low Sosa’s hands are and then he drops them and clearing his hips to drive a fastball and everyone’s been throwing him breaking balls and he’s either missing or rolling them over.
Not so good, Nate. Oh MAN.
Great. Glad I decided to tune in tonight.
We’ll score runs on these guys, that’s not the problem. Getting the bullpen going so early really, really hurts.
Suddenly Mesa doesn’t seem so bad. Crikey.
That’s Diaz’ 2nd hit with the bases loaded — both grandslams.
Well, time for Grilli to be right and get a good 3+ innings out of him tonight. Really sets up the bullpen well. Amazing.
This kinda outing is unacceptable with the pen in the condition it’s in. A starter other than Bonderman is going to have to step up.
Ouch babe. Is Nate hurt or something? He has totally lost it.
Oh. My. God. This one is going to cause me to drink alone.
Joey C, yeah, that starter probably is Zach Miner from the 3rd through the 6th, assuming Grilli pitches well. Which is quite the assumption.
Not alone, cib. I imagine drinks of all kinds being frantically downed all over Tiger fandom. Including my house.
Last year, Nate continued to improve as the season progressed. This year, it’s just the opposite. I keep wondering if he has some personal problems going on or something. Can they send him to Toledo until he gets straightened out. He’s just completely out of the loop.
The cheese gets it done.
Really, Nate’s been serving up long balls all year, and even starting with last year.
I really don’t know why everyone says he’s so good…
Nate doesn’t have any options, so unless it’s injury rehab, i’m pretty sure he’d have to pass through waivers.
And in the meantime, http://www.baseballrace.com is a useless, yet interesting site. You can see each division race from 1901-2007 in an animated version of racing logos. Kind of neat.
That’s a good possibility, Kathy, the personal issue. You would think that if it’s just mechanical they would have worked it out by now.
I’d say Nate must be injured to be throwing that badly the past month.
I wish Infante wasd up…
uh….i take it back
He’s not as animated in the dugout and just doesn’t look very happy.
At least Gene Lamont let a run come in.
Hey Dead, I have always liked Omar and he has really been stepping up lately! I also like this blog and all of your comments are great and often keep me from total despair. Anyone going to be at Friday’s game?
Thanks Tex!
Adam - Nate hasn’t been giving up homers all year. Five of the 8 coming into tonights game came in his last 2 starts. As he gave up more hits, he started walking more guys, and getting behind with runners on base, and then the homers came.
It’s hard to remember now, but Nate was great in April and had a 2.48 ERA after his first 6 starts.
“I really don’t know why everyone says he’s so good”
Because he was. For a good stretch during last summer, he was basically unstoppable.
Remember all the great games he pitched last year and got absolutely no run support?
INGE!!!!!!!! Take that, broken toe
is this going to get the “Inge sucks” debate started again?
Polly’s due…
Inge sucks.
He’s awesome, end of story.
Also, I can’t believe what a great job Grilli’s done so far today.
cib -
I will be at Friday’s game. Durbin’s pitching that night, so the thing’s in the bag.
Naah, tonight it’s already the “Nate sucks” debate.
Josh Lewin vs. Mario Impemba. Discuss.
Not real impressive ab’s from the 3-4 guys this inning.
Man, we are leaving waaay too many guys on base.
cib…i have the 27 game sat package…but, unfortunatly, this next sat i have to go to my wife’s h.s. reunion…..sucks
Even if we lose this game… the silver lining is that Grilli’s self-confidence should be improved after the last few outings he’s had.
Excellent, excellent outing by Jason Grilli. If the Tigers come back and win this, it’s in large part because of what Grilli did.
Dead, et al., I have the 27 game “Friday” pkg but there are not enough Friday home games this year so the tickets are all over the map. I also end up at additional games because I work downtown and it’s easy to walk over if the weather is good. Hopefully this is an early h s reunion, like the 10th, after that nobody cares about showing off a spouse any more, lol.
Leaving the bases loaded in the first is haunting me about right now.
I just wanted to bring something up I heard on the Rangers broadcast. What, do you think, are the chances the Tigers organization retire both Trammell’s and Whitaker’s numbers at Comerica? I think Trammell is a lock, but if they retire Trammel, don’t they have to retire Whitaker?
Your thoughts?
23 left on base so far…7 for Guillen…ouch…
Way to get out of a jam Byrdak. Now let’s pick him up.
I would think that it is almost certain that Granderson will PH next inning. Why is he not in right now? He likely would have had that ball. I’m not used to second guessing Leyland…
Vintage Rodney.
He needs to get better at keeping track of runners.
Fernando Rodney, welcome back…..to Texas.
Meet the new Rodney… same as the old Rodney.
Does anyone still have Joe Table’s number?
Something is wrong with Polanco. I think he’s afraid to take any time off b/c of what happened last August.
Disapointing start and disappointing finish.
We should have started GriMiByRod instead of Robertson…10 strikeouts, 1 earned run.
The bullpen was definitely encouraging (save Rodney - is it me, or does he look like he’s about to crap his pants every time out there?).
Sorry billfer- I’ve been to two games he pitched and gave up 4 home runs in each one…so I guess I’m biased.
Ouch, Nate, ouch.
Adam, maybe you’re just a jinx
So I turn to the Morning Friendly, looking for some sort of explanation as to why the ususally steady Natew Robertson can’t get anyone out, and of course there’s nothing on the subject. I look forward to more non-news in Sunday’s expanded section of fluff (do their writers do anything besides player profiles?).
What happened to Gum Time? I’m hoping this is just a rough stretch like Kenny Rogers had last year (prompting Lynn Henning to advocate moving him to the bullpen and bringing up a AAA’er….not so much).