Game 2009.016: Tigers at Royals

PREGAME: A sleepy Tigers team landed in Kansas City at 5:56 a.m. ET this morning. The Tigers even got to use fly Red Bird One despite the fact Red Wings are in the playoffs.

Hopefully they’ll wake up in time to face Zach Greinke. They’ll try to do something that hasn’t been done against Greinke this year and that is score a run. He’s pitched 20 scoreless innings this year fanning 26 and walking only 5.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello who likely caught an earlier ride than the rest of the team. He is coming off his first win and has certainly drawn a tough match-up.

Game Time 8:10

Detroit vs. Kansas City – April 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers lost back-to-back games for the first time since the first 2 games of the season. I’m not going to fret too much about this one, just give credit where it is due. Greinke was masterful. That happens. It also highlights how disappointing Thursday night’s game against a struggling pitcher was.

The only other thing of note is that Nate Robertson made an appearance, his first in 2 weeks. Hard to believe he was a little rusty.

33 thoughts on “Game 2009.016: Tigers at Royals”

  1. I remember a year or so ago when we hammered him, he threw 49 pitchers in the first inning. This years Greinke looks much better.

    Will Zoom be ready for tonight or is it tomorrow?

  2. Greinke’s current success should give us some hope with Dontrelle, no? Wasn’t Grienke’s problem a couple of years ago an anxiety disorder?

  3. Ah, that’s what Chris in Dallas meant on yesterday’s thread when he said, “Maybe they can break up Greinke’s assault on Orel Hersheiser.” I thought some more interesting action was afoot and was going to hope Greinke forgets himself and starts throwing punches with the pitching hand…

  4. I have the Royals broadcast on MLB EI and they were saying it was wrong and why is the league letting a team get in as late as the Tigers

    We need to get some hits here.

  5. Why such poor defense as of late? It really isn’t looking any better than last year

  6. What horrible ABs by Poly and Maggs… I’m afraid that the Tigers’ struggles against their division rivals continues… God damn it!

  7. “couple of runs? try four runs after the Cabrera error.”

    Yes, the Tigers need to get a couple of runs and then they need to face Farnsworth (which is good for a couple more), if they are going to tie it.

  8. It’s still early and it is against an excellent pitcher. If we could just get some defense and some better pitching from the starters, we can stay with it. Too many ifs, but I still have hope?

  9. @chris: two innings to go. what’s that yogi bear said? it’s not over till i get the pickinick basket, boo boo boy?

  10. Aviles has some sort of modified Sheffield style there. And he’s even batting .172…

  11. Hey Bilfer, would you happen to have a number of how many runs have been scored due to errors by the Tigers this season? I have a feeling that has been our biggest problem so far this season. Errors lead to longer innings, which means more pitches, which means less innings for starters. Just a theory, but I think it has good evidence.

  12. Tigers have given up 9 unearned runs. While that’s not precisely “runs scored due to errors”, it’s a reasonable proxy. They’re tied with the Angels for the second most unearned runs allowed in the AL (Baltimore is well ahead).

  13. I think there have been 9 including today. On errors by:

    Inge – 3
    Everett -3
    Cabrera – 2
    Santiago – 1

    (These are only runs resulting from actual errors, not bad plays, missed plays, etc, and doesn’t include wild pitches or PB).

    By comparison, after the 1st 16 games last season it was 11 runs.
    It probably isn’t as big a problem as it seems, although it could turn out to be one if it continues badly.

    I’m more worried about the middle of the lineup–our 3 & 5 hitters have fewer RBI (11) and more GIDP (8) than any team in the league (there’s one team with fewer RBI and fewer GIDP, but I’ll have to look up who).

    Or another way of looking at it: take the list of guys making errors above, take them out of the lineup and replace them with perfect fielding players who batted at the average of the non-error guys on the team–and we’d be lucky to be any better than the 5-11 we were last season. (Even Everett; he has produced more BATTING this season so far than Ordonez or Guillen).

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