2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.048: Tigers at Orioles

70 Comments

PREGAME: Enough Luke freakin’ Scott already. This series is not going well and I’ve reached my Luke Scott limit. The offense has been comatose for the last two days. The pitching has been meh. I blame it all on Luke freakin’ Scott.

If anybody can slow him down it has to be Justin Verlander right? Thankfully he’ll have the ball tonight for the Tigers.

Verlander will go up against Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie has a K/BB ratio under 2 and has given up 11 homers in 60.1 innings of work.

Detroit vs. Baltimore – May 30, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Hey, there’s one for the win column. It didn’t look good there when the Tigers continued to squander early scoring chances. This was despite solo homers from Clete (who had 2 of them) and Granderson. But 3 8th inning runs proved to be Luke Scott proof.

But Scott got his in. Verlander hadn’t allowed a homer the entire of month of May, but Scott was the immovable force who took him deep. Verlander was cruising early on, but rough 5th and 6th innings quickly ran his pitch count up and he was done after 6. Fortunately the bullpen was money.

  • Ryan Perry walked a guy and Bobby Seay allowed a double to Nick Markakis, but that was it. Seay got a pop-up with runners on 2nd and 3rd and 1 out setting things up for Joel Zumaya.
  • Zumaya was filthy and pitched out of the 7th inning jam with a 3 pitch punchout of Melvin Mora. In fact Zumaya picked up 4 outs on 12 pitches…all of which were strikes.
  • Fernando Rodney was nearly as good allowing only a single in the 9th and only need 12 pitches, 10 of which were strikes.
  • Placido Polanco and Miguel Cabrera combined for 1 walk. Polanco even popped up a 3-1 bunt attempt. Their struggles undid the big days from Thomas, Ordonez, and Granderson.
  • Ordonez is up to 16 games with the hitting streak and he picked up 3 more hits tonight.

70 thoughts on “Game 2009.048: Tigers at Orioles”

  1. lets pitch well enough to get Luke “Babe Ruth” Scott out. Or if that doesn’t happen how about just scoring one more run than the O’S do…

  3. Blah. Verlander is getting squeezed.

    I’m rooting for the Royals over the White Sox. Chicago is probably more of a looming threat than Kansas City. What does everyone else think?

    1. Well, you take it once in a row because you’re a backup catcher batting sub .100…I can’t answer the twice in a row part.

      Nonetheless, there could be worse things than Sardine-head and Clete combining to pile 16 pitches onto Guthrie’s count, this is looking to be a brief outing for him with already 82 pitches in 4 innings…

  6. how in the world with a 34 million dollar payroll can you play a guy and bat him with a .091 batting average. Can’t you spend a few more bucks and find a catcher that can hit, say .200

    1. We already have one of those, except he seems to be playing 3rd base at the moment…

  8. Hey cool, one guy on base, then the guy batting and the guy on deck, then…Luke Scott…I say walk the next two guys and just DARE Luke to try and hit another grand slam

  11. Polanco must be programmed to swing at the second pitch, no matter where it is.

    1. It’s really an odd quirk of his…he is among the least likely to swing at a first pitch, yet he has one of the lowest pitches/plate appearance in the league…

      1. Meanwhile, Inge, statistically (somehow) our most patient hitter with 4.2 P/PA let’s Guthrie off the hook at 98 pitches.

        1. There you go, Inge with a 9-pitch AB resulting in a single, can’t beat that for patient…

  12. As impressive as Greinke has been this season, if Cy Young voting were today I’d have to go with Verlander. Because Greinke has yet to retire Luke Scott this season…

  14. Poor Curtis, you just know the highlight of him looking lost fielding that Wieters is going to play twice as many times as his game-saving Sizemore catch did…

  17. 1-2-3! I thought for a second we were going to see big-inning Verlander.

    Then 101 to Markakis! Woo.

  18. Sardine-head!! What the heck was that?? Maybe he thought Inge wouldn’t have the arm to get the batter??

  21. Coleman, I am watching with my 11 year old, and he says “Dad the back up guy (Shardinha) should have gone to third…… what was he thinking about”

    I will have him call you for an answer, I frankly dont have one. When you only get to play once in a while, bone head plays don’t get you out there any sooner

    1. maybe your son meant run over and touch third becasee you never get
      to touch it after you bat!

      1. Jud, I agree with you. We might see the end of the recession before he gets to third >… Or Luke Scott gets out

  24. how about a pitch right down the middle just to see if this guy can actually hit a ball far enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  26. Watching Verlander against Scott and Wieters this inning, one might think Verlander doesn’t have a good curveball.

  28. If instead of Leyland managing the Tigers were being managed by Chuck Daly, we’d be playing every game against the Orioles under The Scott Rules and he’d never have a chance to beat us…(R.I.P.)

  30. It is just stupid they don’t pitch him high and tight. Just stupid. Go Clete.

  31. Bunting 3-1? Oh Polly, it’s a contract year. Swing away, please.

    Also, Magglio is Magglio again.

  33. no possible way Leyland called for that bunt he doesn’t even know bunting is legal

  34. The Tigers can not continue to let Luke Scott embarrass them. Someone, anyone…a little chin music!

  40. Total Cheese but Ok we will take it…………. Looks like a liner in the paper

  42. On the road to Shambala,

    Everyone is helpful, everyone is kind
    On the road to Shambala
    Everyone is lucky, everyone is so kind
    On the road to Shambala

  46. Nice to see the big man in there………… Who will get the win here tonight if we can close them out

  49. I suppose some Baltimore fanatics now want to throw at Clete’s head next time. According to some here, trying to take Clete’s head off would just be part of the game.

      1. Well, someone wrote that they wanted to see Luke Scott’s head get cracked open. It must of been deleted or posted at another forum. I don’t want to ever see anything like that.

        I don’t want to see any of our players get suspended or hurt because of these non-pivotal games in Baltimore either. If you’re going to start fights, better make it worth your while and fight teams that matter more. The Tigers are in 1st place. The Baltimore Orioles are in last place. We aren’t even division rivals.

        1. I’m all for throwing at his head, or sending a message pitch for several reasons. But splitting it open? It wasn’t me.

          Also to your last comment I agree somewhat, but then again every game counts equal in the standings.

          1. Throwing at someone’s head has no part in baseball. The pitched ball is a deadly weapon at that point. Throw inside and make him move his feet is fine. But you don’t hit someone because they are beating you.

  52. Verlander can really frustrate me sometimes. As great as he is, he sometimes tends to forget about pitching and start throwing fastball after fastball. That is where he usually gets into trouble. When he mixes his stuff up well, he is nearly untouchable.

    1. Well, he had no command of his curveball today, as evidenced by 2 wild pitches. Go back and look at the strikezone plot. Half of his curves were at the top of the zone. If all he had good command of today was his fastball, which was the case, then I say good for him for not walking guys with a pitch he can’t control. A good fastball, even after 4 other good fastballs, is still harder to hit than a hanging curveball. That he notched a QS with pretty much one pitch is pretty impressive to me. Seems like he was pitching with what he had today. What he had was no curveball command, no changeup command, and probably the best fastball he’s had all season. He averaged almost 97 mph today and topped out at 101.

  53. Mad props to JV. Eric C is on target. JV breaks the losing streak on a day where he didn’t have his anything close to his best stuff. That’s the mark of a true #1. Can’t wait to get out with a spilit manana.

  54. I think Clete Thomas won the right field job from Magglio Ordonez for the time being. He has gunned down a few with that arm of his on several occasions now. He’s taking away extra bases and runs, which is something that Mags can’t do. He’s matching up Magglio hitting wise also. The DH spot is a good fit for Mags.

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