Game 2009.086: Indians at Tigers

PREGAME: It will be a rematch of Carl Pavano and Armando Galarraga tonight. The two hooked up on May 1st, and Pavano allowed just 2 runs in 7.1 innings while Galarraga was knocked out in the 5th after allowing 5 runs. That game is the only one the Tigers have dropped to the Indians in 7 tries this year.

Pavano has solid peripherals (71 K, 20 BB, 11 HR in 99 innings) but a 5.36 ERA. That was due in large part to a 3 start stretch in June when he lasted 13.1 innings and opposing hitters posted a 1.201 OPS against. He has rebounded in his last 2 outings though going 13.2 innings with 9 K’s and 2 walks and just 4 runs allowed.

Galarraga is someone also looking at his last 2 starts as a return to form. After kind of sucking for May and June, Galarraga has allowed just single runs in each of his last 2 starts (though he did walk a disturbing 6 batters against Oakland).

Cleveland vs. Detroit – July 11, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This game was remarkably similar to the May 1st game. Pavano had an easy time of it. Galarraga wasn’t that good. The bullpen gave up an add-on run. The Tigers hit the Indians pen up to bring the game to within 1 run, but they fell short. Really the only difference was that last time it was 6-5 and this time it was 5-4.

Pavano was pretty good tonight, and he pounded first pitch strike after first pitch strike. His first pitch to Granderson was a ball, but his other first pitches went: strike looking, strike foul, strike looking, strike looking, triple, strike looking, strike foul, stike looking, strike looking, strike foul, strike swinging. That takes you to 2 outs in the 4th inning before he threw his next first pitch ball. The next one didn’t come until the 7th. There were no 2-0 counts while Pavano was on the mound. That was kind of the night.

Of course Detroit gave away a couple runs. A first and third, one out situation, resulted in a strike-em-out, throw-em-out 2-4-5-2 double play. Galarraga pitched scared in the third after a 2 out triple by Sizemore and walked the next 2 guys. That first walk then came around to score on a liner that Raburn dove on and just couldn’t squeeze.

The Tigers had their chances, didn’t take advantage of enough of them (they did okay in the 2nd plating 2 runs) and they came up on the short end.

40 thoughts on “Game 2009.086: Indians at Tigers”

    1. The Twins/White Sox game was delayed 15 minutes due to Brad Radke being inducted into the Twins’ Hall of Fame in a pre-game ceremony at the Metrodome.

  1. Rayburn hit that a ton…stayed in the park nice triple

    and the single with a runner on third /less two outs has been rare…nice job Binge

  2. Inge has been almost automatic when he’s got the guy on 3rd with less than 2 out…so has Everett and Santiago…the others, not so good

    1. Also almost automatic at making hard plays look easy and super hard plays look routine and gold glove plays look doable.

      That one to get the third out at second better be on baseball tonight this afternoon (I’m in Hawaii it is 2:01pm here)

  3. Inge with runner on 3rd less than 2 has been a ridiculous .615 .632 1.000 1.632 with 15 RBI in 19 PA, and only 1K

    Tigers as a team are doing a lot of the one thing you don’t want to do–striking out 1/6 PA; add to that 13 GIDP and it’s no surprise DET is 13th of 14 AL teams.

  4. I don’t think you can blame him for running–perfectly fielded, perfect relay, and perfect tag, and they just got him.

  5. You know, we have enough of the GIDP variety of DP, we don’t need that…oh and Uncle Smokey, your top RBI guy was on-deck and now gets to bat with the bases empty…

  6. why not give Inge and at bat with people on base instead of trying a very low percentage play?????

  7. anytime you want to get something going for a run or tw0….it will be ok with us

    and now these at bats are getting weaker and weaker

  8. Anyone seen any Stubhub discount codes floating around the internet? There were a bunch last year, haven’t really seen them this year.

    1. Don’t worry Fu-Ti Ni is clutch, granted they’re down two but Mr. Ni closed stopped the bleeding.

      1. Crap spoke too soon. Didn’t think he was coming back out for the 8th. Freddy Solid time?

  9. Armando wasn’t great or even good… But he wasn’t awful… The offense has let some chances get away. I think he’s starting to show a little progress that he can at least be a back of the rotation guy (and he’s probably going to have to be).

  10. @ Dylan-totally agree with assessment.

    We needed to get Pavano’s pitch count up and didn’t.

    1. Pavano faced 28 batters tonight. 25 of them were started with strikes. 17 of those were strikes looking. If a guy throws that many first pitch strikes it can inhibit pitch count running up. I’m surprised the Tigers didn’t swing at more of them as the game went on actually.

  11. the Tigs are in there “you know getting two runs is a lot of work and its too much work to get more” …kind of mood

  12. mcb I’ve given up on the pitch count business. It just isn’t going to happen with this team. They have one guy who can do it (Inge), one who is trying (Grandy), and the rest are hopeless. It has to be a team effort (see Tampa Bay, Boston, etc). Already this season the Twins have seen over 1,000 pitches more than the Tigers. 1 K. A grand.

    1. 1K is amazing especially when you consider they play the same team’s and see the same pitchers basically….but 1000 wow…You are right it has to be a team philosophy

  13. well Wood did the job, I guess I am still glad the Tigers didn’t pay a ga-zillion dollars to get him…even with Rodney closing

  14. It’s a combination of more pitches per plate appearance and more plate appearances–more walks and fewer GIDPs, a high % of which, by the way, we hit into on 1st pitches, which is equivalent to 1 pitch for 2 plate appearances.

  15. OK Mr. Dombrowski you had better hope that Carlos Guillen is Carlos Guillen again real soon because these feeble offensive performances are really tiresome to watch, and they are going to cost a division title if they aren’t fixed. Soooooo tired of us making every guy look like he’s Greg Maddux. If Carlos isn’t able to get healthy we’re going to look back at this season as one where we wasted a lot of good pitching (not saying tonight’s performance so much but there have been many wasted performances from Jackson, Verlander, and a few from Galarraga like last Monday vs. KC). Its your move Dave, I hope that you are running up your cell phone bill over the All-Star break getting something done. I can’t stomach any more of these feeble performances with the bats.

    1. And hopefully he’s Carlos Guillen (as in pre-2009 Carlos Guillen) and not the “Carlos Guillen” of April/May, who was even worse than the “Magglio Ordonez” we currently have on the roster. (He surely was on pace to break some sort of record with 6 GIDP and only 6 RBI).

  16. A 3 game win streak comes to an end. That’s all it was. We can’t win them all, but the Indians nearly gave us this game. If it wasn’t for the ball popping out of Raburn’s glove, Cabrera’s Homerun would of been a walk-off game winner.

    Kerry Wood has been downright terrible for Cleveland. I’m glad we stuck with Rodney instead of going after him.

  17. Billfer good point about pitchcount. I guess I just meant that it wouldve been nice to get to the bullpen. I wasn’t saying we shouldve done a better job running up count. The way Pavano was attacking we almost had to swing early in counts.

  18. So much for all the doom and gloom predictions of the last couple weeks. At the break, the Tigers will probably have the biggest 1st place lead in the American League. And love him or hate him, if the Tigers keep it up, Leyland will win his 4th Manager of Year award. His 2nd in 4 years as the manager of the Tigers.

  19. Lets not coronate Ol’ Smoky as AL Manager of the Year just yet Keith. There’s a lot of season left to play. Also, we play in a much weaker division than Terry Francona, Joe Maddon, and Joe Girardi’s teams play in. Those guys all are in the running for AL Manager of the Year along with Scoscia and Washington. MS has done a great job of keeping the Angels in the race and he has had injury after injury in Anaheim this year. By the way, what happened to Ol’ Smoky’s hand? Did he try to put out one of his Marlboros in his palm or something?

    By the way, I am rooting for Chicago to win tomorrow regardless of our result. The further we can push the Twins back the better. They are the bigger threat in my eyes. If Robolander can put the Tribe away combined with a Twins’ loss we’ll have a five game seperation from them at the AS break, and still have a 2.5 game cushion on The Men in Black.

    1. Leyland has had his share of roster problems and injuries also. Willis, Bonderman, Nate, Guillen, Ordonez, and the whole bullpen fiasco earlier in the year. He could start a lemonade stand with all those lemons.

      I totally agree that the Twins are the team to look out for.

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