2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.127: Tigers at Rays

87 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in an AL East opponent in late August in a game with playoff implications for both teams, and it’s a very wet Friday night and the Tigers send out there prize prospect and first round pick. Reminds me of a similar game from 2007. This though instead of Andrew Miller it is Rick Porcello, and instead of the Yankees it is the Twins. And I’m not at this game and I doubt it ends at 3:30am.

Porcello kinda got clobbered by the A’s of all teams. Prior to that he had been pretty good shutting down Seattle, Baltimore, and the Indians and taking down Kevin Youkilis.

Garza has quality starts in 4 of his last 6 outings and he’s pretty good. Granderson and Polanco are a combined 1 for 22 with 1 walk off of Garza, so table setting may proove to be an issue.

The lineup:

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Ordonez, RF
  4. Cabrera, 1B
  5. Huff, DH
  6. Guillen, LF
  7. Inge, 3B
  8. Laird, C
  9. Everett, SS

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 28, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: For those that don’t frequent the comments, Coleman has dubbed the guys at the bottom of the order the BOOBs (bottom of the order boys). The BOOBs were big tonight. Inge got things going with a homer, and Gerald Laird and Adam Everett had back to back doubles to drive in runs in the big 4th inning. In the end the BOOBs drove in 5 of the 6 runs and had 5 of the 8 hits.

Rick Porcello was wonderful and had to pitch around some poor defense. He had 2 men on in the first without a ball reaching the infield dirt, but back to back K’s ended the threat. In the end he had 5 k’s and allowed just 4 hits. He also topped 100 pitches for the first time this season.

The bullpen was on their way to a perfect showing until a pinch hit Gabe Kapler homer with 2 outs in the 9th made things a little more interesting, but Fernando Rodney finished things off with a strike out (after the requisite walk).

  • Aubrey Huff started a rally instead of ending one when he drew the walk in the 4th inning. He also nearly hit his first homer as a Tiger but it hooked foul.
  • Granderson had 2 hits and built on a road trip that saw him have success. Grandy hasn’t been able to get hot for more than 3-4 games at a time this year and hopefully he can really heat up heading into September.

87 thoughts on “Game 2009.127: Tigers at Rays”

  1. Were gonna go with our no offense line-up tonight. Everett, Laird, Huff, and a 1 for 22 starting two. Balls.

  2. I suppose Billfer meant to say it’s the Rays, rather than the Twins. I still get Garza’s team mixed up sometimes, too.

  7. in Ananhiem watching Huff hit PB, he hit about 20 bombs into the seats and crushed it all three batting practices…in the games he was obviously, awful

  8. On Gameday at least there have been more called strikes out of the strike zone than in it

    1. They actually do say he hits around 80% in practice, which is incredible considering his career free throw percentage is 41.8%.

  10. in all three Angel games the Tigers got the starting pitcher into 100 pitches by the 5th inning in each game. I think it helped win two of those games …lots of grinding out at bats…today 23 pitches in the first is more of the same ..hopefully they can continue to drive pitch counts up with good at bats..

  11. Maybe in practice they don’t make stand back behind the line….

    I hope we can chase Garza early; as good as he’s pitching Porcello is heading for a 5th inning exit

    1. Not saying it was intentional, but he had pinpoint control prior to that pitch. I tend to get suspicious when a pitcher hits a guy with a fastball right after he gives up a homer.

      1. Pretty sure it was intentional. He was glaring at Inge while running the basepaths. Also, Inge looked back at the catcher as if something was said.

        Any known bad blood between Garza and Inge from his Twins days?

  17. those tattos weighting him down !!! 2 E’s already ….ball should have been caught though but

  18. I would have given that error to Cabrera. That ball went under his glove before it bounced.

  19. The Not-Satanic-Really, Not At All-Rays don’t have any potential mound-chargers as intimidating as Youkilis and Porcello seemed to handle him fine…I say there is nothing to retaliate for though…

    1. I’m more worried about Porcello hitting another guy and then getting the reputation around the league as a head hunter. As young as he is, the umps squeezing him on the inside corner might make him reluctant to pitch inside.

      Hopefully he learned his lesson and if he wants to hit a guy he will wait until the 6th when it’s not as obvious.

  20. Crawford had some words for Cabrera after that bunt, and it looked like he was saying something to Miggy from the dugout, too. This series could get very interesting…

    1. Cabrera had his non-bag foot in the baseline and didn’t give Crawford a path. I don’t think it was intentional and I think Crawford was more upset with Bucknor.

    2. I think he was complaining that Cabrera was blocking the base so he couldn’t hit the front of it. I don’t even know if thats a rule that you can’t do that. Fielders block the plate/base all the time.

  21. As good as Cabreras fielding has been in some ways there have been several “soft errors” on Inge and a couple on Everett that a lot of 1B might have handled…

    1. That one should have been on Cabrera. He didn’t even get glove on it. Not a good throw, but not worthy of an error for Inge either.

  23. It seems that the Tigers position players are more interested in running up Porcello’s pitch count than Garza’s. They saw a lot of pitches that first inning, but man, not good since then.

  24. 5 pitch inning ,guess I shouldda kept my mouth shut about the “grinding out at bat compliment”

  26. I think part of it is the wet ball the infielders are fielding. Inge’s throw and Laird’s bobble could be explained that way.

  27. If the non-Diablo Rays really want to be “interesting” let’s see what Inkge gets his next AB

  32. Garza is at 59, but he just missed badly on 4 straight fastballs so pitch count ain’t his only problem

  40. Ha, I’m slow on the draw today. Obviously though Garza has a big problem handling B.O.O.B.s…

  42. Man. That is some serious doo doo he’s been pitching out of each inning. Nice work, Rick.

  44. Looks like Porcello is going to hit the magic 100 count.

    I think this means his arm is going to fall off.

  47. Anyone know if they had the coin tosses to determine home field advantage if there is a tie between us and the Twins or Whitesox?

  51. The dreaded 7-1 spots in the order accounted for 7 or the 8 hits and all 6 RBI. Will wonders never cease.

    Huff ‘N Puff 0-3 with a walk. Can we just release the guy and call up Dane Sardhina?

  55. Nathan was one very generous corner call from loading the bases with 2 outs in the 9th, but he got the call and there is a new 2nd place team in the Central.

    1. They scare me much more than the Chi Sox.

      Still I think there is an excellent chance we will win this division this year.

      1. The Sockpuppets pitching is inconsistent and their defense is pretty bad. I think that will do them in in the end. Over the last few years the Twins have been able to turn it up a notch late in the season, so if that holds true again this year they are the real concern for the Tigers. However, the Tigs shouldn’t be looking over their shoulder; just concentrate on one game at a time and don’t worry about what the other teams are doing.

  58. Inge and Laird may be liabilities in the field, but we can’t afford not to have their bats in the lineup…

    Total bases today, by batting order:
    1-3: 3
    4-6: 1
    7-9: 10

    hard to beat a team when the BOOBs score 10 TB…

  59. Twins get all the breaks. They have had, I think, four series with the Royals, and they have yet to face Grenke. That is typical of stupid Twins luck.

  60. If you get a chance, check out Nathan’s called 3rd to get the k for the final out. Easily the worst call I’ve seen this year. Easily.

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