2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.131: Indians at Tigers

78 Comments

PREGAME: And away we go. It’s September. This is like real-pennant-chase-scoreboard-watching-finger-nail-chewing-why-won’t-the-Twins-lose time. The Tigers shook off their August doldrums and posted their first winning August since 2000. Can they craft a formidable September and hold off the Twins?

Tonight the Tigers send out Edwin Jackson. When Jackson last faced the Indians he threw eleventy (a word whose etymology is tied to the developing counting of skills of preschool aged children and is invoked when the child runs out of fingers or simply can’t comprehend a number larger than the last one uttered in the sequence) million (added for emphasis by me) pitches in 4 innings. The Tigers will face new guy Carlos Carrasco.

The Tigers don’t fare well when they don’t have a scouting report on a pitcher so this could be frustrating. Carrasco was a part of the Cliff Lee deal and a prominent enough prospect to warrant a wikipedia page where I learned that he appeared in the Future’s Game 3 years in a row. Carrasco posts some very impressive minor league numbers and rates as a top prospect. Your “Aubrey Huff not so much with the protection for Cabrera” lineup, also known as your Viva Venezuela lineup:

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

POSTGAME: The Tigers took care of business and really thumped a rookie starter and made his debut entirely unpleasant for said starter rather than the fans. Nice. Even the outs were crushed. Polanco smoked a ball into a double play. Granderson was out (I think he got the foot in) on a triple attempt. Everett lined out sharply. It was a hitting clinic.

And let’s talk about Aubrey Huff. Also known as the much-maligned Aubrey Huff. I don’t know if he is back, as declared by Rod Allen, but he was certainly productive today with a single, a double, and 2 walks. Hopefully it is the start of something, but regardless he was a big part of today’s win.

Also a big part of today’s win was the bullpen. Zach Miner allowed a lead off homer, but then retired the next 3. Then Bobby Seay got the next 4. Then Brandon Lyon got the next 2. Then Rodney got 3 of 4 allowing only an infield single (that should have been an out Mr. Everett).

Not a big part of the win was Edwin Jackson. He was definitely “owed” in a sense for the squanderings early in the season. But aside from the 6 K’s in 5 innings, he wasn’t that good. He got hit pretty hard. He’d fall behind after getting ahead, and he need 90 pitches to get through 5 innings. Not great but good enough tonight.

78 thoughts on “Game 2009.131: Indians at Tigers”

  2. Alright, Guillen! But kinda might want to run a little harder out the box. That ball wasn’t out by much.

  7. Classic Rod Allen, talks about how the batter isn’t picking up the fastball. The batter then rips a 400 ft double on a fastball. Seriously, how does he have a job? 50 mlb at-bats makes you qualified to be a color commentator? If so, I look forward to Rod being replaced by Mike Hessman in 2011.

  8. Carrasco looks like he knows Dontrell, Its never good when you see “activity” in the bullpen in the bottom of the first

  9. I know in the past we have wondered what Ole Double D was thinking when he made this move or that move BUT What in the world are the White Sox doing?.

    Not that I like Hawk Sox or anything like that but taking on Peavy and Rios and those large salaries really makes me wonder. Peavy will NEVER be what he was or even close, Rios had one year and look at the combined Salary drain there. WOW. This will hamstring them for a while. The Sox do not look good heading out for the next couple of years.

    1. Rios will be taking Dye’s place. Dye will be taking Thome’s place. Peavy will take Contreras’, Richard’s, and Poreda’s place. It’s the circle of life.

  12. In looking at the two Schedules, it looks like we have the slightly harder schedule as we have the Rays who are kinda still in it now (maybe not on Friday), buth other than that its pretty much even. (twins get the A’s)

    11 home, 16 away >> Twins
    13 home 15 Away Tigers

    With a 3.5 game lead.. Does anyone think we will be skipping work on September 28,29 or 30 to watch a close out against the Twins? at your favorite place or maybe even at the game? Did anyone get tix for these games?

  14. Somehow Jackson has thrown 60 pitches in 3 innings, only allowed 1 run, and has 2 double plays behind him. I don’t know how that works.

  15. Opponents aside, if the Twins win their road games at or below the rate they have been, they have a problem..

  16. Stephen, That was a foot or two that equaled an Inge.

    This guy is going for the Willis “Gas Can award” presented by Coleman

    1. Sadly, if I remember correctly, I saw Carrasco and Willis square off in an Ironpigs Mud Hens scrap. It was not pretty.

  18. Did you catch Rod’s comment? “these guys are hitting Carrasco like they know what’s coming, and I mean that literally.”

    2. Mario will use literally quite a bit, literally. I remember a game in 2006 that Rodney, Zumaya, and Jones collectively blew. It was awful. In the postgame Mario was reiterating what happened when he said “and at that point the roof literally caved in.” Now they were playing in the Metrodome so it was feasible, but that probably would have been a bigger story than the blown save.

        1. I don’t bag on announcers too much usually. The job isn’t as easy as it looks and most people if they talk for 3 hours will say something dumb. But that one just always stuck with me because it was funny – especially with it coming in a stadium with an actual roof.

    2. He’s one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. He’ll probably be a good one in a couple years.

  20. Rod Allen made a good point. What will E-Jax do with all these runs, hey we could bring Nate or Bondo in and be safe

    Billfer thanks for the heads up on the schedules.

    Great looking opportunity on 10/1 its a 1:00er vs the Twins

    I missed October games in the above totals but I would really like the 10/1 afternoon game to mean something.

  21. I know Maggs has had his personal issues this year that has resulted in his playing time being cut, that being said he looks like he has been hitting the hotdog stand in his spare time.

    Does anyone have a count or an opinion on his status for next year

      1. He looks a little slower on the base paths, and I was wondering what it was that was it, age or something else.

  23. Huff is back! Uh, according to the broadcasting team. They keep talking about how he was pressing, but he was sucking with the Orioles too.

  24. Nah, Huff only has Laird-ish top-of-the-wall power…

    Actually it’s Huff switching to the high socks…I’ll lay odds Inge talked him into it…

  25. I don’t know about you, but that was some serious paisley tie coordination! Literally! Way to go Rod & Mario

  26. I’ll offer a compromise: Maggs has been hitting the hot dog stand, but he’s been ordering the celery dog.

    1. This is my favorite baseball hot dog story.
      Gates Brown was a pinch hitter for the Tigers in the late 60s. He usually hung out in the clubhouse in the early innings. But in the second inning of one game, someone got hurt and Mayo Smith barked for Gates to get up to the plate. Gates went up the ramp, straight up to the plate still buckling his pants over his ample stomach. He got a hit down the line. He belly flopped into second base. Safe. When he stood up, his jersey was all brown and yellow. Why? He had stuck a clubhouse hot dog into his waistband.
      True story? Who knows.

        1. Apparently, this actually happened. Well, at least according to the internet. And we know the internet is never wrong.

          “I always wanted to get a hit every time I went to the plate. But this was one time I didn’t want to get a hit. I’ll be damned if I didn’t smack one in the gap and I had to slide into second—head first, no less. I was safe with a double. But when I stoop up, I had mustard and ketchup and smashed hot dogs and buns all over me.

          “The fielders took one look at me, turned their backs and damned near busted a gut laughing at me. My teammates in the dugout went crazy.” After fining Brown $100, Smith said, “What the hell were you doing eating on the bench in the first place?” Brown: “I decided to tell him the truth. I said, ‘I was hungry. Besides, where else can you eat a hot dog and have the best seat in the house.”

  27. Wow we may need to put up double-digits in this one. The good news is that looks quite doable. And we have to keep them from hitting so many to left…

  28. There must have been two hotdogs involved. Cause if Gates gets the call and thinks oh no where do I put the hotdog, you know “my mouth” is going to be his 1st thought…

    1. But you can’t run with a hot dog in your mouth you could choke. Although it is funny to imagine someone sliding head first into second while choking on a hot dog.

    1. Lets see… he was around for the Gates trick, maybe he has a couple tucked in his shirt or he learned from Don Zimmer

    1. I hope the Sox dont mail their twins series in because they are bummed from the trades and declaring they are out

      1. They might be bummed from not having those guys around, but I don’t think they declared they are out — the moves will probably hurt them minimally if at all this year.

  43. and just like that Jackson has 11 wins. Not bad at all with a month of baseball left. He should get 6 more starts too.

  44. That ranks as your funniest game wrap of the season, billfer. You’ve really brought your A game for crunch time.

  45. Just got back from Comerica. I gotta say that my fear of “Major League Debut Guy” was palpable driving down to the game. I was having visions of a 2-1 loss where Jim Price keeps saying “I don’t like the swings from the Tiger hitters” (a refrain I have heard too often this summer). Man was I wrong.

    I was expecting the usual 2 ER over seven innings from E-Jax while everyone grumbled in the stands about being held to 1 run on four hits over seven innings from “Major League Debut Guy”. Neither of those scenarios played themselves out (thankfully) as the Tigers actually took advantage of a kid who’s stomach was likely full of butterflies. It was good to see the Tigers hit the ball well and actually run out to a big lead. The ironic thing is that every time we seem to have a big night offensively (thinking back to Verlander’s start in Anaheim), our run-starved aces suddenly channel the spirit of Grilli and can’t get anyone out. That’s cool because we won both games, but it sure would be nice to actually have a laugher that stays that way instead of getting oddly uncomfortable by the sixth inning(tonight and Verlander’s Anaheim start). All in all a good night, hopefully Porcello is “on” tomorrow night like he was against Tampa. Another win tomorrow night would get us back to the elusive 10 games over .500 mark (we were there once this year at 41-31 and haven’t been able to get back since despite being nine over a number of times).

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