2010 Season, Game Post

Game 2010.011: Tigers at Mariners

86 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers lost consecutive games for the first time this season. Let’s hope they don’t lose consecutive series for the first time this season after tonight’s game goes final.

Justin Verlander is still going for his first win, and his first “ace-like” outing. The Tigers starters were delivered a nasty blow over the last 5 outings and this is an opportunity for one of those “stopper” type outings that folks are so fond of.

He goes up against the hyphenator, Ryan Rowland-Smith. Rowland-Smith has made two starts and notched only two strike outs (with 6 walks). Both of those starts came against the A’s. The Tigers faced him once last year and got to him for 5 runs and chased him in the 6th inning. Ryan Raburn and Brandon Inge took him deep.

Raburn finds himself playing right field tonight as Magglio Ordonez gets a turn at DH.

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

Detroit Tigers at Seattle Mariners – April 17, 2010 – MLB.com Gameday

86 thoughts on “Game 2010.011: Tigers at Mariners”

  1. The Coleman Crystal Ball predicts more defensive hijinks tonight. Although hopefully short of last night’s Clown Show level.

    2. It is a lefty starter tonight, and it’s Verlander. Tonight it makes sense. I won’t say anything about last night.

  4. Oh wow, what a R3L2O nightmare: bottom of the 14th in a scoreless game between the Mets and Cards, and Cards with runners on 2nd and 3rd nobody out, and….strikeout…and another strikeout…and another strikeout.

    Ouch.

    1. Did Lloyd McClendon suddenly resign and take over for McGwire in STL? I thought only our hitters were that ridiculously bad in the clutch.

  5. watching on the mlb network so I can see it in HD, but it’s got the mariners announcers. The PbP guy is terrible, its so painful. he just said he doesn’t understand why they gave guillen an error on that “dropped” foul ball.

  7. Well Verlander is a razor sharp as he has bee in all his games so far this year. Did he throw his 100 pitches this inning

  8. Ubaldo Jiminez just tossed a no-hitter against the Braves. 127 pitches, he was still throeing 97 in the 9th inning.

    1. the no hitter is very impressive but throwing 127 pitches on april 17 is just as amazing

      2. Must be nice! 127 pitches in 9 innings. Our guys look like they have dead arms after 80 pitches.

        It’s that SS the Rocks have that really makes me jealous.

  12. Oh, for cryin’ out loud…..I can’t wait till we get a shortstop that can hit, like the other 70% of the league, and that may be conservative.

  13. Can any Tiger starter ever get through an inning w/out giving up a hit. This team is gonna suck..Their bottom 3 pitchers are not very good, their defense is below average at best and they have 4 bad hitters in their lineup…they are actually counting on Brandon Inge to be an important bat..This is a guy who has a .237 career avg over 10 years, yet, DD tries to convince us that his injured knees are the reason. Finally, Gerald Laird and Adam Everett both start for this team…You add that D-Train and Bondo are part of the starting five and you wonder what DD and Mr. I are smoking…How stupid do they think we are? Then, what’s up Lloyd..we have all these bad hitters and nobody can put down a bunt and play small ball…its a joke. Is Mr. I going senile?

  14. That no-hitter is especially impressive because: Ubaldo. I mean wait until he starts losing his hair.

    Also the Mets and Cards are working on a 40-inning scoreless tie. At some point guys will start dying, literally.

    Oh and how about Lincecum–.090 ERA, and oh by the way leading the Giants with a .429 BA

  15. I see Mc Clendon has been working with Jackson …now Jackson just throws his bat at the ball like the better part of the Tiger line up

    1. it’s incredible – we fling out bat at the ball and hit a popup, the Mariners do it and get a base hit out of it.

      billfer, you did a great job with your post about the last turn through the rotation. By any chance did you calculate our BABIP as a staff? My guess is it’s something north of .360

  16. It’s just an early season glitch–the hitters simply misunderstood when Lloyd told them he wanted to see some pop in their bats.

  17. 10 games into the season, a 2 game losing streak and already I sense a tad bit of frustration by posters this evening. C’mon, think positive. This is a .500 team and they are still two games over – give em a break.

    I see billfer got the comment thingy fixed – super.

    1. I hear you..I want to be positive..but, seriously, looking at this staff and lineup..what gives you reason for hope? Who is going to be our 4th and 5th starters when Bondo and Willis inevitably prove they should not be on a major league staff? and who bats 5th when Guillen inevitably gets injured? Call me crazy, but, what can you be optomistic about?

  23. There is no reason for Laird not to be bunting. I don’t care if Everett is on deck (maybe he should bunt too), you have to move the runner into scoring position.

  26. Inge got off to that great start now Mc Clendon must be working with him too . The Tigs have that pop up swing down pat

    1. He’s always hit. It’s part of why I don’t understand the “the bottom of the order sucks” sentiment. Sizemore is one of those 3. You don’t know exactly what he’ll do as a MLB’er, but he doesn’t necessarily suck.

      1. absolutely true, billfer, but in my case, I was assuming there would be some sort of learning curve for the first month or two for Sizemore while he adjusts. it’s just tough to count on a rookie to be a dependable, consistent producer. same goes for Jackson.

  29. Maggs Miggy and Sizemore the three Tigers who can actually hit a ball to the opposite field. And every single pitcher pitches the Tigers away…away… away and pop up and pop up and pop up

  33. isnt that the way its supposed to go hit…bunt them over …knock em in

    Rayburn not one strike thrown but a strikeout …wow

  36. Just to recap: Bradley (thought he was) struck out on the 1-2 pitch, walks, steals second (kinda) then scores on a fly ball that raburn tried to turn into a highlight (which it is now but for the wrong reasons). If I’m verlander I ask Ryan about his at bat in the 7th and ask him if he spoken to clete lately.

  38. Two points I would like to make:

    1. The pitchers have to stop walking so many hitters.

    2. It is time to bench Laird. He is useless.

  39. you know the difference between watching paint dry and watching the Tigers offense. the difference is paint eventually dries!

      1. I’m not saying they don’t score runs I’m just saying it is very hard to watch them bat.

      2. If you look at the offense aside from those 4 or 5 big innings in the first week or so, I think they have actually been pretty inconsistent. I think the over 5 runs per game and the leading OBP are abberations and won’t last.

        1. It probably is, yet when the team does exactly what people have been clamoring for, working the pitcher, taking walks, etc., people still bitch and complain about Lloyd. It really sucks absolutely all the enjoyment out of running this blog. There ceases to be discussion and instead it is just a stream of complaining, even though the team has a winning record. I’m not directing this at you Vince. I’m just frustrated.

          Not everything needs to be rah-rah pollyanna stuff, but there is rarely any acknowledgment of what the team does right and is instead just a long list of bitching. It gets old to read and makes me wonder why I bother.

          1. It’s why I stopped reading the Tigers home page message boards long ago. Also, stopped reading the Free Press comments. All negative all the time. I’ve come to the conclusion that some people really don’t enjoy baseball, the ebb and flow of the game. They just bitch. And it’s usually the same people over and over again. It’s like some Lions fans. They live to complain. Several years ago, the Yankees started off terrible for like the first month or so. They turned it all around. Toronto started off as the hottest team around a couple seasons ago and cooled off for the rest of the season. I bought my first Tigers’ baseball cap today with the pink D on it sitting here at my keyboard turned inside out hoping for a rally. Maybe tomorrow.

            2. Kathy every comment you’ve made this game can easily be construed as negative/bashing the team or a specific Tiger player save for the one on pot, which I had to google to understand.

              Billfer
              1) Do you think you would have made that comment if the score was 10-0 or heck even 4-2 tonight in favor of the Tigers?
              2) For every bull there is a bear…and negative nancys might be kill-joys but usually are healthy and more realistic I’m coming to realize
              3) The Tigers have played scrub teams and are a tick above .500.
              4) It hurts fans to invest their lives and see their team struggle several days in a row and it helps to vent and release that anger in written form (better than than punching a wall/something else every time Laird strikes out/they lose etc.)- you offer a forum for the joyous celebration and the venting.
              5) Jud didn’t mention Lloyd
              6) They do now have a 3 game losing streak spanning 4 days
              7) Many people here have higher expectations than I for this season
              8) Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah Yea Yea Yea go Tigers, one more time… better? 😉 at least a chuckle? smile inside? maybe?

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQraEN93xLw

              that help? =-D

              http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7zsH7_76EE

              that?

              oh well, shoot me

            3. Good point about that Yankees team from a few years ago. By all accounts they just played horrendous ball for the first part of the season, then put it all together and played like gangbusters. It’s early yet.

          2. I hear ya. The few really dramatic comeback wins to start the season may have contributed to some overly optimistic expectations. Once it becomes apparent that they are really not going to finish 135-27, hopefully folks will settle in for the long haul of what I think will be an up and down season and just enjoy the struggle of the underdog Tigers trying to usurp the Monsters from Minnesota, replete with all the chills, thrills and spills that go with it. I see the negative comments as an expression of other’s frustration, more gassing off than anything else. I know you have invested a lot of yourelf in this blog, but please don’t take the negativity personally. To end on a positive note, although Laird continues to suck, Verlander was sharp and hopefully found his missing rythym, which bodes well. As I see it, the arms are going to have to carry the team this year, so this is a good first step.

  40. This team is absolutely frustrating…. There is not bullpen and no offense… What happened to that team from the first week?

  42. Goodness, you’d think we were the Astros or something. It’s a long season friends. We’re gonna be competitive. Not great, but it will be a good summer.

  43. I’m looking forward to a day game tomorrow instead of these late nighters. It’s gotta be hard on the guys early in the season too.

    Please, someone tell me the train doesn’t run on Sunday.

  44. On a side note lids has a sale and if you can buy a white Tigers hat “brushback”

    http://www.lids.com/pid/20129492

    for $7!!! seems like a helluva deal. They also have other good sales if you go poking around. Just thought I’d give yall the heads up… I hope it helps if you like deals/need/want a new Tigers hat.

  46. And please don’t take us that seriously in our comments. We all act like we own the team and the players are getting paid by using our life savings. We are all managers of this team also. So most of the negativity. (I try and be 50-50 ) is just that frustration we all show cause its easier to type it. Its better than hitting the computer or yelling at the kids. We are for the most part knowledgeable baseball fans and this is our real life escape

  47. Kathy I’m not judging you on that, I love Ron Paul. I just
    1) Know next to nothing about that drug
    2) Thought your complaining about negative nancys/perma-bears was something of a double standard/hypocritical stance due to your previous posts this game thread such as and I quote

    a)”Our guys look like they have dead arms after 80 pitches. ” b)”Jim Leland looks like he’s aged 10 years.” c)”Laird. Here we go again.” d)”Raburn’s in a terrible rut. Just an awful start for him this year.”

    None of which I found to be overflowing the optimism cup.

    Hopefully that helps to clarify my previous post.

  48. Forgot to add that Ron Paul is for the legalization of the stuff and helped cosponsor a bill to do just that (in case you/anyone else was in the dark why I brought him up)

  50. Very good start for Verlander, and another unlucky outcome for him.

    Rowland-Smith is a decent pitcher that the Tiger hitters made look better than what he is. Tiger hitters didn’t help the cause much, but Guillen, Raburn and Cabrera each hit a shot that would have gone for extra bases had it not been hit right at Bradley (Guillen, Raburn), Ichiro (Cabrera). When a team’s luck is down, their players had better raise their game/production levels if they want to win (for reference, see MN Twins).

    NOTE to JL: you gave away a run by not having Laird bunt in the 5th – and a sacrifice bunt is what Laird and Everett should be doing EVERYTIME they’re up with a runner on 1st and/or 2nd and nobody out (again see Twinkies).

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