Game 2011.17: Tigers at Mariners

The Tigers mosey into Seattle tonight after letting a golden opportunity to take their second series go whizzing by their bats, mostly with runners on third and less than two outs.

The Tigers’ offense set a two-game mark for futility over the weekend, failing to capitalize even once in 5 R3L2O situations, and going 0-10 on Saturday with RISP, and 0-10 for Saturday/Sunday.  Yeah, that’s right, 0-10 on Saturday, and 0-0 on Sunday.  Other than the Wells HR, not a single runner reached second on Sunday.

Even with a paltry .240 team BA, the Tigers can scoff at 6 teams below them in the AL, including the Mariners who are hitting a top of the Tigers lineup friendly .214 as a team.

Jason Vargas has sandwiched 2 very good starts around a terrible one in which he gave up 7 earned in 3.1 innings against the Indians.  Remove that game and he’s given up 2 ER in 13.1 IPs with 13 Ks.  He held a capable Toronto lineup to 5 hits and 1 walk over 6 2/3 last time out against Toronto.  The Tigers can not take too much for granted, he did record 21 quality starts last season.

Scherzer’s 4.76 ERA still reflects his game 1 bashing (which he won), but has shrunk considerably over two quality starts.  Though he has allowed 7 hits in each of his last two outings, he’s managed to keep the runs down in those games (1, then 2), and has K’d 16 in 17 innings overall this season.

Fun stats of the day – Tigers pitchers have not allowed a home run in 10 games, most since StL pitchers went 11 games in 2009.  The Tigers’ record is 17 consecutive games back in 1947, aka Leyland’s rookie year.  Mariners lead the majors in bases loaded walks with 5.  That’s 1/2 as many hits as AJax has this year.

Your Magglio Ordonez outfield circus lineup is:

1. AJax – CF
2. Raburn – 2B
3. Ordonez – RF
4. Cabrera – 1B
5. Martinez –  DH
6. Boesch – LF
7. Peralta – SS
8. Avila – C
9. Inge – 3B

83 thoughts on “Game 2011.17: Tigers at Mariners”

  1. Sunday was so futile at the plate that even A’s fans were yawning. All part of the genius of Jim Leyland: as I correctly predicted yesterday he constructed a lineup designed to produce no R3L2O situations, thus saving his players the embarrasment of failure.

    Speaking of lineups, why not The Ghost in RF and Magglio’s ankle at DH? Especially since Victor missed yesterday and can’t catch because of, um, “groin soreness.”

  2. Hmmm….This past weekend Cleveland outscored Seattle 20-8 runs in three games. It may be interesting to see how the Tigers score against the Mariners in a three-game series?

  3. My eyes about popped out of my head seeing Raburn at 2b and batting 2nd. Actually, I love it!

    1. Hopefully Max strikes out a dozen or so and we don’t have to watch Raburn Rayburning any ground balls.

      1. Raburn and AJax are battling for the leads in strikeouts with 19 each! Maybe the change will be good for all?

      2. I’ve seen that the Twins have been playing Cuddyer at 2b on occasion. Raburn isn’t any worse than him with the glove. I just hope Raburn can back-up his defensive deficiencies with his bat. He needs to start hitting. He’s actually tied with AJax for the most strikeouts with 19.

    1. There may or may not be some hyperbole in the radar gun, but I saw Chapman’s pitch and yes, that was a fastball that would make you soil yourself if you were in the on-deck circle, let alone the batter’s box.

  4. Why does anybody on the Tigers expect Raburn to do anything? The guy is a career minor leaguer, a fringe player at best…I think they should be giving all his at-bats to Casper Wells, he has a better glove and at least we get to see what Casper can do…We know that if Raburn gets extended at-bats, he reveals himself as a fringe major leaguer…This team has very few options, so I hope he plays better,but, as we speak…we need GREAT pitching just to have a shot in games. I hope that the Tigers start hitting, but, I tend to agree w/ Lynn Henning’s article…The Tigers will not start hitting w/out some roster moves.

    1. He’s a career 109 OPS+. To call him a “fringe player” is simply inaccurate.

      1. Trammell was a career 110, so keep that in mind as you make your determination.

      2. Raburn is 30 years old…he is not a prospect and he has never been a regular…He has no real position..quote any stat that you want…Ryan Raburn is not a very good player, put him out on the open market and see who picks him up…With the intention of making him a regular…I can think of one guyand his intials are DD…The same guy who Scott Boras convinced that other teams wanted a washed up beaten down Maggs was worth 10 Mill. You know this team is extremely flawed and has gotten progressively worse since 2006…The fact that you used a stat and compared Ryan Raburn to Alan Trammel…That is ridiculous and I’m the guy people complain about on this site…If you think Alan Trammel and Ryan Raburn belong even in the same sentence, then all I can do is laugh. Trammel being used in the same sentence as Ryan Raburn…c’mon man, you are just trying to be disagreeable because I offended you in some way…I am sorry, but, that is just crazy talk. y’all have a good night..

  5. I didn’t realize Raburn was playing 2B tonight. Raburn playing 2B is scary…but, Scherzer is a flyball pitcher, so, he should get limited chances.

  6. Does Illitch have sucker written all over his face? These guys on the Tigers sign big money deals and then they can’t last w/out getting injured…Stretch V-Mart and then you can actually run to 1st…I’m going to watch the Wings…win or lose those guys don’t come out of the game because of a little tweak. That’s a joke.

    1. So you’re going to go watch the Red Wings, a team playing in the playoffs, over the Tigers, a baseball team playing its 17th game of the year against a under average opponent? OK, I can see the rationale behind that.

      1. I’m in a bar watching Lincecum pitch on one screen, the Wings on another, and the Tigers on my iPhone…pretty good day for a Monday

  7. More of the genius of Jim Leyland: Magglio has a propensity for the GIDP in even the best of times; when he’s lumbering to 1st on an ankle and 1/2 it stands to be even worse. But batting after KJax and K-burn there is very little chance of the GIDP opportunity, thus solving the problem.

    1. lets see Maggs is hitting .203 with 0 HR and 0 RBI,,,now that’s a 3hitter if I’ve ever seen one

    1. I’m sorry that it was Milton Bradley who broke it…shoulda pitched around him to get to the Parker Brothers…

  8. Good move pitching around Figgins there. Don’t want him to hurt us with a single.

  9. Why is Smokey batting the team and maybe even league leading strikeout victims 1 & 2?

  10. 1.we watch a lot of ball has Inge ever hit a ground ball that moves a runner from second to third…….i mean ever
    2. think Ajax would have a better chance to get on base if he didn’t take a bat up to the plate….he Ks on more ball 3 and 4s than anyone in baseball

  11. Out of town and just now checking the Box. Looks like things are on track: Jackson: 1 SO and leading off with a white hot .167 BA??, Raburn: 2 SOs. Inge bringing up the bottom with a .196 BA. 2/3 of this big league line up is batting .250 of <. Sad, very sad.

    1. If Inge would stop putting the ball in play and get back on track with his strikeouts, who knows, he might get moved up to 3rd in the lineup.

    1. One for V-Mart!

      That was an amazing tag. Odd as it is to say, I don’t think any 3B tags runners better than Inge.

    1. Think about the meaning of the statement — Avila on the “acceptable list.” To me that speaks volumes about where this team is at right now.

  12. Miggy was running so slow there that the Mariners thought he was standing on third

    Boesch nice piece of hitting

  13. Boesch bash!!!

    Can you imagine where this lineup would be if we had last year’s 2nd-half Boesch?

  14. Happy B-day Cabby! Do you think when he is Mag’s age he will have 600 home runs?

    Good to see Boesch playing with experience as his swing looks the same as last year.

    1. I was thinking he was going to get a hit there. He sure had that zone look in his eye for the 1st 11 pitches. When he stepped out for that 12th pitch, I could tell that he lost it.

    2. And Smokey was right!! He was way due. If Avila had gotten a walk that Inge hit knocks in 2…Smokey knows all…or, wait, nevermind, he knows Al. Still though…

  15. Gotta give Avila some credit there. a 13 pitch AB has value even if he lined out. A whole lot better than a 1 pitch ground out or fly out.

    1. Inge shares the credit for the 1st one. Seattle sure seems to be helping us out this game though…very sporting of them.

  16. Hmmm…tied score in the 6th, out on the west coast and an early morning at work. Looks like extra innings boys.

  17. Hers my acceptable Tiger player list for 2011
    Cabby
    Boesch
    Santiago
    JV
    V-rel
    Valverde
    Benoit
    ……….on the fringe…
    Scherzer
    Avila
    Kelly (I’m reaching now)

    1. Raburn was a plus when he was Kelly. In other words he has been a great bench/lplatoon player; as a starter/#3 hitter, not so much.

    1. This is worth noting: Inger career OPS now .699. Yet he has been on Tigers for a decade.

  18. Did you know the Tigers lead the AL in WPs? It’s a Verlander thing.

  19. Seattle is supposed to be this great defensive team. All I’ve seen are game changing mistakes. Ryan, Bradley, now Olivo.

    Attaboy Miggy!

    1. Who says they’re good on defense? Milton Bradley has always been awful on defense. Mariners are not supposed to be good at anything.

  20. Wow, a team that is hitting and scoring as poorly as the Tigers gives up the run?? Interesting. The Ms clearly do not fear Jhonny’s “dueness.”

  21. They’ve gone into full Clown Show mode. It is still early in the season, but the Tigers have a positive Clown Show Ratio (300), and a CSR > 150 is predictive of a winning record.

  22. I was hoping to see Benoit and Valverde pitch. With a 6 run lead, I don’t think it’s going to happen. I gotta have faith though.

  23. The Brothers K combine for 4 strikeouts tonight..K-burn is now tied for most in the AL, and KJax is 3rd. They may have a shot at the franchise record for a pair, which looks like it belongs to Cecil Fielder / Rob Deer in 1991 (326: Deer 175, Fielder 151…Inge and Granderson came close with 311 in 2009).

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