What a game, and what a way to lose a game, with a walk-off HBP.
Although losing tough ones at Progressive field has become something of a habit: the Tigers have lost 12 straight there, and all 4 this season–and all of them Cleveland has won it its final at bat.
I blame the rain. For the 2nd time in a row, the Tiger bats went dead following a rain delay. In fact the Tigers have only scored 1 run in their last 14 post-rain-delay innings.
As frustrating as the loss was, there were some things to cheer about: the Tigers played good defense almost the whole game, with standout plays by Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera (the 14th inning play by Guillen, not so much). But mostly, it was the much-maligned bullpen, which came up huge. For 11 innings, from the 2nd to the 13th, Below, Schlereth, Coke, Alburquerque, and Benoit combined for 11 innings, giving up only 2 hits, with 3 walks and 12 strikeouts.
That’s the 2nd sparkling appearance in a row for Below. If he turns out to be a revelation the same way that Alburquerque has, the Tigers could end up with an impressive bullpen.
The bad news is that there isn’t much relief left for tonight, so Rick Porcello will take the mound and attempt to bring it all the way to Valverde. Porcello is on a hot streak right now: he is 5-0, 3.26 over his last 6 starts, and has the confidence of the team behind him. “Every time he goes out there now, we really feel we’re going to win,” says Brennan Boesch. Perhaps most impressive lately has been his control–he has only walked 2 in his last 26 innings pitched. This should help him work late into the game.
We didn’t get to see much of our trade-deadline catch Doug Fister last night. Tonight Cleveland brings out its deadline darling, Ubaldo Jimenez. He had a rough go of it in his first outing for Cleveland, giving up 5 runs to Texas, and more importantly, only lasting 5 innings (Cleveland’s bullpen is in as bad a shape as ours tonight).
In other news: He’ll be back…Brandon Inge says the Tigers assured him he would be back with the team on Sept 1.
Player of the Pre-game: Alex Avila
Avila caught all 14 innings last night. With Martinez still having a sore knee, He’ll strap on the gear again tonight.
Today’s Iron-man-Avila Lineup:
- Andy Dirks CF
- Brennan Boesch LF
- Magglio Ordonez RF
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Victor Martinez DH
- Ryan Raburn 2B
- Alex Avila C
- Wilson Betemit 3B
- Ramon Santiago SS
Uh-oh, it’s Cybaldo
It’s extra-inning, rain-delay hangover. On the bright side, there’s always tomorrow, and this particular tomorrow features Verlander.
Yikes, it just gets worse. Our backup catcher just replaced Boesch in LF, who went out with an injured hand. Let’s hope it’s minor.
Don’t worry, we can just replace Boesch with the guy that statistically per atbat is the 7th most efficient Tiger on the team this year according to my calculations.
Oh wait, never mind, that’s Casper Wells, and he’s gone now.
I am hating this team right now. Last night’s waste of good pitching has infuriated me. This Cleveland team sucks yet the Tigers are hell bent on handing them the Central
Who else sees the annual 2nd half collapse happening now?
I don’t think the Tigers are that likely to lose the division tbh. These teams are just way too pathetic, and we have plenty of pitching to get us by, and at least a couple of decent offensive players. It’s not much but it’s plenty to wrap up this crap division. Easy peasy.
me.
I’m not liking the back-to-back fails by Pauley. Perhaps in the future the Tigers should avoid pitchers with the initials of DP
All joking aside, Coleman really shutting down the Rays tonight. I would love if Dombrowski somehow snagged him this offseason, he looks like a keeper
Tigers wins division at 85-77 by 3 games. Win one game in playoffs on Verlander gem and everyone proclaims the 2011 season an unqualified success.
I don’t understand the mid-season extensions for Leyland and Dombrowski.
Isn’t that like giving the waiter his tip before the first course arrives?
yes.
Illitch is just a terrible and confused old man. He has a personal fondness for these 2 guys, and he enjoys having them around and he believes in them. Not much more to analyze beyond that.
Boy…I’m glad Leyland got that contract extension….what a distract that was….
lol at some of the worrying in this thread.
if the tigers can pull out a win tomorrow this is a fair series. the indians are at home and were expected to win the series. getting swept would be kinda ugly, but 1 win isnt a terrible outcome. taking 2+ of 3 would have been quite big.
dont you enjoy the sweat anyways? plenty games left with these cats + season
Well I understand why they worry, I just come from a different perspective. I see where we should be, and I see our present state as already rock bottom. We have already failed by an impressive magnitude that at this point I could care less if we won the division or didnt win the division. We’ve already hit game over, because we don’t have a respectable team. I would be ashamed and embarrassed and feel bad for the game of baseball if this team lucked out and won the WS. That wouldn’t be victory for me. That’s still game over. Just a fluke luck loophole where we still get credit with the victory despite not rightfully earning it. So from my point of view we can’t do any worse than we already have, cause this team has already let down it’s city and it’s fans by not having an appropriate qualified set of odds at this point forward. We could be a one in a million shot only and still luck out and win the WS. But that’s not what the game is about. To me it’s about playing the game right, and winning by setting yourself up with the best odds to win prior to entering the season, and to have a huge margin of odds over the second most likely team. Everything that happens after that is a matter of luck and circumstance that isn’t part of your control and therefore not part of the game to earn credit or respect for. Only the value that can be measured that isn’t bound by luck or things out of your control. The team that sets up the best team and gives themselves the best chance to win is what makes the best team, and then fate takes over from there and you hope for the best.
The guys in this forum have more worry than me because they are coming in with a different entry point perspective that isn’t as bleak as mine, and they are now adjusting after the fact and haven’t reconciled fully how they value and appreciate this team. They seem to be coming down from one point, but they are still in a much higher point from the point that I am. So I can see from their perspective how they see that there is more to lose, and in a sense a potential “collapse” to fall further.
Also, in that long game thread the other day I had 2 posts that were not recorded on the site that were relevant to those conversation strings, so just for the record my opinion wasn’t properly recorded so anybody that disagrees with my points on those issues should take that into consideration that they are being restricted from seeing the full commentary I supplied on those previous convos.