2012 Season, Game Post

Game 2012.116: Tigers at Twins

54 Comments

Detroit Tigers, 61-54, 2nd place, 2 back.

Detroit had last night off, instead donning clown suits for a hilarious charity exhibition game. Brennan Boesch was a hit with his huge shoes and big floppy glove, and the performance was capped off by the always funny bit where the whole bullpen piles into a tiny car.

Unfortunately, Brayan Villarreal probably shouldn’t have been taking part in that particular stunt:  turns out he has actually had a problem with his elbow for the past week, and is now on the ever-popular day-to-day list.

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The Toledo Mud Hens put on a different sort of exhibition Saturday night.  In the 2nd inning Durham’s Will Rhymes hit a two-run home run, and admired it a bit, much to the chagrin of starter Drew Smyly, who plunked the next batter, leading to ejections (Smyly and manager Phil Nevin), and warnings.

Not to be left out of the fun, when reliever Bruce Rondon faced Will Rhymes in the 7th, he threw behind him, Rhymes charged the mound, and both benches cleared.  Not to excuse anybody here, but I think Wee Willie Rhymes needs a bit of leeway for home run admiration; it’s not like he gets them every day.  And Rhymes charging Rondon is probably its own punishment.

At any rate, suspensions have been handed down to Rondon (5 games) and Smyly (3 games).

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The Tigers travel to Minnesota tonight to finish the mini Stars loop road trip (random hockey reference).

Detroit will face the always tough Rookie Pitcher Guy, this one a righty named Samuel “Cy” Deduno (3-0, 3.27).

The Tigers hand the ball to Anibal, as we all wonder how many more times we will be able to use that phrase.

Stat of the Day: The Tigers now lead the American League in pitchers who bomb, turn out to have a physical problem nobody knew about, and become classified as “Day-to-Day.”

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:   Omar Infante.  After a bit of a slow start, Infante has hit .375 with power (6 extra base hits, 9 RBI) in his last 13 games.

Today’s OK-Your-Turn-To-Try-5th-Alex Lineup:

  1. Austin Jackson CF
  2. Andy Dirks LF
  3. Miguel Cabrera 3B
  4. Prince Fielder 1B
  5. Alex Avila C
  6. Delmon Young DH
  7. One-Pitch Boesch RF
  8. Jhonny Peralta SS
  9. Omar Infante 2B

54 thoughts on “Game 2012.116: Tigers at Twins”

  1. Entertaining game introduction, Coleman.
    Oh no, not Sanchez again. Can’t we substitute one of the bench players instead.

  2. Avila’s OBP is .368. Pretty good, yes? So no problem here having him bat 5th – really anybody not named Young or Boesch is OK with me at this point. Peralta is .325 and Infante .319 which isn’t bad, but Young .295, and Boesch .286 are, and have been for most of the year, unacceptable. It makes no sense to have both of them in the lineup at the same time; the rally killing potential is more than doubled when they are. I’d like to see a platoon with both of them, Young being replaced with Berry (batting 9th) vs some RH and Baker over Boesch vs LH.

    1. The Tigers have 25 games with MN, KC, CLE. The WSox have 21. Unfortunately, the WS have been beating up on the bottom dwellers too (25-19 vs Tigers 24-16.) Even with Konerko out, I think the advantage is with the WSox. Last year the Tigers took off from this point, but remember the 4 other teams in the division were bottom feeders by this time and the Tigers had it easy. The Tigers problem this year is that they haven’t been able to do much outside of the division, regardless of the opposition (-1, WS +5.)

      Barring anymore flubadubs by Leyland et. al. (unlikely), this will likely go right down to the wire; I think this is the BEST case scenario and the 7 games left with CHI will probably decide.

    2. If they pull it off, it will be an exciting finish, which will be great. On the other hand, if they crash and burn, it might just bring an end to the Leyland Era, which would also be great.

  4. The Minny starter gives a lot of walks ….. so I hope the Tigers can show some patience at the plate for a change!

  6. what the hell is up with these guys?? their pitcher has thrown 36 pitches…….21 balls and 15 strikes…….we’ve gotten 3 walks…….and we’ve made 6 outs and scored no runs……

  8. After 3 IP:
    Throw-a-lot-of-pitches Dudono: 44
    Sanchez: 61

    On the plus side, Sanchez hasn’t walked anybody.

  10. Hey, you just have to tip your hat to Cy Deduno, etc etc (working on my postgame interview skills).

  11. wait…….what just happened? Lamont let Boesch score?……..he actually waved him in?……..I must be hallucinating……..

  14. TOR pitcher Delabar just struck out 4 CWS in the top of the 10th…thanks to a passed ball K

    1. Delabar seems like one of those character names in a novel that one can never quite get comfortable with because it just doesn’t have the ring of a real name about it.

  16. I saw that Delmon wasn’t batting 5th, great. So Leyland finally moved Boesch to DH and Berry to RF against righties, right?

  20. Bottom line, you get out hit 13 – 2 (against a rookie pitcher, no less) you’re going to lose.

    1. And if you leave in your worst pitcher too long, relieved by your 2nd worst pitcher….

  21. Below in, Choke out. Leyland obviously didn’t want to overwork him, since he may need him in a critical situation again tomorrow.

  22. I know Doyle Alexander, and Anibal Sanchez is no Doyle Alexander.

    Jarrod Washburn, maybe. Can you say “snookered.”

    1. Personally, it has gotten kind of stale. I mean, 6 3/4 years of Howdy Doody reruns is a bit much.

  25. Below is the Long-Man-Who-Comes-In-In-Losing-Blowouts. He sucks up innings so other more important pitchers don’t have to. So why do you run two more relievers into the game if you have given up on it?

    Just asking.

  26. the Boesch- Avila-Young-Peralta…do nothing group over the past FOUR games TOTALS…7 hits in 51 AB…4 RS…3 RBI…numbers… pathetic…they did exActly this on the last road trip…this has nothing to do with the 5 spot….this is about 5-6-7-8 spot totals

  27. Goodness, this trade for Sanchez was a pile of dogmeat. I have been angry for a month since the deal was made and will get to be angry for a decade plus I’m sure. I’ve been killing it since the moment it happened and this is even worse than imagined. What a joke. Tigers season in trouble but regardless, Turner for Sanchez is disgustingly awful. I cant believe nobody does research before making a trade (or commenting on it). Sanchez’s career is marked by being rocked in interleague play prior to trade. Also had a 5+ ERA in last 8-10 stars prior to trade. What a f’ing waste. I’m flabbergasted at Dombrowski’s foolishness. Truly. Jurrjenns for Renteria was nothing compared to this…I can’t believe the faith that these fools put in mediocre guys like Sanchez, Coke, etc. Give a kid a chance, remember how good Zoom was back in 06? Turner or Smyly would have been much better than throwing way too much for a rental of dogmeat. Damn!!!

    1. I get the feeling that Tigers’ advanced scouting isn’t very good, and probably hasn’t been for a long time. It makes me wonder if the Fister deal last year wasn’t just luck. I remember DD saying something about how much they liked Pauley, who also came along in the deal, and that he was going to be a great addition to the bullpen. Right.

  28. Turner won again for the Zephyrs… 5 1/3 innings…. what the heck is a Zephyr anyway?

      1. In the case of those in NOLA, Zephyrs are those who live in Westwego, LA!

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