81-72, .5 games back.
There was a brief moment of exuberance last night, when the Tigers were arguably tied for first, and Miguel Cabrera was arguably in the Triple Crown lead. Then stephen spoke and all hell broke loose. Minutes later a Josh Hamilton 6th inning HR and an Adam Dunn 8th inning 3 run blast wiped the smiles away, and the Tigers and Cabrera were knocked back down a rung.
But today is a new day…Cleveland just beat CWS, 1st place is on the line tonight. More coming in a bit, I wanted to get this going with the CWS loss.
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Standing in the way of a first place tie is Tigers nemesis Bruce Chen. Or is he really our nemesis? Yes, Chen shutout the Tigers over 8 innings on August 29th, allowing only 4 hits and a walk in a KC win. But his 2012 ERA vs. the Tigers is 3.93, and for his career he’s 5-5 with a 5.49 ERA, and more importantly, 2-4 with a 6.82 ERA at Comerica. Pit that against his career 4.61 ERA, and we can conclude that 2 great starts against the Tigers in 2011 have colored our impression of Mr. Chen. Cabrera is 11-26 (.423) with 3 bombs against Chen, and DY is 8-18 (.444) with a homer.
Sanchez was roughed up his last time out, but he had posted 5 straight QS prior to the Oakland outing. Over his last 6 Sanchez has a 2.77 ERA and a handsome 1.05 WHIP. He can beat KC.
Speaking of good starting pitching, over the last month, Tigers’ starters have a 2.78 ERA and 180 Ks in 200 2/3 IP. Opponents are batting only .237 off of the starters during that stretch.
Tonight’s 1st Place Lineup:
1. Jackson, CF
2. Infante, 2B
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Young, DH
6. Dirks, LF
7. Peralta, SS
8. Garcia, RF
9. Laird, C
good 8 pitch AB by AJackson, followed by a single off Cy Chen
Not a good harbinger…
Anibal Cy-Chez
Sanchez, 95 pitches thru 8, no way JL rolls out the potato in the 9th right?…right?
All square with 8 games to go!
OUTSTANDING outing by Sanchez…couldn’t have picked a better time to pitch his 1st AL SO and complete game
AMEN! Now is it simply down to which team will win the most games in the remaining eight games! Who’s your Tiger?
Miguel Cabrera interview coming up in a few minutes on Baseball Tonight.
Who thinks they would rather have the Tigers remaining games than 3 with Tampa..raise your hand
both hands up! Hey, missed the Seahawks game…. any good???
they actually have 4 with Tampa. then they head to CLE for the last 3.
looking at 2013 schedule on mlb.com….a few interesting things:
they have dispersed interleague play all throughout the season. the Tigers play the Braves in April and the last series of the year is @ Miami.
we dont see the White Sox until just before the All-Star break…play 7 times in July, 6 in August and 6 in September.
we play each AL Central team 19 times instead of 18.
Astros join the AL West (I had totally forgotten that wa shappening next year). we play them 6 times.
That last 3 at Miami could be interesting…imagine if it were this season–the Central would be decided in a series on the road where the Tiger pitchers have to bat.
and playing against a nutcase former manager of our division rival, provided he doesn’t get canned.
you make a great point about the pitchers hitting….The White Sox finish up with 4 against KC and the Indians play 4 against the Twins. Tigers were the odd team out, I guess.