Moment of silence for Boston, please. Really cool what the Yankees did earlier tonight.
*******
7-5, 1st place, tied with KC.
The Tigers cruise up to Seattle on a sweet 3 series winning streak perched atop the AL Central. No reason why it shouldn’t be 4, but with Felix Hernandez pitching tomorrow, winning tonight becomes critical with an eye towards taking the series.
With Jeremy Bonderman not quite yet ready to step into the M’s rotation, they had to go out and make a move to get 34 year old righty Aaron Harang. Harang will begin his M’s career tonight by making his 300th career appearance. Harang looks like he had a decent year last year – posting a 3.61 ERA in 180 IPs, but his 1.40 WHIP and 6.56 K/9 demonstrate why the Ms were able to get him for AAA guy Steven Hensley. This will be Harang’s 4th start against the Tigers (0-1 5.63 ERA), but he’s barely faced the current lineup. Fielder has 3 bombs and a .318 average in 44 PAs, Peralta is batting .304 in 23 ABs. Harang has frustrated Cabrera to date – .133 BA in 15 ABs.
In case you forgot after an off day, Porcello pitched late Sunday afternoon (most of us were likely plugged into the Cabrera/Scott showdown in Augusta). Thus no Porcello in the image rotators above. Instead, it’s ice man Doug Fister.
Fister shook off a shaky start in a W over the Yankees with a masterful 8 IP, 1 ER win over Tor last Thursday. Remember that we plucked Fister from Sea for Casper Wells, Charlie Furbush, Francisco Martinez and Chance Ruffin (PTBNL). Furbush is the only player on the Mariners active roster. This begs the question – can you name a trade in the past 5 years where DD hasn’t come out on top?
Tonight’s Lineup:
1. Jackson, CF
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 3B
4. Fielder, 1B
5. Martinez, C
6. Peralta, SS
7. Avila, C
8. Infante, 2B
9. Kelly, LF
Remember that Jurrjens was 6 years ago.
good to see Jhonny going to right field…seems like when he hit the ball well two years ago he was doing that quite a lot
Washburn didn’t work out, but it’s not like the Mariners did very well either.
I’m extremely happy with DD’s trade record*. I can’t think of a single trade that didn’t seem reasonable at the time and a hefty majority of them look great in hindsight too. Can’t ask for any more than that.
* Chadd probably deserves the lion share of the credit, but DD gets credit for bringing the right scout on board.
A couple former tigers doing battle in Washington tomorrow:
I think that VMart is gonna be just fine.
RISP drought in the making!…..
well that 1-0 didn’t last long enough
that 2-1 didn’t last long!
as you can see by the Tigers getting three runners on in the past four innings with no outs ….Mumbles still doesn’t believe in moving the runners
…Kevin good call on Victor…….he hit the ball hard in Oakland without a lot of results…..today he even looks excited with a 3 hit day!!!!
and Avila is on pace to do nothing again this year!
GREAT AB AJax. Man has he grown up in 2 years.
I’d like to take note that JL isn’t the only manager who has relievers make their ML debuts in ridiculous situations.
is this like the wild pitch offense….two BB loaded walks
Prince if I wouldn’t have seen it I wouldn’t have believed it…….specially after the start you have had….oh well!