2013 Season, Game Post

Game 2013.88: Tigers at Indians

29 Comments

Detroit Tigers: 48-39, 1st Place (2.5 ahead of Cleveland). 

Well the Tigers made what looked like a potential blowout game interesting, only to have a bullpen fail that left them a few runs short. The 11 runners left on base didn’t help, former Indian Jhonny Peralta being the biggest offender (6).

At any rate, the Tigers still have an 8-3 lead in the season series, and have a chance to win the road series with a victory tonight, which would bring them to a very nice 7-4 on what looked to be a difficult 11-game road trip.

Tonight Magic Max looks to round off his charmed first half with a perfect 14-0 on his way to being the All-Star game starting pitcher (if I may make a wild prediction). The record, by the way, for consecutive wins to start a season is 15-0, set by Cleveland’s Johnny Allen in 1937 and tied by Baltimore’s Dave McNally in 1969.

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The Home Run Derby teams will be chosen tonight, too late for this post. I will be shocked if reigning champ Prince Fielder is not on the AL team. No word on whether Brandon Inge will get an invitation for the NL team.

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I mentioned yesterday that this season will be Miguel Cabrera’s first All-Star game start. Since someone asked me who the starters were on the other years he went, I figured I would list them:

  • 2004 NL RF Sammy Sosa
  • 2005 NL LF Carlos Beltran
  • 2006 NL 3B David Wright
  • 2007 NL 3B David Wright
  • 2010 AL 1B Justin Morneau*
  • 2011 AL 1B Adrian Gonzalez
  • 2012 AL 3B Adrian Beltre

*Cabrera actually started the game, since Morneau was scratched with a concussion.

You’ll note the gap in 2008-2009, which goes to show the difficulties in adjusting to a new league, if only in reputation–Cabrera’s numbers were actually quite good, even in the first half:

  • 2008 first half .284/.837, 16 HR 57 RBI
  • 2009 first half .321/.926, 18 HR 50 RBI

2009 of course is the famous season when Brandon Inge made the All-Star team and Miguel Cabrera did not.

Today’s Player of the Pre-game:  Torii Hunter. Torii is heading into the All-Star game in style: he is on a 7-game hitting streak in which he is batting .419.

Today’s Mash-For-Max Lineup:

  1. Jackson, CF
  2. Hunter, RF
  3. Cabrera, 3B
  4. Fielder, 1B
  5. Martinez, DH
  6. Peralta, SS
  7. Tuiasosopo, LF
  8. Pena, C
  9. Santiago, 2B

29 thoughts on “Game 2013.88: Tigers at Indians”

    1. That was just a temporary placeholder until I saw the official list. It’s nice to know we have on-the-ball readers here!

    1. He should be playing a lot more. Chances are that after this game he sits for another week.

    2. If Tui hit 3 HR in his first 3 AB and in his fourth trip to the plate he would be facing a RH, Leyland would pinch hit for him.

      1. In that situation, which player do you bat?
        Vs. RH:
        A) .256/.316/.354/.670
        B) .333/.400/.704/1.104

        Sometimes baseball is a simple game,

  6. Having tons of problems with MLB.com and At Bat. The gameday audio for Cle seems to be working.

  8. Scherzer is getting stronger. He’s at least got 1 more in him. Let’s get him a few runs here and take the series.

  13. The only difference I see between Rondon and Valverde is that Rondon’s fastball is faster. Big deal. Neither one of them has a second pitch they can count on, which makes them incredibly vulnerable at the ML level.

  20. Even with a little hiccup there, I think I could get used to the Smyly/Benoit 1-2 punchout thing.

  21. this series was a dagger to the Indians….we might look back on this win as a big one.Even though its early for those…

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