It’s hard to find words to describe last night’s game: not David Price’s gem, not the scoreless wonders on offense. Perhaps I should just run the latest teaser from the cult classic Unlawfully Married. Although if I did have words, I’d have “bravo” for Price, and a couple others for Rajai Davis for the failed bunt followed by the GIDP with runners on 1st or 2nd, and for J.D. Martinez, for generally flailing and specifically waving at ball 4 with 2 runners on.
By losing a complete game start with no earned runs and only one hit, David Price joined a short list. By doing all that without giving up a walk, Price joined a list of one.
One would think that we could score some runs this weekend in Minnesota, but one never knows, does one?
As you may have heard by now, the Boston Red Sox are signing Cuban phenom Rusney Castillo beating out the Tigers and maybe one or two other teams. So that’s off the table. The table’s been a bit bare lately.
Series Overview:
Fri 8/22 8:10 Robby Ray (1-3. 5.33) vs Tommy Milone (L) (6-4, 3.99)
Sat 8/23 12:10 Buck Farmer (0-0, 7.20) vs Yohan Pino (1-5, 5.37)
Sat 8/23 7:10 Justin Verlander (10-11, 4.76) vs Trevor May (0-2, 9.00)
Sun 8/24 2:10 Max Scherzer (14-4, 3.07) vs Kyle Gibson (11-9, 4.13)
Four games, each at a different time. How often does that happen?
Tonight’s How-About-A-Run-Or Two? Lineup:
- Kinsler, 2B
- Hunter, RF
- Cabrera, 1B
- V Martinez, DH
- J Martinez, LF
- Castellanos, 3B
- Suarez, SS
- Holaday, C
- Davis, CF
Comments
44 responses to “Game 2014.126: Tigers at Twins”
Hard to know what to expect with this series. The two teams offenses are pretty even since the AS break, the Twins have the better bullpen and with our #6, #7, #5 and #1 starters going against a rather poor rotation lineup for the Twins, one would expect an edge there, but given the Tigers offensive history of making these kinds of pitchers look like Cy Young, I’m not too sanguine about the pitching matchups giving us a big edge there – maybe Scherzer’s start, although Gibson has been very good. On the other hand the Twins have been shuffling a lot of AAA-level talent in and out of their roster to see where their kids are at, so perhaps that gives us a better chance. The whole series could hinge on wild pitches or errors at the right (wrong) time. I’ll go out on a limb and predict that we will win at least one game though.
Did anyone really think Castillo would be coming to Detroit? It’s just not the kind of deal one has become accustomed to expect from DD, who generally concentrates on “known quantity” elites. I don’t doubt they made a play, but can’t imagine it being that serious. Boston “wins” the lottery at $72M/6 yrs, but we have seen how those deals have worked for them in the past (Dice-K anyone?), so I’m not disappointed in losing out. Impact CFers are in short supply (also in the coming off-season), so I don’t think we can expect an upgrade there any time soon. A LH power bat rental to get us through the last month may be doable after Sep 1, but then what. We may have to live with the OF we have.
We were supposedly one of the finalists for landing Cespedes, but dropped out to go after Fielder instead. Here’s what Dombrowski had to say about it:
http://beck.mlblogs.com/2014/08/22/dombrowski-on-mlb-network-radio-tigers-were-out-on-castillo-bidding-monday/
I was ‘off the grid’ (up in Ontario, no wifi, cell signal) for a couple weeks; when I left, DET was 3 games up, when I returned to TX on Monday, DET was 2 back…sounds like I was spared from some frustration. I did watch/follow the TAM series, which started so promising but ended with a resounding thud (offensively). Price was phenomenal.
KC has 36 games left, DET has 37…and with the exception of both teams playing NYY (KC has 4 w/NYY, DET = 3) and DET playing SF 3 games, neither team plays anybody with any real shot at the playoffs. So obviously the 6 DET-KC games are critical – a split should not be acceptable for DET.
Tonight DET plays the 1st of 11 (that’s right ’11’) remaining games w/MIN – both KC’s and DET’s remaining schedule are dominated w/teams they both “should beat”… we shall see how that plays out.
Since January I couldn’t envision DET not winning the AL Central…although I still think they will, I can now see how KC (who’s remaining schedule is actually a little weaker than DET) could do it.
Fasten your seatbelts…because in typical DET fashion, they’re going to keep it exciting until the last game.
on the ‘wild card’ front (for KC or DET), SEA has 36 games left – many against playoff teams… 7 vs LAA, 6 vs OAK, 3 vs WAS, 4 vs TOR… and 7 v TEX, 6 w/HOU & 3 w/BOS.
a 1-game wild card showdown is not ideal, but its better than nothing.
2 total wins out of three Twin pitchers looks like a split to me…it will have nothing to do with Ray and Farmer pitching it will be the Sluggo offense pounding out 2-2.7-0
Can this team not make it through a game without bumbling and fumbling?
Come on Ray, pitch like a man!
Well, he didn’t walk anyone.
How many more outings for Ray before Sanchez returns? Amateur night.
How many more outings for Ray before he is DFA’d?
1 down three to go..can the Twins pass the Pussycats this weekend???
Wow an out. What a novel idea.
Well, I’m going to pull a Stormin Norman and take the weekend off from baseball. There really isn’t much compelling about the Tigers right now, I’m sure I can conjure up all the excitement by perusing the box scores later on – just like in the old days.
In the words of one poster, zzzzzz.
There is a bit of life in these bats after all!
A four man rotation should be instituted starting next week.
That Holaday at bat…runner on 3rd, sac fly, standard stuff–that’s EXACTLY what Avila never does, and why everyone gets the probably misguided impression that he’s such a better hitter.
Gotta win this one.
Amen bro!
Pffffffffffffffffffftttttttt!!!!! [air leaving balloon]
the whole Jim Johnson-call-up-thing reeked of desperation… and confirmed the sad state of the bullpen
a triple and a BB to the #9 hitter…and a return to the ugliness of this game appears to be on the horizon
You’d prefer maybe Ian Krol?
Our bullpen is definitely bad, but our clowning in the field certainly doesn’t help.
if Ian Krol is the best you can do…well…
KC about to beat another lousy AL team (TEX)…you know, like they’re supposed to
Does Ausmus get paid per pitching substitution?
SEA trailing 0-3 vs BOS going into the 9th, SEA batting w/2 outs and runner on 1st go on to score 5 runs vs Uehara, and beat BOS 5-3
Krollim’ Krollin’ Krollin’…
I thought DET had hit bottom a few weeks ago… guess not.
Why use the entire blowpen the day before a double header with JV making his first start after an injury and a rookie who probably won’t last long?
Exactly. I’d have let Krol pitch until he dropped.
Actually, I think that’s what happened.
And what could be better than two of these tomorrow?
These are rough times in Tigerland.
Good thing Joe Blow is being saved for tomorrow!
Well, the bullpen kept it close. I blame the sluggo offense for failing to deliver the clutch 15-run inning.
That was painful.
It was.
Ausmus COMPLETELY mis-managed this!! How do you waste Kelly like that, and then end up with Romine pitching instead of Kelly? With a good manager this would have easily been 17-6, not 20-6. So disappointing.
OK, full disclosure, I had Minnesota -12 on the point spread.
Agree totally on the mismanagement. Now Romine won’t be available to pitch in the doubleheader, either.
Romine’s command was good and his velocity decent. The movement could use some work. But he used his whole arsenal and his pitches were coming out of the same keyhole. Overall, the art of pitching was strong.
I forget: is it pre season or exhibition football? and the new distance for the PAT must have been tough for the Vikings kicker… oh it was a baseball game, could have fooled me….
after the game Ray and Krol were sent to Triple-A Toledo. Pat McCoy and Kyle Lobstein were called up from Triple-A Toledo.
…putting Ray & Krol on the ‘bus back to Toledo’ was expected (overdue)… but the call-ups don’t provide much reassurance for DET fans
Starting Farmer in game 1 today after last night’s beatdown will be a good test for DET (Ausmus & the veterans) to see how they can handle another dose of adversity – with their proverbial backs pressed firmly against the wall