Game 2016.155: Royals at Tigers

That was an inopportune time for the blowpen monster to rear its ugly head, not to mention its ugly rear. It seems ol’ Frankie just didn’t have it, alternating between completely losing the strike zone and serving up batting practice. I called for him to be yanked before the home run, but in reality closets are almost never pulled; you kind of go down with the ship there.

Need to win this one.

Today’s Salty Lettuce Lineup:

  1. Kinsler, 2B
  2. Maybin, CF
  3. Cabrera, 1B
  4. V Martinez, DH
  5. JD Martinez, RF
  6. Upton, LF
  7. Aybar, 3B
  8. Saltalamacchia, c
  9. Romine, SS

42 thoughts on “Game 2016.155: Royals at Tigers”

    1. The Lions are getting thumped by the Packers, forget it. Miggy can cut that in half right now.

  1. I went on the Orioles news page last night. The players were saying we saw the Tigers lost and knew this game last night was huge. In contrast to the Tigers who know if their competition losses they don’t have to win, cause they won’t lose ground!!!…pretty much the Ausmus philosophy since he’s been manager

    When you can’t beat Cleveland and you can’t beat KC..you got no business being in the playoff hunt anyway. Tigers just plain beat themselves..period

    1. Of course we should be in the hunt for a WC. The problem was not so much the blown save last night (K-Rod has been very good this year)but the 3,4,5 (or how ever many) games we gave away earlier in the year. Sometimes it was the blow pen but a lot of times it was failing to deliver with RISP. Fact is we were not going to be a true contender this year and should feel fortunate we’ve been in the hunt this long. I see Sanchez just gave up back to back HRs to the 8th and 9th hitters so unless we plan on sweeping the Indians, I’d say we may be done today.

  2. Romine thats the worst idea I have seen in a long time!…guys walked back to back batters grooves the first fastball down the middle and…..nevermind!

  3. The pen has given up 1 more run than the starter but the starter only faced 5 hitters. Very tough to win this way.

  4. captain obvious here: DET pitching staff picked an awful time to meltdown

    the only silver lining is that CLE may clinch today w/a DET loss and CLE victory, which would mean CLE may rest some starters for the DET series… and since DET appears incapable of winning when they need to against KC and CLE, some possible charity from Tito may assist DET

  5. The two TV geniuses are commenting on how surprised they are that Comerica is among the top 5 parks in HRs allowed. HUH? This a minute or two after saying how many HRs Sanchez and even JV have given up this year. No connection I guess.

  6. I am watching Toronto (they hit as good as us don’t they?) tie the game in the bottom of the 9th with a squeeze bunt! Walk off by Toronto. They still have to play the O’s and Red Sox 3 times, but I pretty sure we won’t catch them. Go Team Canada.

    1. DET needs TOR to sweep BAL…and then get some help from the NYY

      ATL won 7 in a row and 7 out of last 8 games, so DET won’t have a cake-walk w/them… and CLE, even of they’re resting starters, they have owned (2-13) DET this year

      1. +2..a real gift!..Tigers will be fortunate to go 4-3 seeing that they haven’t gone 4-3 in about a month…I predict 3-4 optimistically

    1. He has stranded almost 20 runners in this series!…$30 mil…Tigers must have stranded 30 runners yesterday and today..nice battle but!…..when your horses are up game on the line..thats why u get paid $30 mil!
      ..this was a dagger today!…
      Cleveland will rest people but not their starting pitching…

  7. Two defeats in a row that have really hurt our chances, slim as they were. Miggy had a disappointing series. Next year, I would rest Miggy every 5th day or so. If he doesn’t like it, tough cookies. The blown save could not be helped but if we had a backup ready, we might have gotten out of the 9th tied. Can not blame Brad but when every game is critical you even consider bring JV in to get an out if you must. Boyd was due to have a not so great start, he is still young and we have gotten more out of those kids than we could have reasonably expected.

    The most brilliantly conceived/horribly executed play of the game was the lettuce squeeze (I think that’s what they were trying.) Not only was it a poor bunt, but it appears someone forget to tell JD on third who should have been running all out. Since Clark is right there with him, I can’t imagine what he was doing. (All year!)

    Some good news: I thought Zimm looked pretty good in 3 innings. It may mean he can start one of the remaining games, or would you go with Sanchez or Pelfrey. Buck Farmer’s start will have to be “managed” (scary) in case he doesn’t have it. We can’t go down by a bunch to Cleveland. The Indians will need only one win to clinch the division, please don’t give it to them the first night.

    This isn’t over yet only because Baltimore plays the next 3 at Toronto and the last 3 in New York. Of course if we give away games, it won’t matter. On the bright side, if we make the WC, Brad’s job may be safe for next year!

  8. I would say Ausmus coming back is 90%…AA will blame this entire season on injuries and not the fact that the players who played were so inconsistent it will be very hard to determine who had a good year and who didn’t…Miggy in a normal year with the chances he had should have reached 130 rbi..the fact that he “0nly had 95 ” is his inconsistent hitting. Same for Victor.they both play old for stretches at a time…same for just about everyone else….I know you guys like McCann but if you can’t hit more than .220 you don’t belong in the MLB.
    This team isn’t a contender to me unless a lot is done before next year. They aren’t that old, but they play old..and slow. I won’t even get into baserunning which was horrible for the 2 or 3 year in a row.

  9. DET ‘winning’ Strategy for tonight…after the game: CLE’s ‘magic #’ is 1, so when they win tonight (Kluber vs Farmer), and they will beat Farmer (speaking of which, remember the 80’s band the “Beat Farmers”?); DET’s postgame strategy should be to provide CLE with “an unlimited and open bar” in the clubhouse until 4am to help them celebrate clinching the AL Central.

    …as I recall Ozzie (CWS) employed a similar more focused approach w/a certain DET power hitter in a last regular season series in Chicago in ’09 http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/09/11/5-worst-collapses-in-major-league-baseball-history/

    1. Stormin…I don’t think the Tigers could gin a worse match up than this for a start of a four game series? While I hope I am greatly wrong and that Farmer pitches the best game of his career, it seems the Tribe will be itching to do a Division Championship dance on the Comerica Field in front of the Tigers and their fans after the game. Such would add salt into the season 2-14 wound that the Tigers already have from the Tribe. Perhaps there is some sanity in all of this by the baseball gods keeping the Tigers from getting greatly embarrassed in a playoff game? It does make for a long post-season.

      1. CVB that evolved into Cracker – both great bands (kinda alt-country-ish …before there even was such a genre)… and the Beat Farmers right up that alley. CVB I believe was based in Santa Cruz or SF back in early 80’s

        Tony, regarding your Q: what was I doing in the 80’s…? A: probably a lot of things I shouldn’t have been doing, but sure did have a lot of fun doing ‘it’.

        Go Tigers!

          1. a classic Coleman

            “there’s not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything” …anything, anything

  10. Norman & Ole Miss: O Ye of little faith! More likely is Farmer pitches 7 innings, gives up 1 Run 3 Hits. Tigers strand 16 base runners and lose 2-1.

    Norman I’m afraid to ask what you were doing in the 80’s if you even know the Beat Farmers existed.

    Fact is we need to win out and hope the O’s play badly enough to get Buck fired. We get in for one game which we lose and Tiger management doesn’t even make Buck an offer. Brad just misses getting manager of the year. Several followers of this Blog take honorable way out and become Twinkies fans.

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