Game 2017.71: Tigers at Mariners

Ian and JD made what was looking like a lackluster game into something exciting. How hard will this offense be to watch without JD in it? Forget Perry Mason, fans will be that picky. Matlock re-runs will be seen.

Jordan Zimmermann, like Anibal before him, was just fine.

Cabrera, not so much. I only mention this because I’m getting tired of being bombarded by messages and commercials telling me to vote Miggy for All-Star. Right.

Today’s Lineup:

  1. Ian Kinsler, 2B
  2. Nick Castellanos, 3B
  3. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
  4. JD Martinez, DH
  5. Justin Upton, LF
  6. John Hicks, DH
  7. Mikie Mahtook, CF
  8. James McCann, C
  9. Jose Iglesias, SS

Pitching: Justin Verlander vs James Paxton

40 thoughts on “Game 2017.71: Tigers at Mariners”

  1. Coleman, for my age (really OLD) Perry Mason it is. I get to see all the neat cars me and my buddies drove or saw back then!

    1. I was at a party once and met someone who had been friends with Raymond Burr. I found out that he moved to Fiji and became a famous orchid grower. I said he must have gotten tired of the black-and-white. She came up to me about an hour later and said, “oh, I get it!”

    1. Yeah, that’s one good thing. That being undone by bullpen and offense is a familiar theme.

  2. its June 21st and Upton (14), JD (12), Avila (10), McCann (8) and Castellanos (8) all have more HR’s than Cabrera (7)… yes, HR’s is only one stat, but it is telling. i’ve heard it may be a back issue (w/Cabrera) that hampering him

    last year’s offense from Cabrera, VMart & Kinsler has not shown up yet this year for DET

    erratic pitching and some down offensive years for key players have contributed to an underwhelming 32-38 mark at mile-marker 70

    1. Norman, at what point should Tiger management force him on the DL. If he’s not our best player he is certainly our most expensive and has a bunch of years left on his contract. Also, if he is playing, wouldn’t DH be better for him while Victor is out?

      1. Miggy’s back can’t be forcing him to swing at crap and foul off or miss the pitches he can surely hit. But I’ll grant that it could affect his bat speed.

        1. No… he is just plain off his game most of the time. Who knows why. Cabrera has been injured to some degree for several years now, always something nagging going on. This is a guy who’s been known to blast home runs and doubles with no core muscles or legs. Maybe they should have left him at 3B just to encourage him to stay in shape. But I don’t think .266 with 7 HR at 70 games is about his health or being in shape. (Pretty sure he’s in better shape than I am, or most of us are.)

          Maybe he’s trying to make himself untradeable in the Season of the Fire Sale, as though that were not close enough to true already.

  3. How absolutely ridiculous is the All Star voting if you can vote 35 times… Utterly stupid!

    1. The All Star thing is pretty ridiculous to begin with. They should call it Half Star, because that’s what it is. We’d find out who the real stars were if there were high stakes to the game and two captains chose 25-man rosters consisting of no more than 9 pitchers (no more than one inning for anyone).

  4. Are you kidding me? Breaking up a perfect game with a bunt? If Denny Mclain was pitching, next guy gets drilled.

    1. Perhaps, but if you play to win you take any gifts the opposition gives you. Now JV is in genuine pickle.

    2. I take that back a little. Bunting is part of Dyson’s games. Still, when Dyson was trying to steal 2nd and the ball was fouled off, I did see Kinsler get in his face.

      1. Yeah, I see Dyson as trying to help win a ballgame. Nothing wrong with that. Tigers should try it. Besides, you’ve gotta know the guy bunts. Defend against it. If you can’t, your tough luck. I’m not getting excited about a perfecto when the team is sinking fast.

        1. That’s exactly why I was getting excited. It was nice to have something to get excited about for a change.

          1. You’ve got a point, Coleman. But wasn’t Verlander’s 11-strikeout freak show enough? The bitch is back! *One* walk.

  5. The way things are going for Detroit, Justin’s getting the L on this one. But the first 5 innings were classic Justin dominance, and even in this inning the Cano at bat was classic: after calling time twice in a row, Cano got burned by a 97 fastball.

  6. Not sure what Kinsler said to Dyson, but he just got a pitch at his head. Accident?

    1. Hey, it was better than Cabrera’s at bat. Two pitches in a row outside the zone that he stepped toward third swinging at. He is flailing right now.

      1. Well that was fast… But expected… It is a West Coast game… 12:43 Detroit time

  7. Forget Perry Mason. Forget Matlock even. I’ll take Murder She Wrote at this point.

  8. What would happen if they intentionally walked every batter from now on? Would the umpires, at some point, declare a forfeit? When, and by what rule?

    My mind is wandering, so as to avoid both the game and that Landmark Recovery guy.

    1. Or I could ponder being an Amazon warehouse associate. But how closely do I really want to be associated with a warehouse?

      (Apologies to those not getting the same commercials).

      1. Being associated with a warehouse is a good thing, take it from me. Almost nothing doesn’t pass through warehouses. Be part of the machine.

  9. I was amused by the talk about Dyson’s bunt. Had he been a Tiger, he would have been trying to hit a grand slam home run. That’s hard to do with no one on. Yet our players are always trying to do just that. A walk or a single just won’t do. Could there be some connection between that approach and our lack of timely hits this year? If an opposing team plays an extreme shift why don’t we hit or bunt to the open side. Is that “bush”. Victor has proven he can get the occasional hit that way yet he rarely tries, got to have one of those singles he get off the outfield wall. Only those are rare and infrequent this year. That’s why we don’t take the first pitch after a walk and hit ground balls in the infield. Yep, it is a long season already.

    1. great points Tony

      …bottom line w/Dyson’s bunt – it worked…on a number of fronts…and more importantly, it turned the tide and SEA won

      MLB is a results oriented business, and the overall results thus far from DET are not very encouraging

  10. Watched some live and the rest on dvr. What’s her name was watching with me and as a Mariner hit went past Casty down the line, she says “Should he be getting to those?” Now you see why I married her, and am just fooling around with Heidi….

    1. True wisdom. Reminds me of when Peralta was our SS. He didn’t get to a lot of ground balls either.

    2. Personally I like when he dives and the ball is past him already… He used to have (0)range… I think he has (-) range.

      1. He’s just not a third baseman and never has been. Detroit or whoever Detroit trades him to (Boston maybe, and soon?) has got to have moving him to 1B in mind – there’s nowhere left for him to go. He can’t be a DH at 25. He’s not an outfielder, although maybe he could have been if they would have just stuck with that LF thing (I’m sure he wasn’t real happy about that to begin with, though). I think his whole game – the underwhelming hitting and the position he could be OK at and his enthusiastic but counterproductive baserunning – needs to be someone else’s project no later than next season.

  11. How bad Detroit has been 7th inning and later is astonishing. Far and away worst in the AL on both sides of the ball.

    5.19 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, .266 BA, 89 BB, 172 K, 33 HR, 114 ER, worst or next to it at everything in fewer innings.

    Slash line 211/295/338 = .633 OPS, 73 R, 18 HR, 30 2B, 52 XBH, 24 GIDP, worst or next to it at everything. Stolen bases? 6 in 13 attempts.

    Detroit is being outscored 123-73 in the late game. Through six innings, they are up 268-234. It’s like two different teams.

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