Quick turnaround today with a couple of Mother’s Day Weekend afternoon games. Hopefully the weather is as beautiful where you are it is here in Dallas today.

Hughes now owns nearly 20% of the opposing victories versus the Tigers this year, and last night was Verlander’s first loss agains the Twins since April of 2010. I was so much younger then.

That’s the second straight start where Verlander has allowed crooked numbers in the 7th after 6 shutout innings.

The Tigers will honor Leyland in a pregame ceremony today. Check out JV’s tweet – https://twitter.com/justinverlander/status/465140994879799296. The Tigers have been one of the top franchises in all of basball for nearly a decade now, and Leyland was a big part of that. I believe that he instilled a expectation of winning. Thanks Jim.

AL K and ERA leader Mad Max rights the ship today.

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Kelly, LF
7. Castellanos, 2B
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS

Well, the Tigers haven’t won since before the NFL draft. This is troubling.

Quick standings update.

Det 20-10    —

Chi  18-18     5

KC   16-18     6

Cle  16-19    6.5

Min 15-18   6.5

Not a whole lot to complain about coming off of an 8 game win streak, though Cabrera still looks off. He’ll get fooled now and then, everyone does, but I can’t help but wonder if he’s taking ABs off. Fielder went through the same thing for 1/2 of 2012 and all of 2013.

Sorry for the short post, but I always seem to be up on my birthday. We started drinking at work…and now I need to get to dinner. But more tomorrow.

Normal RH lineup v. Phil Hughes. Whom the Tigers have hit in the past – 6-6, 4.34 ERA (11 starts)

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B (15-31 lifetime v. Hughes, 5 HR
4. Martinez, DH
5. Jackson, CF
6. Castellenos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Postgame:

I was only following along via the greatest app known to mankind, but it looks like Phil Hughes showed what the Yankees Twins thought he was all along tonight. Sometimes you just gotta give credit where credit is due. Tigers made it interesting late, but it wasn’t enough. 1-9 RISP will do it for you.

Interesting stat of the night – Verlander’s 1.29 WHIP tonight lowered his season WHIP. 1.29 is good, but not what we expect from an ace. The dozier 5 pitch walk in the 7th, with 3 of those being buried in the dirt, killed JV. Yes, Brian Dozier, he of a career .239/.695 OPS. You wouldn’t think that Verlander really needs to fool him with 2 out in the 7th. The last two pitches of the AB were off-speed pitches. I don’t get it. But I’m not complaining (too much).

The NFL draft has been our kryptonite in 2014.

20-9. That sure looks nice in print, doesn’t it? A lot better than, say, 21-10.  Either way, the Tigers remain the last team in baseball with single-digit losses, and try to keep that going when they finish off their 4-game Houston series this afternoon in Detroit. (There are also no teams with 10 losses. Or 11. Or 12). Sweeping any team in a 4-game series is no easy task, whether that team is the 2014 Houston Astros or 2003 Tigers or whomever. Enjoy it now, though, it’s only a matter of time before everyone starts proclaiming the Tigers as the Best Team in Baseball, to be followed by a losing streak, because That’s Baseball.

Detroit also leads the American League in hitting, with a .285 team batting average, and a .772 team OPS. It’s still early to proclaim them a great offense, but it’s worth pointing out that they have put up those numbers without much help from Miguel Cabrera, who has a lower OPS than Victor Martinez, Torii Hunter, Austin Jackson, and Rajai Davis (yep). Anyone miss Prince Fielder yet? The Tigers don’t seem to.

I was being tongue-in-cheek of course with the Don Kelly player of the game prediction last night, but he did go 2-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, and raised his average to .333 in the process. Today I’m all about Rajai Davis. He is moved up to the leadoff spot, where he tends to cause havoc. He stole his 12th base last night, which is the most for any Tiger since Quintin Berry stole 21 in 2012.  Why not Cabrera, you ask? Miguel Cabrera is beginning to be Miguel Cabrera. He hit another home run last night, and is facing a lefty today. Sadly, he is at DH today, where he has been a ho-hum .245 (.719 OPS) hitter for his career.

Looking for another reason to be encouraged today? Today’s pitcher, Drew Smyly, so far has thrown 42% breaking pitches. Since last season, the Astros have hit .185 against left-handed breaking balls, .129 this season (stats courtesy of ESPN).

Today’s Mountain Drew Lineup:

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, DH
4. V. Martinez, 1B
5. J. Martinez, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Holaday, C
9. Worth, SS

Well Robbie Ray’s debut was a roaring success, with Tigers knocking Astro pitching all over the place to back him up, and the Tigers now have a 7-game win streak, and at 19-9 the best record in baseball. What a great start, right? Now to match the start of the 1984 team, they only have to win…17 more in a row (that puts 1984 in perspective!)

Rick Porcello tries to build on his great start last out, and a solid 4-1, 3.66 2014 campaign. They will face Brad Peacock, who is struggling a bit (0-2, 5.26). Peacock’s biggest problem is his control (7.01 walks per 9 innings, worst in baseball), but we know those kinds of pitchers sometimes skate by against the aggressive Detroit lineup.

I’ll go with Don Kelly as the player of the game, since he’ll have to be if they pitch around Cabrera and Martinez.

Tonight’s Donkey-For-The-Win Lineup:

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. V. Martinez, DH
5. Kelly, CF
6. Castellanos, 3B
7. Avila, C
8. Romine, SS
9. Davis, LF

Don Kelly gets a start, and bats 5th (naturally). What’s the over/under on intentional walks for Victor Martinez?

Thanks to a real gem by Max Scherzer and a couple of clutch hits by Rajai Davis and Victor Martinez, the Tigers are now on a 6-game winning streak, and have the best record in MLB. How about that?

What better time to debut new 22-yr old left-hander Robbie Ray, the main piece of the Doug Fister trade (Fister is scheduled to make his own season debut on Friday).

As we predicted yesterday, Jose Ortega was optioned to Toledo to make room for Ray, which was indeed the predictable move, no matter how much we want Phil Coke to disappear. In case you don’t remember Ortega, he last pitched in the last Tiger loss, which was oh so long ago.

In case you missed yesterday’s postgame, I pointed out that Victor Martinez is quietly putting together a team MVP type of season. Among his accomplishments: he has been the hardest player in baseball to strike out, with what is now 4 Ks in 113 plate appearances. What I didn’t know was that the called 3rd strike he took last night was his first called 3rd strike since May 21 2013. Wow  (courtesy of tweet from Jason Beck).

Tonight’s You Can Call Me Ray Tiger Lineup:

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. V. Martinez, DH
5. J.D. Martinez, LF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Avila, C
9. Worth, SS

J.D. gets the start against his former team.

Postgame

That makes 7 in a row, and the Tigers are still in single digits in the loss column. Despite the 9th inning foolery, the game was great for Detroit on both sides of the field. Robbie Ray pitched well and was composed. He only gave up 5 hits, 2 of them infield hits, and nothing hit really hard; an awful lot of routine outfield flies and, even better, only one walk. Nothing like a rookie who is not afraid of the strike zone. Yes, it was just the Houston Astros, but last time I checked they were a Major League Baseball team. Thumbs up Robbie The Railroad.

Miguel Cabrera also had his best game of the season, with the rare long ball (3), on 4 hits, 1 of which was an RBI single through the right-side hole created by the shift. I don’t foresee an awful lot of shifting on Cabrera in the future.

Let’s do this again tomorrow, shall we?

Detroit finished off its road trip in grand style, sweeping the White Sox and Royals in back-to-back series. Now without so much as a day off in between, the Tigers return home for a 7-game stand before heading out to the East Coast, also without a day off in-between. This will give the Tigers 13 total games in a row without a day off.

Home stand schedule and prospective starters:

Astros at Tigers

Monday        May 5    7:08     Max Scherzer vs Jarrod Cosart

Tuesday       May 6    7:08     Robbie Ray (L) vs Brett Oberholtzer (L)

Wednesday   May 7    7:08     Rick Porcello vs Brad Peacock

Thursday      May 8    1:08     Drew Smyly (L) vs Dallas Keuchel (L)

Twins at Tigers

Friday         May 9     7:08     Justin Verlander vs Phil Hughes

Saturday     May 10   1:08     Max Scherzer vs Kyle Gibson

Sunday       May 11   1:08     Robbie Ray (L) vs Samuel Deduno

The interest in the current Astros series of course (besides featuring two lefties for each team) is the debut of Robbie Ray, the key piece in the Doug Fister trade.

As Ray comes up of course, the key question is who will go down? It’s got to be Phil Coke, right? The story linked above points out that dumping Coke will leave the Tigers with only one lefty reliever in the bullpen, but if Ray stays, won’t Smyly be back in the pen? Besides, Coke doesn’t get out lefties any better or even as well as any of the right-handers, so I don’t consider him a lefty in the bullpen. At any rate, it would be logistically easier to simply demote Jose Ortega or Justin Miller; I expect Ortega to get the short straw this time. (The team has already made room on the 40-man roster by outrighting Jordan Lennerton to Toledo).

At 26%, the Astro–otherwise known as Bud Selig’s gift to the American League– have the 3rd highest swing-and-miss percentage in all of baseball.  Look for Max to light up the K column of the scoreboard.

Postgame

When Prince Fielder was traded, there were some people (not here, to our credit) who wondered where the RBIs would come from, and who suggested that everyone would just walk Cabrera without a Big Batsman behind him.

The season is now exactly 1/6 of the way over, and the 1/6 MVP of the Tigers is Victor Martinez, who is quietly picking up the slack from the denatured Miguel Cabrera, and who turns out to be the one they all pitch around–Martinez is now 2nd in the AL with 7 intentional walks (2nd only to Prince Fielder, who has been intentionally walked more than any .690 OPS batter in history).

At any rate, in addition to leading the team with a healthy .901 OPS, Martinez has been the hardest man in baseball to strikeout–only 3 strikeouts in 109 plate appearances–and has been about perfect with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 out. Tonight he added a huge insurance home run to tilt the scales in Max’s favor in a great pitching battle, and here are the Tigers with a 6th consecutive win.

1st place Detroit (16-9) wraps up the series (and the road trip) against still 2nd place Kansas City (14-15). Mention of anything related to brooms is strictly prohibited until the game is concluded. A Royals fan would bristle at the suggestion.

We have intercepted the encrypted message, and our code-breakers have deciphered it as follows:

THE LINEUP

LF Rajai Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
RF Torii Hunter
CF Austin Jackson
3B Nick Castellanos
C Alex Avila
SS Andrew Romine

P Justin Verlander

POSTGAME: Didn’t seem like either side played well at all today. I don’t know what’s so hard about hitting a guy holding a stick from 60 feet away, especially when he’s standing still, but time after time after time, the ball-throwers kept missing badly, except for once. Fortunately, the judges awarded more points to our side. But seriously… or even more seriously…

YOU SAID IT

Vince in MN May 4, 2014 at 3:20 pm

I wasn’t going to tell you, but since you asked:

THE LINEUP

LF Rajai Davis
2B Ian Kinsler
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
RF Torii Hunter
CF Austin Jackson
3B Nick Castellanos
C Bryan Holaday
SS Danny Worth

P Drew Smyly

Just when things were getting to be a muddle of too many days off, despair over the bullpen, and grumblings about the hitting, Detroit (15-9) has gone and snapped off three wins in a row, all of them games with plenty to like. Good times.

POSTGAME: In the time it took to throw 17 pitches, only 17 pitches had been thrown, and as a result, the game went on for what seemed like hours. But seriously… or even more seriously…

YOU SAID IT

Jim EggersUSMC May 4, 2014 at 12:35 am

Kevin in Dallas May 3, 2014 at 11:10 pm

And now, another DTW Exclusive:

THE LINEUP

2B Ian Kinsler
RF Torii Hunter
1B Miguel Cabrera
DH Victor Martinez
CF Austin Jackson
3B Don Kelly
LF J.D. Martinez
C Alex Avila
SS Andrew Romine

P Rick Porcello

POSTGAME: At Kauffman Stadium this evening, the Detroit Tigers American League baseball club scored 8 runs, and the Kansas City Royals American League baseball club scored 2 runs. After some deliberation, it was determined that the Detroit Tigers had won the contest.

YOU SAID IT

Vince in MN May 2, 2014 at 10:36 pm

Jim EggersUSMC April 30, 2014 at 1:41 am [edit]

12-9, 1st place. Not enough games up.

Hello All.

Long time no talk. All these days off are making me wonder if it’s really baseball season. You know, the sport where there’s a game on 6/7 days. Always something to do? Ahh, memories.

The Tigers have played 21 games so far, fewest in the ML by 3, and 8 less than Arizona, who may be officially eliminated by June 1. This just means that there will be a bunch of day night double headers or 1 game series(s) in September.

Oh, and by the way, this is a two game set against the Pale Hose. When did we go to two game sets?

JV v. Quintana tonight (8:10 ET), Scherzer v. Noesi tomorrow afternoon (2:10 ET).

Update: 50% chance of rain tonight.

1. Davis, LF
2. Kinsler, 2B
3. Cabrera, 1B
4. Martinez, DH
5. Hunter, RF
6. Jackson, CF
7. Castellanos, 3B
8. Holaday, C (Avila a late scratch – back spasms?)
9. Worth, SS

POSTGAME:

– I’m torn as to whether I’m concerned that JV has a 1.35 WHIP and not even a 2/1 K/BB ratio, or amazed that he’s 3-1 with a 2.48 ERA in spite of those stats.

– Holaday made his play of the year with that squeeze. I don’t think anyone else knew it was coming, but AJax certainly did react quickly.

– Since going 0-4 on April 21, Cabrera is 11/26 and has raised his average to .270 from .206. I said two weeks ago that he’d be at .300 by the end of last week, I think I’ll be about 10 days off.

– Holaday may have been the player of the game, but the turning point was Joba’s K of Viciedo after a 3-0 count where the next ball would have loaded the bases.

– Sweep tomorrow.

In case you missed yesterday’s postgame, Anibal Sanchez has gone on the 15-day disabled list with a middle finger laceration, and his spot on the roster has been taken by Justin Miller. Alex Avila is also off of day-to-day status and back in the lineup.

Well today is Sunday, and that means Justin Verlander is pitching, with the Sunday Lineup behind him.  It is also the rubber game of the series with the now 2nd place Minnesota Twins, who would pull to within percentage points of tying Detroit for 1st with a win.

Not that the Twins should scare Justin–he has won 9 straight against Minnesota, and has never lost at Target, despite that Mauer guy who has Verlander figured out to the tune of .371 lifetime. All eyes will be on the pitch counter today, what with the bullpenalooza fun this season.

Minnesota sends out Kyle Gibson (3-1, 3.63) who has never faced anyone in the Tiger lineup. I’ll go with Hunter to stay hot. I was going to pick Cabrera until I saw him at DH.

In case your attention begins to wander with the bottom of the Sunday lineup at the plate, you might want to check out this interesting New York Times study on the boundaries of baseball fandom. They have mapped fan preferences by zip codes using Facebook data, and have been able to determine pretty clearly the geographical point at which, say, one is a Yankee fan rather than a Red Sox fan.  If you enlarge the interactive map and mouse over it will give you fan breakdown by county.

Today’s Because the 3rd Baseman Bats 6th, That’s Why Lineup 

1. Kinsler, 2B
2. Hunter, RF
3. Cabrera, DH
4. V. Martinez, 1B
5. Jackson, CF
6. Kelly, 3B
7. J.D. Martinez, LF
8. Avila, C
9. Romine, SS