PREGAME: The rubber game of the series is a matinee edition. Jeremy Bonderman returns to the rotation after battling blister and cut issues. Bondo’s last turn against the Angels saw him get lit up by the Angels and shoddy defense by Carlos Guillen.

The Tigers will be doing battle against Ervin Santana. Santana has been victimized by 11 homers this year, 9 of which have come on the road.

Catch this one on FSN if you can because Ernie Harwell will be in the booth. If you forgot to DVR it, you can catch the replay at 7pm

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME: What’s not to like about today’s game? A 12-0 thumping leaves a lot of people smiling.

The offense was decidedly top heavy with 11 of the 13 hits being picked up by the top 5 hitters in the lineup (Omar Infante pinch hitting for Maggs picked up one as well).

Magglio Ordonez is simply hitting crazy good right now, and really doesn’t have a peer in the MVP race right now. These things of course aren’t decided before Memorial Day but doesn’t he have to be leader in the clubhouse at this point?

I was just thinking the other day that while Carlos Guillen was hitting pretty good his power number weren’t quite what we were accustomed to. Three homers in 2 days will help to fix that and push his slugging percentage all the way to .551.

Jeremy Bonderman was quite good. He nearly matched his season total in free passes, but it didn’t hurt because there wasn’t a lot of hard contact against him. He could have finished this game with his pitch count under 100 going into the 9th.

Instead Wil Ledezma, the much maligned Wil Ledezma, came in and picked up a 1-2-3 inning. Hopefully it is a sign he’s righting the ship. With Mesa being awful and Fernando Rodney with shoulder tendinitis the Tigers need some of the other guys to step up.

And with only one inning of relief needed today, the Tigers bullpen will be completely intact and available going into this weekend’s series with Cleveland.

Tigers 12 Angels 0

PREGAME: It will be Chad Durbin taking on Bartolo Colon in game 2 of the series.

In his last start, Durbin held the Red Sox offense at bay. In his last 3 starts he has a 2.37 ERA but he also has as many walks (8) as strikeouts over that period.

Colon got a late start on the season, but has been quite effective and able to pitch late into games. Four of his six starts have seen him pitch a full 7 innings. Part of the reason is that he hasn’t been walking people. He’s only allowed 7 free passes in 39 innings.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Things were going so well. Magglio Ordonez continued to campaign for the MVP with a couple solo homers. Pudge Rodriguez was shaking off his slump with a 3 hit night, and his out was to deep right-center. Curtis Granderson broke a string of 4 straight K’s by reaching base in every subsequent at-bat. Chad Durbin turned in another solid 5th starter type performance. And Jason Grilli was perfect for 2 innings, his best outing since a 3 inning effort in Toronto. Everyone reached base, and Brandon Inge the lone Tiger not to get a hit still walked and started a tough double play on a slow roller. A total team effort.

And then Jose Mesa happened. The strikeout of Vladimir Guerrero was encouraging, but then it was straight to the crapper. A single, a walk, and a 3 run homer made this a one run game. Inexplicably Jim Leyland left him in there to allow a deep shot to triples-ville. Finally he was lifted in favor of Tim Byrdak who did what Tim Byrdak does and fanned Chone Figgins to retire the side.

Jonesy was Jonesy.

Stuff I just didn’t understand tonight:

• Mike Reilly’s strike zone. And this is from a fan of the team that I think benefited from it. But it was all over the place.
• Mike Reilly missing the swing on the stolen base. It’s one thing to miss the call. It’s another to compound it by not asking for help.
• Jim Leyland ordering Sean Casey to steal with 1 out and a full count with Craig Monroe up. To try and avoid a double play you send the slowest runner in the game with a guy who is in the top 10 in strikeouts. Really, what’s the more likely DP scenario?
• Jim Leyland sticking with Mesa after the homer. There was no stall tactic or anything. Leyland was going to leave Mesa in come hell or high water to do the job. It has to be Leyland’s fierce loyalty to washed up National Leaguers. The Mesa signing was odd to begin with, and it only gets worse the more he plays. Forget Mesa’s 12.46 ERA for a minute. He’s now averaging a run per appearance.

Tigers 8 Angels 7

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in the AL West leading Angels for a 3 game series.

The Tigers will send out Mike Maroth, who missed his last turn in the rotation with the flu. He was still recuperating this weekend so I don’t know if he got in his regular throwing. The last game against the Angels, Maroth wasn’t able to get the win despite a ton of run support. He was lifted in the 5th inning after amassing 105 pitches.

The Tigers will face John Lackey who has been one of the best pitchers in the AL to date. He has a 2.43 ERA and it’s not the product of luck. He’s fanned 54 and walked 14 while allowing only 3 homers over 59 1/3 innings. There aren’t any Tigers with an established track record of success against Lackey.

So the pitching match-up looks to favor the Angels, but that hasn’t always mattered for the Tigers this year.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Long time readers know that I’m a stat guy. They’re objective and largely do a good job of describing what took place between the foul lines. Unless there is a “spectacular play” stat, numbers won’t tell the story from this game.

Sure you could look at Lackey’s line of 3 hits and 1 run over 5 innings and say he owned the Tigers. It was actually the other way around. Detroit routinely hit the ball sharply only to have it swallowed in Angel leather. Whether they were at ’em balls or diving grabs, the Angels made play after play. They took away extra base hits, run scoring hits, and pretty much everything.

So it was ironic when the Tigers staged a 9th inning rally on a tweener and a snort along with some walks. But fitting to see the game end on another spectacular play.

The offense was quite good tonight without much to show for it. They worked pitchers, they earned walks, they hit the ball hard. What are you gonna do except tip your cap to the other team for making the plays?

And I’ve hammered the middle relief, but Jason Grilli and Jose Mesa did their jobs tonight and made the 9th inning rally possible.

And speaking of the rally, the Tigers haven’t seemed overwhelmed by Francisco Rodriguez. They’ve faced him twice this year, and pushed runs across both times. I was hoping he would throw a few more pitches though tonight to rend him unavailable on Wednesday.

PREGAME: The Tigers will go for the sweep today against the Cardinals. With it being a day game after a night game, and an off day tomorrow, and the series already won, I’m expecting to see the B lineup today.

The Tigers will send out an A pitcher though with Justin Verlander taking the hill. Verlander is coming off his best start of the season, a 2 run 7 inning performance against the Red Sox.

The Cardinals will again turn to their bullpen in search of a starter. This time it will be Brad Thompson making his 4th career start, and 3rd of the season. Thompson posts a solid 4.03 ERA. But, he has a below average strikeout rate (4.7 per 9), an average walk rate (2.7 per 9), and he’s allowing more than a hit an inning. The most glaring item on the stat sheet though is 7 homers in 29 innings. Luckily for Thompson 6 of the 7 have been solo shots.

Game Time 1:05pm

POSTGAME – with Pictures

Sean Casey’s doubles in 2 runs
Continue reading Game 43: Cardinals at Tigers →

PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson taking on Anthony Reyes in the 2nd game of the World Series Rematch.

Nate has lost his last couple turns in the rotation. One was a shellacking at the hands of the Mariners. The other he was worn down by a Boston lineup that fouled off 734 pitches and ultimately out-dueled by Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Anthony Reyes schooled the Tigers in the World Series last year. This year he comes in sporting an ERA in excess of 5, but much better peripherals. His FIP (fielding independent pitching) ERA is a solid 3.80.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Well that game turned out to be way more interesting than I thought it would after the first 3 innings. Still, it’s a win and another great night for more than 42,000 fans.

• When Nate Robertson first joined the rotation, he was striking out a lot of guys but running up huge pitch counts in the process. Lately the strikeout numbers haven’t been there, but the pitch counts have. I don’t really have an answer for it.
• The consequence of the high pitch count is that the bullpen is asked to get 9 to 12 outs. That has been problematic. Wil Ledezma a)isn’t fooling anybody, b)is creating his own problems with walks, and c)hasn’t had any luck at all. Everything in play is a hit.
• Fortunately Tim Byrdak came in and fanned Albert Pujols with a runner on base and prevented anymore damage. He ran into a some trouble of his own the next inning though. Still, he’s been awesome in his first week. He has the advantage for now that he’s thowing a split finger that he just developed and so the book on him isn’t complete. But the addendum will come quickly and hopefully he can keep it going.
• Nice job by Fernando Rodney with a pretty uneventful inning.
• And then there was Jones. Only one of the balls (Spezio’s) was hit with any sort of authority. Still, that is what happens with Jones. The ball will be put in play, but usually it takes a few things to go wrong before the game slips away. That’s why Jones can’t walk people. He has no margin for error.
• Of course it was another nice game by the offense. And it was really a team effort with 5 different hitters getting 2 hits and 5 different hitters picking up RBI.
• Brandon Inge was one of the few who didn’t get in on the act, save for a HBP. But he contributed with a couple nifty plays at 3rd. The diving play in the hole was nothing short of spectacular. And he nearly started a double play on a slow chopper, still getting the lead runner.

Tigers 8 Cardinals 7

PREGAME: The Tigers return home after a disappointing end to an otherwise good road trip. They’ll kick off a 9 game homestand against the Cardinals, who I think were pretty good last year – at least good enough to win the World Series.

Andrew Miller’s debut is perhaps overshadowing the world series rematch. I’ve written about Miller’s minor league numbers already. So I’ll just say that I hope this goes better than the first starts for Virgil Vasquez, Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, and Zach Miner. Miller at least has the benefit of having some big league experience.

The Cardinals will send out Braden Looper, who through the first 572 appearances of his career was a reliever. He’ll be making his 9th start of the year (and his career). He’s doing quite well with an ERA of 2.29. He’s done it by striking out twice as many as he walks, and keeping the ball in the park with 2 homers allowed in 51 innings.

Interesting Looper stat #1: Opponents putting the first pitch in play only have a 515 OPS.
Interesting Looper stat #2: He’s been great the first 5 innings, but as it gets later in the game and past the 75 pitch mark he gets more vulnerable.

So, make him throw pitches and wear him out. Sounds simple enough huh?

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: I had some other commitments tonight, so I just got home and watched the condensed version of the game on mlb.tv. Nothing like a good thumping in front of a sold out crowd as a welcome home present. I’ll take a closer look at Miller’s outing tomorrow. Even without seeing him pitch, the results look to be pretty impressive. But I don’t think this will change the Tigers plans with him. Although it will put less pressure on them to get Bonderman back in his regular spot (of course they could monkey with this anyways with the off day and Mike Maroth being available).

• Sean Casey destroys Cardinals. He of course torched them in the World Series, and added 4 hits today. If only the Tigers and Cardinals were in the same division…Seriously, it was nice to see Sean get rewarded today after having a couple hard hit balls yesterday end up in Hinske’s glove.
• Placido Polanco has pulled 4 doubles to left field over the last 2 games. After he began the season slapping everything to right field, teams began to pitch him inside. I think it’s safe to say he’s adjusted.
• Jason Grilli – awful again.
• Now granted, Monroe and Inge are a little better than many 8 & 9 hitters, at least in terms of power. That said, each picked up 2 walks tonight which had to drive LaRussa nuts. Four walks to the bottom 2 guys in the order has to be infuriating.
• The Tigers walked 5 times tonight. That 5th walk went to Pudge Rodriguez bringing his season total to 2.
• Looper didn’t make it out of the 5th, meaning that Tony LaRussa used quite a few bullpen arms. Here’s hoping the Tigers can make Anthony Reyes work tomorrow night as well.

Tigers 14 Cardinals 4

PREGAME: Every once in a while I’ll pull up a stats site called Dougs Stats. I like it because he has leaderboards for the last 20 games, and it can be interesting to look at. I bring this up because tonight’s starter, Chad Durbin, has posted the 10th best ERA over the last 20 team games in the American League. (equally surprising is that Jeremy Bonderman is 8th worst). Not a bad stretch for a replacement 5th starter.

He’ll need to be that good again tonight as the Red Sox send out Curt Schilling who is having a typical Schilling season with a 3.63 ERA.

The Tigers will keep most of their starters in for the second game with only Marcus Thames spelling Craig Monroe and Mike Rabelo catching for Pudge.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Now this one hurts. So much to like and not like about this game. Certainly the final score falls into not-like.

• Do you get pissed at an offense with 8 extra base hits, and 4 walks against Curt Schilling? An offense that kept putting runners in scoring position with less than 2 outs? An offense that kept driving the ball hard and probably could have had a few more hits is one to get mad at?
• I guess maybe you do when only 2 runs are plated. Gary Sheffield and Marcus Thames in particular missed some choice oppotunities.
• Do you cheer or jeer Brandon Inge who homered and drove in half the runs, but also fanned 3 times and made an error that resulted in the tying run?
• I certainly won’t get mad at Chad Durbin who turned in another fine effort, even if he walked a few too many for my liking.
• Okay, I can just be mad at Ledezma. Even though he induced weak contact for the tying run, he put the tying run on 3rd with a walk. And then it became moot in the 7th with the home run
• And when the team struggles, Jim Leyland seems to over-manage. Taking out Curtis Granderson who had doubled twice, walked, and made a diving catch in favor of Omar Infante was simply bizarre. Yes a sidearm lefty is a tough match up for Curtis, but Leyland did exactly what Francona wanted him to do.

Frustrating day to say the least. You’d like to say a 3-4 road trip to the Metrodome and Boston is acceptable, especially since the Tigers had to patch rotation together. And on the surface it’s not so bad. But given that the starting pitching was pretty good (save for Vasquez), and that the offense generally hit the ball pretty well, it seems there should have been more. And that’s what makes it hurt. Today’s game was there for the taking, and the Tigers just couldn’t put it away.

PREGAME: It’s double header time! The first game is slated for a 12:35 start and will feature Mike Maroth taking on Julian Tavarez.

Tavarez is really the only weak link in the Red Sox rotation. He posts a 6.60 ERA and has struggled pretty much every time out. He’s also had more trouble with right handed hitters who have posted a 976 OPS against him (lefties are at 630).

Mike Maroth is coming off his best start, a 6 2/3 inning, 1 run effort against the Twins. The key for Maroth will be keeping the ball in the park. He’s allowed 7 homers already this year.

Forget all the Maroth stuff, Miner is starting today because Mike is sick. So this will be 3 starts this week by pitchers not in the rotation. Sheesh.

Game Time 12:35

POSTGAME: Mud Hen pitchers unite!

Really, any time you call up a guy from AAA to make a spot start and he gives you 5+ and only 1 earned run you have to be satisfied. Given that it was a few hours notice, and against the best offense in the league I think you should be overwhelmed.

If it was possible Miner was upstaged by fellow Mud Hen come Tiger, Tim Byrdak. Byrdak came in with 2 men on and one out and got out of the jam. In total he retired all 6 batters he faced, fanning 5 of them.

Unfortunately the Tigers bats couldn’t get going, despite putting out their A lineup against a pitcher with an ERA over 6. It was the first time the Tigers didn’t pick up an extra base hit since April 15th when coincidentally they lost 2-1 to Josh Towers and the Blue Jays.

Losing a close game is always tough, because by definition it was winnable. But I’m not to bummed, not sure why. Maybe if I’d seen it (I was at work listening) it would have bugged me more. Instead I just get to appreciate the unpredictability of baseball where a pitching match-up that looked to induce a slugfest instead turned into an unexpected pitcher’s duel.

Red Sox 2, Tigers 1

PREGAME: The Tigers will try to nip this losing streak at 2 games. Tonight it will be heat (Justin Verlander) against the opposite of heat (Tim Wakefield)

Wakefield has been ridiculously good this year posting a 1.79 ERA. He’s done it by keeping the ball in the park with only 2 homers in 45 innings. Combined with a WHIP a smidge over 1 and that isn’t a lot of scoring. He’s been particularly tough on left handers with only 2 extra base hits allowed this season.

Justin Verlander has been pretty good himself with a 2.83 ERA. His weakness is that he’s been prone to bouts of wildness with 2 5 walk outings already.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: Describing Verlander’s start as excellent may be an understatement. In fact, I’d probably rank it as the 2nd most impressive start this year by a Tiger (behind Bonderman’s duel with Halladay). Statistically it was on par with several other starts by Robertson, Durbin, and of course Justin himself. However, given the context of the situation: against the Red Sox offense, after a couple bad losses, with a depleted bullpen – that was really stepping up.

And props to the Sox fans who recognized the effort with a standing ovation.

Fernando Rodney came in for the last 4 outs, and was quite effective despite allowing 2 baserunners on a fly that found a spot between Granderson and Monroe and a tough chopper to Rodney.

The Tigers bats bounced back after struggling against Matsuzaka. They racked up 12 hits and had a couple other hard hit balls that were fielded clean. Every player except Marcus Thames was able to contribute one way or another.

It was a nice 7-2 win, returning the favor from the night before. It also kept the Indians at bay who thumped the Twins tonight.

PREGAME: The Tigers look to bounce back from a shellacking in the Metrodome by taking on the best team in the American League.

The Red Sox sport the best record, and the best run differential. Like the Tigers they are winners of 8 of their last 10 and 14 of their last 20.

The Red Sox will send out some rookie from Japan named Daisuke Matsuzaka. I hear he throws 14 different pitches for strikes at various speeds and arm angles. Basically, his pitches are like snow flakes, no two are alike. In all seriousness, he’s better than his 4.80 ERA and is striking out a batter an inning. He has struggled at home with two-thirds of his runs and only a quarter of his strikeouts coming at Fenway.

He’ll be opposed by Nate Robertson who has been quite good, except for his last outing where he was rocked by Seattle.

This series is always a treat. I really enjoy watching games at Fenway (on TV of course) and wish the Tigers traveled their more often.

Game time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: The Tigers have dropped two in a row since losing the first 2 games to Minnesota. Nate Robertson battled, but had a hard time putting hitters away. There wasn’t a lot of hard hit balls, but enough balls in play fell for hits to run up his pitch count and plate 3 runs.

Of course the Tigers couldn’t muster much offense either, save for Curtis Granderson. For the first time in a while they weren’t driving the ball. I don’t know if it was Dice-K, or the looming monster, but there seemed to be quite a few grounders to the left side. The right handers seemed to be looking to pull the outside pitch and there appeared to be a lot of “roll-overs.”

Bobby Seay was the latest member of the pen to blow-up. Turns out it didn’t matter much, except that with a high pitch count tonight, he probably isn’t available tomorrow. Tim Byrdak however did excellent in 2 innings of work.

Boston 7 Detroit 1

Virgil Vasquez – cr. Roger DeWitt

PREGAME: It’s the Tigers first appearance on Sunday Night Baseball this year, and the first appearance ever at the big league level for Virgil Vasquez. Vasquez is of course filling in for the blistering Jeremy Bonderman. The numbers speak for themselves, particularly the 5:1 K:BB ratio and Detroit Tiger Tales has a run down of his stuff.

The Tigers will hope to rough up Boof Bonser and make it a little easier on their rookie. Bonser shut down the Tigers the one time they met last season. This year Bonser is striking out a batter an inning, but can be prone to wildness with games of 7 and 4 walks. Of course those 2 games represent over half his walk total for the season, so it isn’t a consistent problem.

Finally Happy Mothers Day to all the Mom’s in the DTW readership (like you Anne). I hope you had a nice day with your families and that your husbands/sons did their part today.

Game Time 8:09 with pregame sprinkled throughout Baseball Tonight from 7-8pm

POSTGAME: Aquilino Lopez’s 3 innings on Saturday look pretty significant now, as Jason Grilli, Wil Ledezma, and Jose Mesa all were burnt through last night. None were able to come in and hold down the Twins. Instead, they took each took a beating.

The Tigers offense was okay tonight, save for a rare Carlos Guillen 3 K performance. They racked up some hits, some walks, and some warning track shots, but that just wasn’t going to be close to enough.

Vasquez at least has that first start out of the way, even if it didn’t go well.

PREGAME: The Tigers finally get some of that national exposure with an appearance on Fox Saturday Baseball. Of course Fox probably wasn’t looking for a Chad Durbin/Sidney Ponson match-up either so only 8% of the nation will get this game. And thanks to Fox’s exclusivity for Saturday afternoons, MLB.tv won’t be an option for you if you don’t live in Michigan, Minnesota, Northern Ohio, or Montana.

Once upon a time, Ponson was a good pitcher. That was 2003. This year he is 1 for 6 in quality starts.

With Chad Durbin you don’t really know what you’ll get. He was great in 2 of his last 3 starts, but walked 6 and didn’t make it out of the 4th inning in the other. (Half of Durbin’s walks for the season came in that one disaster, so at least it isn’t a habitual problem).

Game Time 3:45