PREGAME: It was really nice that the Tigers got a win last night so that Rick Porcello doesn’t have the added pressure of stopping a losing streak. What’s that you say, Rick Porcello? Yeah, the kid is making his debut. And he’s doing it against Ricky Romero, another first rounder making his debut. I’m pretty geeked to be heading to this game. The post game will be significantly delayed as I travel home following the game.
Game Time 12:37
Detroit vs. Toronto – April 9, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday
POSTGAME: The kid did all right. He is a ground ball machine as advertised and he can certainly field his position. His infield defense wasn’t particularly sparkling though and with a little mor ehlpe he’s spending more time pitching out ofo the windup rather than the stretch. He did get hurt by homers a couple time swhen he left the ball up, but all in in it seemed like he wasn’t overmatched. Most impressive was after allowing a homer, he fanned the next two hitters.
Other stuff:
- Juan Rincon has been really bad in two appearances
- I had a great view of that Alex Rios/Marcus Thames triple. I was in that section in the corner. The one with the Tigers jersey. I thought about posting to the blog but thought that might be tacky while he was injured.
- Carlos Guillen picked up a couple of hits as he starts to look a little more comfortable.
- Not a lot of fans at the Rogers Centre for the two games I went to. It made things comfortable at least as we could spread out, and the kids got a ton of autographs without the crush of people. So at least that’s good.
Comments
109 responses to “Game 2009.004: Tigers at Blue Jays”
Allright billfer – DTW goes international!
You guys should check out the game thread at Drunk Jays Fans. Funny stuff. They have dubbed Inge an ‘orinthologist’. Hopefully that will hold true for games against the Orioles and Cardinals as well.
Today’s lineup, it does not please me, in the lining up of the Thames sequentially betwixt Granderson and Ordonez; I fear for my sanity if another Thames/Ordonez double-steal attempt ever happens again…
Treanor — Santiago — Everett … yikes. Thankfully the immortal Ricky Romero is on the bump.
Chris,
Just checked that site out…hilarious to see Inge giving opposing fans fits…with his OFFENSE.
Billfer,
Any chance of you creating an over-21 section for this site so that we can drink and post? (jk, unless you’re gonna do it)
The full lineup, in all its controversial glory:
Granderson, CF
Thames, LF
Ordonez, RF
Cabrera, 1B
Guillen, DH
Inge, 3B
Treanor, C
Santiago, 2B
Everett, SS
I don’t what would be wrong with Santiago batting 2nd and Thames behind Inge–is Inge going to get anything resembling a strike with Treanor batting behind him? Although maybe at least Inge on deck will help get Guillen on track…Thames 2nd though…he’s not exactly a moving the runner up type, and seems like DP bait…
“Orinthologist” Is that like one who studies the art of juicing? Or perhaps the art of Orinthal James Simpson aka “The Juice”.
@KILV: Or it’s how you spell when you are juiced while blogging?
Why is Leyland resting Polanco?
I don’t think you need to be “resting” players 3 games into the season.
Wow, Drunk Jays Fan is a very angry blogger…
How many times did he drop the f-bomb on his site? Yikes!
Anyway, Porcello looked real good
Hopefully you guys will keep us abreast of the game here. I don’t have any other source here at work.
It seems that Porcello could possibly replace Kenny Rogers on the mound, glove-wise…
Beauty. Way to keep your cool Porcello.
Porcello looks as poised as a 10 year veteran. Hard to believe this is his MLB debut.
Matt: Probably has to do with the astroturf and Polanco having a history of back maladies.
Porcello looks to be OK thus far. Big double play and a K.
Matt, Polanco is 34, and he has to carry around the earth on his shoulders every day, and the Tigers don’t have an off day until next Thurs. I’m okay with Leyland resting him today.
Matt, Polanco is 34, he has to carry around the earth on his shoulders every day, and the Tigers don’t have an off day until next Thurs. I’m okay with Leyland resting him today.
That was a nice K; fastball inside, fouled off, fastball inside, fouled off, fastball outside for a ball, then when the batter’s probably expecting you to come back inside you throw a curve and he stands there like the house by the side of the road…
I’m hoping Ricky Romero starts looking like this is his MLB debut…
Granderson home run. Niiiice.
Grandy!!!
G R A N D E R S O N ! ! ! SOLO HR!!! Tigers 1-0 .
I love Curtis Granderson…
Curt is a Grander son!
Thames with a triple off of Rios’ head.
Looks like the Tigers bats are heating up. Rios just got drilled in the face/head, Thames with the triple.
The Funk Dr. gets his triple on! What did that look like?
Holy Granderson, Thames got a @#!! triple?!
I’ll take it.
I love the play-by-play guys…keep it up!
Magglio drives him in. Tigers 2-0.
What happened to the ‘expert’ that used to post here saying Granderson was, at best, a platoon player that would never be able to hit lefties?
Where’s the guy who said Miggy would be out of baseball in 2 years?
Why don’t we hear from them any more?
😉
Man, they’re going all out to help out Porcello–a mean a triple AND he takes out one of their better hitters….
Maggs should have been on 2nd there…that coulda been another run…
Country bounced a triple off of Rios’s face – that’s going to be shown all day…
Thames scores on an error. Miggy drills a line drive up the middle.
Cabrera single, now batting .727. He’s nearing the point where going 3-4 will bring his average down…
Dylan:
Gameday is calling it a base hit…
Guillen HBP. Bases Loaded.
Bases loaded after Guillen gets hit on the back foot.
Joel: Hmm, looked like an error to me but they called it a base hit. Took a funny hop on the turf though.
Inge is up with the bases loaded.
Time for HR #4, BInge…
Carlos HPB, baces juiced for Brandon.
How long is Inge gonna keep that ridiculous beard looking thing?
Where r all the fans at Rogers Center?!?
It’s like a Ringo Starr concert…
Would have been nice to plate a couple more runs there…
Kevin:
It’s bad – and I don’t even have Hi-Def.
What!? No home run #4?!
Bench Him!!
Kevin in Austin, Inge can come to the plate with a skirt and heels right now.
Wow, Porcello made that play look easy. Luck or skill?
See, that’s what I’m saying, he got Glove-of-Kenny…
Porcello so far – 3 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 1 k. 40 pitches.
Terrible baserunning. Could have had 2nd & 3rd w/1 out. I hope that doesn’t cost us. Give us a base hit here Grandy.
Nice block by the catcher. Hope that run doesn’t haunt us later.
But I like the way we are hitting, we’ll get a few more runs.
I’m just going to say it – Porcello is a first ballot Hall of Famer. I’ve seen all I need to see.
Based on his photo on Gameday, the thing on Jose Bautista’s chin is a much greater abomination than BInge’s.
Let’s see how he handles this pressure.
I don’t think Thames could throw out Gene Lamont.
KIT – Keep it together…
Porcello is rattled. We gotta get Snider here.
Chris in D – I’m thinking of heading down to Frankie’s to watch the game tomorrow afternoon, let me know if you’d be interested.
Porcello so far – 4 innings, 5 hits, 1 runs, 1 walks, 2 k. 62 pitches. Gave up a bloop single to left, a walk, and a ground ball single to left field that drove in a run.
Let’s get the kid some runs.
Well, not just him, but also for the bullpen.
Joel, How many runs does the bullpen need
This is a good thing for the kid to be pitching in a one run game.
And this will probably be his last inning. Good job.
Steve:
That number (or concept) that you get when you turn an 8 sideways would make me feel comfortable.
Aaron freaking Hill? 6 RBI? Good grief.
EDIT: At least he blew away the tough hitters…
Wow. Don’t make Porcello mad I guess. He rebounded from the home run by striking out two.
C’mon… let’s get some runs and get the guy in line for a win in his first start.
Nice finish, he is still only at 76 pitches, he has at least 1 more inning right JL?
Now’s the time for #4.
The bottom of the order needs to come up with some solid AB’s
Not the best outcome for the season’s first ball in play. Dadgummit.
Treanor is an out machine…
Go Rick go.
Damn.
Come on run support.
Uh oh.
Why does JL take out Rick?
So he can get the Nate experiment over today and have an excuse to not use him tomorrow.
Not a bad debut at all. The turf helped a couple of the hits. Porcello – 5 ip. 8 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 4 k’s. 89 pitches. One runner left on base.
Everett is not impressing me.
Everett has not impressed in these first few games.
maybe we should give everett a pass since it’s turf…but not exactly the hoover vacuum as advertised thus far…
Can our middle infield turn a DP? Seems like we’ve had a lot of force outs at 2B.
Porcello was losing his stuff. He gave up 2 homers, a single, and only got 2 outs in last 20 pitches.
Adenhart died!
@Anson……….. the Nate experiment is not looking good
Crap there goes the game… guess I’ll have to go back to paying attention to class.
Pen is melting down. Toronto up 6-2.
Ouch. But I think we can expect a lot of innings like that out of our pen this year.
Seay, Perry, and Rodney have looked good.
The rest of pen can be fixed. Bonderman and Zumaya could come back. If they don’t make it back, we still have guys like Fein, Rapada, and Dolsi that can be plugged in.
Disappointing
If Leyland cares to win this game, Treanor and Everett will not take their next turns at bat.
Billfer made the trip, good thing its sunny out for the trip home. Nothing worse than investing time and money into a roadie and coming home bummed
Tigers offense: zzzzzzzzzzzz…..
This game looks a lot like April ’08.
You know, I’ve got to think that opening the year in an empty, domed stadium playing on carpet has got to be a bit demoralizing.
Joel – I think starting the series 1-3 when you tagged Halladay for 5 runs and gave up a 3 run lead in the 8th in another game is what’s demoralizing.
We’ll be lucky to get 5 more runs off of Halladay all season.
Hopefully the defense helps us win some games at home. I’ll give them a mulligan because of the turf. Galarraga/Verlander/Jackson sounds like a recipe for a 3 game win streak.
Mr. X – the way the Rangers are swinging the bats at the present time, it’s going to be a struggle to prevent runs. Of course, Comerica Park and cold weather can be the great equalizer.
9 earned in 1 inning for Pavano today. I really hope we get to face him.
Brian P: I caught Pavano’s “outing” at lunch. He gave up 900 feet worth of HR to Byrd and Kinsler. I doubt he’s still on the team the first time the Tigers face the Tribe. He has nothing.
Chris in Dallas – I’ve rounded up a few buddies, we’ll be at Frankie’s tomorrow to watch the game. Come on down if you can make it.
Cool. I actually took the day off of work so I wouldn’t miss the game. Yes, I’m a dork.
greg: the guy who made the crazy Miguel claim was Chris (the one with the orange name, not Chris in Dallas). He still comes around.
So who is going to Opening Day tomorrow? I am!
….the blowpen…..yikes……… 🙁
Me too, David. We shall have to force out a win through sheer force of will.