PREGAME: I don’t want to bash a team that went 7-2 in their last 9 games, but dropping the last 2 games of the homestand while only scoring 4 runs and seeing the top 3 inthe lineup fail to get a hit for 2 straight days didn’t really leave a good taste. Maybe some barbeque will get the offense clicking.
The trouble is they have to face Gil Meche. Individually the Tigers have some good numbers against Meche, but the offense never seems to do much against him as a whole with Meche turning in 5 straight quality starts against Detroit.
Hopefully the Tigers will only need a couple runs because they have Justin Verlander going for them. Verlander is on a 5 game quality start streak of his own. He’s also thrown a considerable number of pitches lately (averaging 118 pitches over his last 4 starts), so a “light” day in terms of workload might be nice.
Detroit vs. Kansas City – May 25, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday
POSTGAME: Well, Meche didn’t turn out to be a problem…at least not for the Tigers. He was wild from the get go and the Tigers were inclined to wait him out. Meche threw 73 pitches and only recorded 7 outs, and he clearly wasn’t helped by an error by Mark Teahen (who has a habit of gunning down Tigers at the plate). And really, pretty much every ground ball found a hole for the Tigers and ever broken bat flopped into the outfield. It was one of those days. With the lopsided final score the Tigers have now allowed the fewest runs in the American League.
Justin Verlander was awesome again, retiring the first 9 batters in a row and picking up the first 6 outs on only 17 pitches. He finished the day with an easy 7 innings and only 96 pitches. He was efficient enough that he had a decent shot at a complete game shutout, but given his recent workload I loved seeming him lifted with the game out of doubt. The ERA is down to 3.55 and Verlander is looking better than he ever has.
- There has been some talk of fans not wanting Magglio Ordonez to return to the lineup. Coming into today he was at 378/465/541 in his last 10 games and he added a single and a walk today.
- Zach Miner gave up the shut out with back to back 2 out hits, but somehow managed to throw only 11 pitches in his inning.
- Jeff Larish donned the golden sombrero and still managed to reach base twice
- Miguel Cabrera is good at baseball. Not only did he have 4 hits, but he turned a nice 3-6-3 double play
Comments
37 responses to “Game 2009.043: Tigers at Royals”
I agree, Bill. Yesterday’s game was disappointing. They made Hammel look like Josh Beckett or something. Granderson, in particular, looks awful at the plate right now. I’m starting to wonder if he has become home run happy. It just seens funny that a guy could hit so many triples for several years, and now, zip.
I’d be inclined to let Verlander throw as many as he can today and then give him a break next start. This is the Royals, and any game we win against them basically counts double in the lead right now.
It was not the most enjoyable of weekends. I will choose to believe cosmic forces were correcting the, what was it, 12-0? weekend run.
We have a very promising start. Scoring these two runs might be all Verlander needs.
Good to see Gil throw a ton of pitches in that inning. I think Cabrera is the only guy on our team hitting above .300. Everett maybe? It’s been a long time since we’ve seen that hasn’t it? Pretty nice to be 3 games ahead in this division without our usual suspects getting on base. If Maggs, Curtis, Polanco, and a healthy Guillen revert to old form, we could really go on a tear. Meanwhile Verlander with a quick 7 pitch inning. I like the feel of this one so far.
7 pitch 1st inning for Verlander even more promising (as well as 30+ for Meche, thanks to Granderson, Inge, and Teahen)
KILV: Santiago is around .320
Only 17 pitches for JV through 2? Must be some kind of record.
Maybe Justin can pitch tomorrow too…
Meche is getting a very generous zone.
Inge!
Always a nice thing to see, bullpen activity in the 3rd–especially when it’s Paunchson..
INGE!! I was just about to complain about the Larish K with 2-3 0 out…
Always feels good to catch a top started on an off day. Maybe Greinke will have one sometime soon. Like tomorrow.
Starter, even.
Actually “started” works, since he’s past tense already…
Bases juiced!
That DP was pretty close at first, I would have enjoyed another look at it.
I thought the same thing. But Van Slyke is never shy about arguing a bad call, so his silence might have indicated he was barely out.
Justin’s consistency this last month has just been amazing. Every start it looks like he has no-no potential.
Way to jinx it… 🙂
No such thing as an internet jinx!
Boston is all over the Twins today. In the dome, even.
Some nice D by Cabrera
Inge vs Ponson, I like this matchup
We have a nice symmetric box score so far, but of course I’ll take three in the fifth.
Ryan P: Not so fast…I think the jinx is in effect if Verlander sees the post surfing the Internet on his iPhone between innings…
I guess Laird is out of his slump…
Roman Colon sighting!
Outstanding Verlander. Great game, see you in 5 days.
Way to go Miner.
🙂
Way to go Tigers!
Stay on a roll and manufacture a few sweet runs off of Greinke tomorrow with Jackson shutting ’em down like Verlander did today.
Great game. Good to see Mags back in the 3 hole and continuing his hit streak. 11 games so far.
What was with the orange hats? I assume it was something with Memorial Day, but I listened to the game so didnt’ hear the reason…
Red, and yeah, honoring Memorial day.
Great point about Verlander, billfer. For all the grief we’ve given Leyland about workloads lately (and justifiably so), it was nice to see him pull JV when he did.
My god! I would hate being a Tampa Bay Ray fan tonight.
I just saw the highlights of that game. That bullpen meltdown was monumental. Maybe even 2008 Tigers-like.