2-for-2, and a series sweep is looking good with Justin Verlander taking the mound–wait, what? An extra day’s rest? Oh, nevermind…
Well, the Inge call-up is looking like a bit of genius, isn’t it? I would have predicted that (although he was Player of the Pre-Game). And sure it was all in a blowout victory, but it was only 2-0 when he hit his HR, and 4-1 when he hit his double. If Inge can do this even a handful of times the rest of the season, it could make the Tigers pretty tough to take down in the Central.
Rick Porcello will man the broom and try to pretend it’s July, or even September. After a 5-0, 3.06 July, Porcello has gone 0-2, 8.44 for August.
Ubaldo Jimenez looks to win the re-match with Porcello (he gave up no earned runs in 8 innings for the victory), and to keep Cleveland from dropping to 4 1/2 games back.
In unrelated news, ESPN has a nice article about Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell in Arizona.
Player of the Pre-game: Alex Avila
He has caught 14 straight games, and is hitting .429 with a 1.269 OPS over the last 2 weeks, and .442 for the month of August. Last year Tiger catchers combined for a .223 BA and .624 OPS. Avila is making a huge difference this season.
Today’s New Standard RHP Lineup:
- Austin Jackson CF
- Brennan Boesch RF
- Delmon Young LF
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Victor Martinez DH
- Alex Avila C
- Jhonny Peralta SS
- Betemit 3B
- Ramon Santiago 2B
Comments
35 responses to “Game 2011.126: Indians at Tigers”
So glad we didn’t trade all our top prospects for Ubaldo Washburn.
Prospects? I thought the Rockies asking price was Cabrera, Verlander, and Turner
Well, this is going much better than the last time we faced Ubaldo!
Thank goodness for WiFi.
I think Coleman and I need to check the game #’s.
What are the Cle boards saying right now about Acta letting Jimenez throw 45 pitches that inning?
Porcello is starting come undone…
starting to* come undone.
One of the biggest (if not THE biggest) off-season problems to figure out is developing a strikeout pitch for Porcello. I’ve been saying for three years now that he doesn’t miss enough bats to be effective in this league. Until the Tigers/Porcello figure out a strikeout pitch for him, he will continue to have wild swings from above average pitcher to putrid pitcher. The Tigers/Dombrowski have a lot invested in this kid and I don’t want them to give up on him, but they can’t continue forward with him without some type of tweaking to RP’s game. Perhaps they can work on developing a splitter for him because his current arsenal is not enough to consistently get big league hitters out.
What the heck is going on with Porcello? He has been ineffective for a couple weeks now.
This half inning epitomizes this team, on this and past seasons: it’s the inability to put-away the competion when the Tigers on in the drivers seat.
I second the thank goodness for WiFi. I’m following this game on gameday from the middle of Lake Superior
J.L Block tied up right outside my place, d/b. That your boat?
We passed through the soo on the midday on the 18th… will be porting in Duluth shortly. Nice seas out there so far
You went through the Soo Locks on a ship? None of my business, but I love visiting the UP and Sault St. Marie is one of my fav places to stay up there.
Sky Mall has a Rick Porcello autographed baseball for sale for $59.99. The caption reads “Detroit Tigers ACE.” AJax’s sells for $79.99 – “future superstar.”
It won’t be long before the Chinese tell Sky mall what to adjust their prices to.
Stealing this for twitter…
We absolutely need Perry to shut this team down. This is a very disappointing pitching performance by Below and Porcello
I’ll be stunned if the Tigers win. The momentum has turn against them badly
This is why I can’t get that excited/bothered by this team. They play like the 11th or 12th best team in the league which is exactly what their record and run differential suggests. For some reason, JUST making playoffs in baseball hold such a higher position of massive achievement than it has in NBA, NHL, or NFL. (I know, fewer make it etc..) But we should look at this team as the equivalent of a #7 NBA seed or a NFL wild card team that’s going to have no home games. Am I glad they are in first place? Absolutely. Will I puke in my mouth a little when Michigan media goes over the top about Leyland and the boys when team wins worst division at 86-76? Yes.
Worst division winner could be WS winners.
Wow. Baseball is great.
Yikes!
BOOOOM
GO TIGERS
amazing ending to an amazing series.
4 HUGE games in Tampa next
If I’m remembering correctly, this is the first time we’ve been 10 games over.
Yes, and the first time we’ve had a 4.5 game lead.
Not bad for once being 5 games below .500 and 8 games out of first place.
It figures. Leyland and Dombrowski get contract extensions, and now they’re screwing up the 2nd half collapse.
a great series against CLE, but there’s a LOT of baseball left in this season… and might i remind everyone that a couple years ago the Tigers had a 3 game lead with 4 games left, and they didn’t win the division.
Mediocre AL Central competition aside, this aint over until its over.
When do the Tigers send down Porcello (to work on his mechanics) and call up Turner?
Ahh yes the memories. This team has no capacity to hold itself accountable, so very annoying.
If you look on the Tigers website the probable for Friday is TBA. I would think that it might be an indication that Turner may come up before September 1. Cleveland has the West Coast teams at home this week so it would be huge upside for us to come out of this week and only lose a game or game and a half on the lead.
I can’t stop watching the replay:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=18286533
Does Rod Allen shout “what a throw” at the same time that Valverde mouths the same words?
One of them is a ventriloquist
Yeah, I was wondering the same thing! Sure looks like it.
Also Fukodome could have been able to score on that play if he wasn’t half the man Avila was. Who does that, run into Avila like a little girl, you can’t do that and get away with it. Either go hard and take him out, or try a slide away from contact if you don’t want to fail and then get laughed at for looking like a wussy. When will these chumps learn?