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.
Comments
32 responses to “Game 2014.22: Tigers 4, White Sox 3.”
2 innings in…
As Bollo would say, I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
Wow, what a 7th inning by Justin Verlander. Big game pitching.
Agree Loon…one bad inning for JV that hurt him.
He also controlled Abreu…now it is up to the Pen to step up. They should be refreshed.
Good Job…a getting out of that!!
Well done Joba! He likes the 8th! Let’s put one on the board and go home…YES!!!
Austin Jackson you magnificant speedster!
Holaday ….hell ya!!!!!!
Holaday can’t throw, but he can bunt and he can run.
Holaday! The squeeze at last! And then a delayed steal! Wow! They’ve gotta win this one. They just have to. I mean they really, really have to.
Bottom of the line up for Joe. Will De Aza save face?
Best game of the season. Hands down.
Quick get into the dugout and close and lock the doors!!!
Are you saying they stole one?
Wow.
Nice come from behind small ball win.
A tip of the cap to Dayan Viciedo.
Great game boys. The best game of the year. We went into the house of a hot team and took the game in the late innings. The win keeps the Tigers in first while in Chicago.
You can put it on the board….YES!!!
I’ll have to watch the White Sox broadcast of the 9th inning tomorrow or soon. Looking forward to hearing the call on both Holaday’s squeeze and Flowers’s long out.
Postgame updated above. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
– So Verlander is the new (righty) Mark Buehrle. I’m fine with that.
– Wonder if that was improv by Holaday? Sounded like it.
– It’s not the BA. He’s not Miggy at .270 any more than he was at .206. 3-3 tie, facing bullpen dude, 1st pitch groundout to SS. Not Miggy. 1-4 tonight, hit in first was a ROE.
– Supposedly strike three was ball four. That’s baseball. Too close to take, as they say.
– Following up a win like tonight’s with another would be huge, but I’m not so sure. The bats have been known to let Max down, and the Tigers continue to scuffle phenomenally against starting pitchers,
“Coleman April 19, 2014 at 3:58 pm
Maybe Holaday could hold a little bunting clinic, that was perfect.”
April 19th against the Angels, Holaday surprises everyone by leading off the inning with a bunt single, and ends up scoring a big insurance run in a 5-2 win. Holaday’s got this in his game. Enjoy it while it lasts, eventually opponents will start looking for it.
I know that throwing issue is huge, but Holaday has been solid…he is hitting…he can run…pitchers say he calls a good game…defense is fine….whats not to like…GWH…I mean GWB…
Even a CS in the game, thanks to Worth. Not to mention the great effort that almost made De Aza pay for trying for 3B, great relay from Kinsler in particular. It’s nice to note these “almost” things in a winning cause. Seems like more often they occur to me as sliver linings in losses.
Tigers struck out 100 times against Quintana, 5 of the first 6 batters fanned, were in a 3-0 hole on a rainy evening, and they come back to tie it, hold the tie, and win it in the 9th, and even save it in the bottom half. Beautiful.
Flowers’s blast to deep center, though. Nearly went down the tubes. I don’t think I could have stuck around for the heartbreak if that ball had gone out.
Perhaps we are seeing Verlander changing his pitching approach. It has to happen some day; he’s not a kid anymore and can’t be a fireballer forever. I think he can still bring it, but it seems like he is throwing a lot more off speed stuff now. Maturing and becoming a better pitcher in other words.
Getting strikeouts when he needs them, for sure. I’ll take more 7 and 8 inning outings. One feels a bit cheated by anything less from Verlander.
The velocity is way down, but he still may be tuning up. I plan to look into this more in another 5 starts or so.
Hard to argue with the results, though.
It’s the obligatory Bryan Holaday/Kate Upton/game winning bunt photo:
http://cdn.newslook.com/f8/f8e586cc289a6d52e3d420ba4294403f/images/frame_ext.jpg
If we end up with 90 wins and the Sox end up with 89…..this game was the difference!
Impressive move by Holaday, that is how you do it. Noticed on the Quick Pitch (with my late night Heidi, what the Mrs. doesn’t know etc) that Mr. Clark said something to Ajax, so it may have been called. My rule on squeezes was that only I as 3b coach could call it, did not want to kill any ball players. Heidi also mentioned that we are 6-2 in one run tilts.
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