PREGAME: The Tigers have come home, for a whole weekend no less. And sure the Tigers are taking on the last place team in the division, but this will be no easy task.
Now I realize I run the risk of sounding Lou Holtz-ish here, but Kansas City has been playing some inspired ball. Over their last 17 games they are 10-7. They also have allowed a division best 3.76 runs per game over that stretch. This isn’t the same Kansas City team that we’ve seen the last couple years – or at least they’re not playing like it.
Tonight they send out their ace Gil Meche. Meche has a 3.69 ERA for the year and the last time he faced the Tigers he allowed only 3 unearned runs in 8 innings. But he’s been in a bit of a funk in his last 2 starts where he didn’t make it past the 6th inning either time and surrendered 4 runs in one game and 6 in the other.
Meche actually has fared a little better against righties this year with a 739OPS against righties and 725 versus lefties. Curtis Granderson has cited him as one of the toughest pitchers for him to face. And Jim Leyland will go with Timo Perez again in left field.
Don’t be surprised to see the Tigers swinging early in the count. When the first pitch is put in play against Meche, hitters are posting a 1.272 OPS with 6 homers.
The Tigers send out Kenny Rogers. Rogers struggled with a tight zone in his last start and ended up walking 4 and not striking out any before surrendering a grand slam.
Game Time 7:05pm
KCR @ DET, Friday, July 20, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
POSTGAME: Bad pitching, bad fielding, bad hitting. That about covers it. There’s really not a whole lot else to say. Brandon Inge made a sweet barehanded play, Magglio Ordonez picked up another RBI ripping a ball between third and short, and Gary Sheffield homered. That’s about it for noteworthy performances.
Retro uni’s tomorrow night and that has to bode well right?
Comments
35 responses to “Game 94: Royals at Tigers”
Greetings to everyone from Germany and welcome back Tigs to Motor City for a “long” Homestand. 😀
Unfortunately, no Tigers Game in the TV today here (they decided to show Brewers vs Giants, maybe because “he” will do “it” today. Thank God for mlb.tv)
btw:What a silly schedule (3-game Homestand sandwiched between to West Coast Trips)
Lets hope we can adjust our home record (25-19) a little bit towards the away record.
Go Kenny and don’t underestimate the Royals please. See what they have done to the Red Sox lately
Lets go TIGERS
Kenny induced all ground balls. All fairly weak.
I would love to have an arm like Brandon Inge. Come to think of it, how would he be out of the pen?
Steve
That was aggressive
I will remember this years team for the # of extra base hits.
Pudge cannot lay off that pitch. Outside by a foot for those of you w/o TV cvg.
I am noticing a lsck of effort to hold the runners.
What’s going on here. Bases loaded.
The Royals are hot
Is the “enhanced” Gameday new to Comerica Park? I didn’t think we had it before and now we do. I could be mistaken.
Kenny is out of the strike zone alot tonight
Once again I will point out the Tigers poor performance in 1st games of series.
Ah, Lou Holtz, sandbagger supreme. 🙂
Steve: I believe Inge was a relief pitcher at some point in the minors. He reminds me a bit of Tommy Brookens in his versatility.
The Tigs are not showing themselves to their best advantage so far tonight. KC is a good example of how a hot streak can be better than lucky or good.
My patience with Timo Perez is officially at an end. His .710 career OPS means he shouldn’t be out there on a regular basis. And by .710 career OPS I mean his career OPS against right-handers.
we just had an earthquake not too bad though.
Aftershocks, maybe? Did your dishes rattle? That would scare me to death. Just like this game is. Kenny’s pitches look real slow.
One big jolt, an aftershock from the 4.5 we had at 4:20 this morning.
Gil Meche….pretty damn good. Maybe we can get to their bullpen.
We might not see the Bullpen. After 119 pitches I don’t think Bell will send him out in the 9th.
8th
Well, if they don’t win tonight, I hope they do tomorrow. Another sold out game tonight and probably tomorrow.
Tiger offense better wake up before tomorrow and provide some run support for Verlander
Well, KC can play relaxed pretty much IMO. All they’re trying to do at this point is not finish last in the division.
Please, bring back the other Perez. This guy is awful.
Boy, are we really missing Marcus or what? Timo just isn’t getting it done. Maybe they can bring up Brent Clevlan.
One good thing about tonight’s game is that the decision of who to send out in exchange for that extra starter we need on Tuesday is pretty easy now. It may have been a forgone conclusion anyway, I suppose.
WC Tiger–good point about first games of series…also, we just went 11-5 in a 16 game stretch vs. 4 of the 6 best teams in the AL (other than us and LAA). A letdown was imminent.
Let’s get ’em tomorrow.
Guess it was about time for a clunker. Get all the poopy baseball out at once.
Well, I hope they wake up in time for tomorrow night’s game.
I spend all day taking the damn GRE and the Tigers reward me with this malarkey? I was at this game and it felt wrong pretty much from start to finish. At least I got to see Greinke.
Can’t say that I was surprised by this too much. After those three nail-biters and remember what bilfer said about how much those games wore us out as fans. Plus, how hard they had to work to get a split out of the Mariners. Now they get to come home and see their wives, sleep in their own bed, etc. I’ll give them a free pass on this one and it sounds like I should be glad this is one that I missed. Let’s get em on Saturday. Maybe KC will send out their junior varsity squad against out own JV.
Oh my goodness. Yes, Dave W that was horrible from the beginning. Kenny looked, I don’t know, unsteady or something. Unfortunately I have the 27-game “Friday night” package and it seems that we see a lot of this kind of loss on Friday night when they are starting a homestand. Ugh.
I still think they should put Sheff in LF, Omar in RF, and let Maggs DH for a game, rest his knees. It couldn’t be any worse than what happened tonight.
Go Tigers/Stars on Saturday!!
Back to reality. Can’t win em’ all. Can take no one for granted. Get em’ tomorrow. GO TIGERS.
Get used to Billy Butler. He will torment the entire AL Central for a good while to come. He’s the best pure DH prospect in baseball to come along. Can’t really play the OF, not a 1B, so DH is where he slots in and the kid can mash.
Gil Meche has quietly had a very good year. Not $55 million ‘very good’ but good nonetheless.
I like to see that KC is playing better ball. While I’m a die-hard Tigers fan, I like seeing teams rise from being dead for nearly a decade-and-a-half, so seeing KC on the rise is fun, I think. Even at the expense of the Tigers.
Leyland impressed by Perez
Tom Gage / The Detroit News
…Of being able to replace Thames with a player leading the International League with 120 hits, Leyland said, “It’s nice that you’re not just grasping for straws. That’s part of the organization doing a good job, though…
Whatever. Let the grasping at straws begin! Timo is awful.