PREGAME: It’s freakin hot and muggy. So Armando Galarraga keeping the ball on the ground would be a good thing today, otherwise his 15 homers allowed total may grow.
Ted Lily will try to extend his quality start streak to 6. He’s been particularly impressive in his last 4 outings with a 1.98 ERA, and a 23/3 K/BB ratio in his last 27.1 innings.
Seven game win streaks are kind of tough to come by, and the match-up on paper certainly doesn’t tilt the Tigers way. But the real wild card is Chris Chelios. He’ll be throwing out the first pitch. And he’s also sung Take Me Out to the Ballgame at Cubs games. This one could really go either way.
Comments
85 responses to “Game 2009.072: Cubs at Tigers”
Here’s to extending the streak to seven. Ted Lily be damned!
Tigers are 14-6 vs LHP and Lilly is a LHP.
Tigers are 18-7 in day games and this is a day game.
Tigers are 22-11 at home and this is a home game.
I was afraid for a moment they would get mercy-ruled before they even got to bat against Lefty Lilly…
The Cheli Equlaization Factor – I like it!
Where was the argument on that Miggy HR?
Leyland just cost the Tigers a run
if Cabrera losses the home run title by one does this mean he really tied ???
It looked like Leyland was going to come argue it, but he couldn’t get off the bench…apparently somehow his shoes where tied together and to the bench support…I have no idea why anyone would have done that, but Inge and Granderson were seen in the vicinity…
What’s the story on the Miggs non-home run?
ball definately went over the yellow line in right center for a dinger but they ruled it a double …Jim must have been in the middle of a smoke cause he didn’t come out
Time for Mr. Galarraga and his 1.66 WHIP to take a long trip to Toledo.
Actually, way past time.
Ramon Santiago with a nice 2 run jack.
edit-wrong spot for that comment, oh well.
Armando should NOT see another start. We can’t have an automatic loss every turn of the rotation. Miner is obviously the better choice. I would even prefer Robertson to get another chance, and I’m not even joking as funny as that sounds.
I’m not so sure about Robertson, but Miner is DEFINITELY a better choice.
I like Miner is his current role in the pen. Would much rather see Lucas French get called up again and get a start over Robertson.
Second that.
Battlescarred’s line in 10 previous starts before today:
W-L IP H R HR
0-7 49 69 43 14
He’s not doing that bad. 4 runs through 6. Hell, is that a quality start? My memory is bad. Anyway, its a good thing Leyland has more patience than you guys.
QS is 3 runs, I just looked it up. Oh well. Its still a decent start in my opinion.
Judging from the way he looks in his gameday photo, it’s clear to me Dusty Ryan will do fine today…
Ramon!!!!!!!
Guess what. We’d be tied right now if Leyland argued that home run call…
Managers are not allowed to request instant replays though.
But managers can argue and the crew chief can decide the play needs to be reviewed, right?
Look up the rules.
Um, thanks for the tip. The crew chief decides whether or not the play needs to be reviewed. I don’t see anything anywhere about the manager not being able to request a replay.
he didn’t have to argue…all he had to do is ASK!
I’m not sure WHO, but SOMEBODY is a genius, having Granderson sacrifice to more the runner up for Santiago..
.the obvious move when you have a bat like Ramon the Ripper behind you I suppose…
Small Ball. Since JL became EM, you can hear the wheels turning all the way to Mpls.
It wasn’t an intentional bunt. It was a nubber off the end the bat.
Can’t trust that Coleman! But Gameday box has it as a sacrifice.
Good to see Ramon has gotten his power stroke back.
Why has FSD been so obsessed with the picture in picture lately? I don’t care what the infielders are doing while the pitch is being delivered. Do I?
MAGGLIO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes Magglio! Get that confidence back.
Maggs what was THAT!!!
How hilarious would it be if his haircut actually fixed everything and he started hitting for power again?
Maybe if I cut my hair, I’ll stop sucking at work.
Doubt it. Tigers day games = sucking at work.
😉
Hey, I write e-mails during commercial breaks.
Sometimes that’s all it takes to break a slump. There is no doubt he has the talent.
OK, power guys up this inning, got to tack on some more.
Rayburn gets the job done after Marcus embarrasses himself at the plate.
Maybe Thames is next in line for a haircut.
Raburn is CLUTCH.
Anyone else having trouble with the MLB.com gameday? It’s still stuck on pre-game for me.
It’s working fine on my BlackBerry
think the Tigers are playing Rayburn so much to showcase him for a trade or just that he is doing well??? they are looking for a corner outfielder maybe it’s him!
Why are we making this Fox guy look like the next Pujols?
Same reason they’re making our Raburn guy look like the next George Brett?
Ryan? Stealing?
Hope I didn’t miss much, I had to run out after the 4th for a quick haircut…hopefully it will help my posting and I will stop falling for Gameday’s fake bunts…
Both Gameday and Yahoo had credited Granderson with a sacrifice. However, after billfer lodged a protest, they reviewed the play and then reversed their decision.
Ah yes, I see now Granderson gets the successful Bat-end-nubber…
Dusty had 2 SB, 0 CS this year in Toledo. So, maybe not totally crazy, but probably still some kind nicotine high might have kicked in with the EM.
Everett took the pitch, so maybe somebody missed/misread a sign.
I haven’t been around as much lately, but did anyone ever find out what happened to Smoking Loon?? That guy used to live on this blog. He posted so much that at one time I even thought he might be my inner voice or an alternate personality like in Fight Club. I hope he’s ok.
I don’t recall seeing any posts by him yet this year.
With Rodney likely coming in, I would like to see soem insurance runs here.
Maggs is officially back…HR and GIDP same game
It was a fielder’s choice…
Is it just me or do Ryan Raburn and Dusty Ryan kind of look alike in their Gameday portraits. Maybe it is just the cap.
Now that you mention it, their names are strangely similar also
Separated at birth; six degress of separation; döppelgangers….
I swear every time Everett is up he sees 7 or more pitches. I love it.
Well you know it’s not nice to swear…if you won’t swear about him seeing 7 or more pitches I won’t swear because he sees fewer pitches per PA than about anyone on the team (only 3.51, getting into Polanco territory)…in fact only about 60% of his PAs even make it to a 3rd pitch. So those nice 7+ pitch PAs are being balanced out by a lot of 1&2 pitch ones. That’s why the guy is so hard to walk; he still hasn’t hit double-digits in walks this season.
On the other hand…
In the all important runner-on-3rd-less-than-two-out category this season, he has been just killer, with 15 RBI in 17 PA, one of the best on the team along with Inge and Ramon Santiago (!)
Curtis is having some trouble with LH again this year.
So is Rodney.
let the real game begin
Whew!
F-Rod does it again. 3 swinging strikeouts, a solo shot and deep double. I think Rodney is possibly “the most sometimes dominant closer in the game”.
I think he definitely has the potential to be the most double-dip coaster in the game…
Another entertaining finish courtesy of F-Rod.
Still , a great win and sweep by the Tigers!
with a little help from our Cub batters thank you….nice sweep
For the next Battlestar start, can we tell him he has to face our guys the first inning, kind of a fake end of BP. He gives up a hit, a walk, an HR, the guys get a few swings in and start feeling good. Then Armando can give us 5 decent innings after that. Problem solved.
Maybe we could do the same for Bonderman if he ever makes it back.
I wonder if Battlestar has been wathcing too many Bondo 2008 movies
All 3 Ks on changeups. When he has that pitch working he can be dominant, but when not he is likely to be toast. He can’t get it done with the fastball.
Not getting any help from Milwaukee today. Baker is ON and Twins ae up 4-0. LA up on ChiSox 4-2.
We are starting to pick it up and look cohesive, just like that run in the middle of 2006. They really look like they are having fun and trust each other out there. I guess winning will do that. If we lose 4 in row, I’ll be back to wondering what we’re missing. For now though, I’m really starting to get excited about our chances of winning this division.
Keep in mind that we playing NL teams. Last year the Tigers were 13-5 in IL play (if they sweep Houston this weekend they will finish 12-6 this year) and I believe that all but 2 or 3 AL teams had winning records vs NL teams, ending with a PCT of close to .600. The NL seems to be doing better this year, but in the end the AL will come out ahead. It is just a stronger league overall. This is not to diminish your observation that the Tigers are looking more cohesive. The pitching especially, with a few exceptions, has been vey encouraging. However, the real test comes next week when they get back to playing AL teams again, and especially when they go against the Eastern Division teams.
Agree that we are definitely beating weaker teams right now.
But it wasn’t that long ago that we were losing to weaker teams (Pirates) so I like our chances when we return to playing AL teams.
I hope you are right, but it sure didn’t turn out that way last year.
I like our odds this season of not having events on the horizon the like of losing Inge to a pillow-fight and Sheffield repairing his shoulder by starting in Left Field…
We’ve complained about our bullpen all year, but I poked around on BBRef this morning and found out that all our main relievers (Rodney, Zumaya, Lyon, Seay, Miner) have an ERA+ above the AL average. Even Ryan Perry, before his demotion, fit the bill. Galarraga, Willis, and Robertson are the only below-average Tigers pitchers who have seen significant innings this year.
I think Battlestar earned himself another start in Oakland. He wasn’t sharp today by any means, but at least he settled down after that first inning. He pitched reasonably well innings 2-7. It would be great to get him back the way he was in April. If Battlestar can’t find the magic again, I still think we’ve got a suitable replacement in Miner.
I was hoping he would either convincingly pitch himself out of the rotation or cement his position in the rotation with this start.
In reality, he did no such thing so I agree that you have to run him out there again and see what happens.
This will most likely piss off everyone on the Miner bandwagon but I think it’s a chance you have to take because if Gallaraga finds his form he can be dominant.
Decent outing for Galarraga, but I am anxious to see Figaro pitch again. He did pretty well his first start, but it’s always interesting what happens once they settle in to the routine a bit. We are by no means settled on #5 in the rotation, much less #4.
Decent game for Galarraga. 5 k’s and 1 walk, now that was nice. 90 pitches in 6 innings was nice also. That 3 run bomb in the 1st was the only thing that really stunk.
I think he’ll start dominating again, but when I do not know. If he gets moved to the pen, I’m fine with that too. Maybe he just needs to throw more often to get out of this funk. Or maybe this Win will restore his confidence and he’ll go on roll now.
Lyon’s ERA is down to 3.89. In 16 innings this month, he’s given up just 5 hits and only 1 earned run.