The Detroit Tiger Weblog

Category: Game Post

  • Game 2010.058: Tigers at White Sox

    Rick Porcello takes on Freddy Garcia as the Tigers gave themselves two shots at winning their first 3 game road series since, umm, the first series of the year.

  • Game 2010.057: Tigers at White Sox

    Armando Galarraga gets the start. That’s pretty much all the story line you need.

  • Game 2010.056: Tigers at Royals

    It’s Bondo and Banny in the rubber game of the series.

  • Game 2010.055: Tigers at Royals

    It’s another night of breathtaking drama in Kansas City. Will Justin Verlander pitch like an ace? Will Luke Hochevar spin a 3rd gem against Detroit this season? Who will be the target of Rod Allen’s “I see you xxx”

    All that and more tonight at 8:10.

  • Game 2010.054: Tiger at Royals

    The Tigers head into Kauffman Stadium to take on the Kansas City Royals. Max Scherzer is on the bump for Detroit and Bruce Chen takes the ball for the Royals.

    Scherzer is of course coming off his strike-out-a-palooza against the A’s. His other best start of the year came against KC back in the first week of the season.

    Bruce Chen is a career left hander. He’s made 11 appearances this year, but it is just his second start. He’s walked 10 batters in 13.1 innings but has a 2.70 ERA. Go figure.

    Detroit Tigers at Kansas City Royals – June 4, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

  • Game 2010.053: Indians at Tigers

    David Huff and Rick Porcello in the rubber game of the series. Does anybody feel better yet?

  • Game 2010.052: Indians at Tigers

    Armando Galarraga pitches for the Tigers tonight, but if the bats can’t get something going it doesn’t really make that much of a difference does it? The Tigers will face the reanimated Fausto Carmona.

    Carmona has his walk rate under 5 for the first time since 2007 and his ERA has followed suit. Unfortunately for the Tigers he is another sinker ball pitcher, the kind they haven’t fared well against at all of late.

    Galarraga makes his first start since being anointed the 5th starter with the dismissal of Dontrelle Willis.

  • Game 2010.051: Indians at Tigers

    Jeremy Bonderman takes on Jake Westbrook in a pitching match-up that sounds right out of 2007.

    Westbrook has pitched okay at times, but he has been hurt by home runs of late with 4 allowed in his last 3 games. He’s done okay the first time through the order (653 OPS), but it starts to get rough for him the 2nd (804 OPS) and 3rd times through (968 OPS). Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, and Brandon Inge all have some positive histories against Westbrook.

    Bonderman’s worst start of the year came against Cleveland, but it was washed out and doesn’t count against his impressive peripherals. Bondo is fanning nearly a batter per inning and his walk rate (2.69/9) and homer total (2) are both impressive.

    Cleveland Indians at Detroit Tigers – June 1, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

  • The pitching seems to be coming around

    During the early part of the season, the offense was keeping things interesting and the bullpen was chewing up innings for underperforming starters. As of late the the starting pitching has been keeping the team in the game, but not getting the same type of support they got in the first 40 games. That script played out for a frustrated Justin Verlander again today.

    Verlander had a rough first inning allowing 2 runs. Sadly, that was enough to decide the game despite JV working through the 7th inning and picking up a quality start. His frustration bubbled over to home plate umpire Laz Diaz who got an earful from the Tigers bench.

    image Verlander thought he twice struck out Kevin Kouzmanoff prior to an RBI single in the 7th inning. The pitches were certainly borderline, but ultimately it didn’t matter.

    The middle of the lineup which had been so potent was silent. Magglio Ordonez once again hit several balls hard, but directly at  people, including a blast to center with two outs and two on. The main culprit that inning though was Johnny Damon who fanned in the infamous R3L2O situation.

    The Tigers regularly got lead off men on, only to see them eliminated on double plays or stranded as the following guys couldn’t find holes.

    In the end it was another day of frustration as the glow of the 40 game mark has all but evaporated. This team needs Amber Grand singing the National Anthem in a big way. (incidentally Grand sang during the 7th inning stretch on Sunday and we all saw what happened after that)

    • Boesch has 6 walks this season. Three of them came today.
    • The bottom of the lineup has been brutal, but Alex Avila and Brandon Inge each had 2 hit days, as did fill-in lead off man Don Kelly.
    • Laz Diaz shouldn’t have followed Verlander out to the mound. But he had every reason to toss both Jim Leyland and Verlander. I don’t know if it is an example of restraint on Diaz’s part, or fallout from the Joe West/Mark Buehrle/Ozzie Guillen shenanigans.

  • Game 2010.050: A’s at Tigers

    The Tigers are trying to salvage a split in their 4 game set with the A’s. They’ll send Justin Verlander out to do battle with Trevor Cahill.

    Verlander was quite good in his last outing against the Mariners, but was knocked around a little in the 8th inning leading to a loss. He did manage to give up just his 4th and 5th homers of the season. He started in Oakland a week ago and pitched the Tigers only complete game of the season, a 4 hit, 1 run effort.

    Cahill has thrown quality starts in his last 3 outings, and was 1 out short of making it 4 in a row. He faced Detroit twice last season. The first time he was rocked, and the second he went 7 innings and allowed just 2 runs. He only has 17 strikeouts in 35 innings this season, but he’s managed a 3.31 ERA. This is despite allowing 6 homers. Lefties only are OPSing .580 against him this season. This is likely a fluke as they hit him well over 800 last season.

    And before I forget. Have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day. A heart felt thanks goes out to all the men and women who make this day and this country what it is.

    Oakland Athletics at Detroit Tigers – May 31, 2010 – MLB.com Preview

  • You can’t spell Scherzer without K

    In honor of Max Scherzer’s 14 strikeout effort, here are 14 thoughts/items/factoids about today’s 10-2 much needed win against Oakland.

    1. The progress that Scherzer displayed in his 15 AAA innings was very much transferrable and nearly as effective. The velocity that came from his newly reacquired proper arm slot was the biggest difference. Just see the data from the pitch f/x system below which compares his last start to Sunday’s effort.

      image

    2. And just because I took the time to generate the chart, here is the plot of Scherzer’s horizontal and vertical movement. The larger the dot, the faster the pitch.image
    3. The one downside to all the strikeouts was an inflated pitch count in the 6th inning. While matching Mickey Lolich’s 16 K record would have been sweet, it was time for Scherzer to come out after the walk and the hit by pitch. The gaudy K total and the shorter outing meant that according to Baseball Tonight, Scherzer’s percentage of outs recorded via strikeout was the highest since 1900.
    4. Things were less tenuous though because the offense finally perked up against Dallas Braden and the managed to score early and late despite failing in R3L2O situations.
    5. The production came throughout the lineup, which was a welcome change. Two homers came from the bottom half of the lineup. Of course the fact that Carlos Guillen resides in the bottom half should certainly help things. Brandon Inge contributed with the bat as well with a homer and 2 doubles.
    6. This deserves it’s own bullet as well.  Gerald Laird had a multi hit game. It was just his 3rd multi hit game of the season.
    7. Meanwhile Miguel Cabrera made a case for player of the week, despite playing in only 3 games. He hit another homer as part of a 4 hit day and has driven in 8 runs the last 3 days padding his RBI lead which had narrowed and pushing his slugging percentage to .670.
    8. Magglio Ordonez continues to rip the ball, and had 2 well hit balls caught. It was only fitting that a jam shot fell for him in the 8th inning to make up for it.
    9. One guy who has had quietly had a few rough outings is Phil Coke. He was hit hard on Friday night but escaped. He gave up both runs in Sunday’s game.
    10. I said I was going to watch Joel Zumaya’s velocity after he was a little shy of his “normal” velocity in Los Angeles. Today he maxed out at 102.2 and averaged 99.78. I’m going to stop watching his velocity.
    11. When Zumaya struggles people complain that he gets too fastball happy. Today he threw the heater 29 out of 32 times and didn’t get the curve over for a strike. Yet nobody is complaining today.
    12. Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive » Scherzer’s 14 Strikeouts
    13. Johnny Damon drew 2 more walks today (and picked up a hit). Coming into today Damon and Ordonez were tied for 10th in the AL. They both hit in front of Miguel Cabrera. Kind of makes you wonder about lineup protection and having a threat to insure guys get pitches to hit.
    14. I’m out of stuff. Good thing I got to 14.

  • sregiT ta s’A: 940.0102 emaG

    Ugh. Four game losing streak. Yucky funk. Time for backwards post title. Max Scherzer and Dallas Braden on the bump today. Pull up a radio and listen as you head up north or sit around the grill.