Category: Game Post

PREGAME: Justin Verlander takes the mound tonight for the Tigers sitting at 222 strikeouts for the season. That ranks as the 11th best single season mark in Tigers history. If things go as planned tonight he should at least get to 9th and if he’s feeling frisky he has an outside shot of moving into 7th or 8th.

Strikeouts – Tigers Single Season Leaders

(from baseball-reference.com)

Robinson Tejeda makes the start for the Royals. Tejeda has only made 1 start this year (and only 1 last year) and he 1 hit the Angels for 5.1 innings of shut out ball. He has 61 K’s in 47.1 innings this year which is really good. Between Tejeda and Verlander there could be a stiff breeze tonight.

Detroit vs. Kansas City – September 9, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: Sorry for the lack of blogging this weekend. I went up north for a few days and my internet connectivity was severely limited. I was able to get the game posts up, and that was about it. I didn’t miss much did I?

Rick Porcello gets his chance to keep the winning streak alive as the Tigers are 6-for-September. I’ve gotten used to the magic number trickling down each day, and yesterday that didn’t happen. Two such days would threaten to disrupt my good mood.

Bruce Chen starts for the Royals. Chen started once against the Tigers and they torched him for 7 runs and chased him in the 5th inning. He also faced them in relief and fanned 3 in 2 innings allowing just an unearned run. I’m hoping for more of the former than the latter.

Detroit vs. Kansas City – September 8, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: All good things must come to an end, but they shouldn’t come to an end when you’re playing a last place team, and you have a 3 run lead. But come to an end they did on the backs of some adventurous outfield defense and some control issues in the bullpen.

Clete Thomas missed a foul ball in the corner that would have preserved a 1 run lead which would become a 1 run deficit. Ryan Raburn misjudged a fly ball and played it into a double. Bobby Seay hit a guy. Jeremy Bonderman walked Yuniesky Betancourt. Yep.

The Tigers got some timely hits but didn’t really crush the ball. Marcus Thames had an infield single. Aubrey Huff blooped one just over the infield. But 5 runs should have been enough.

Rick Porcello didn’t have his characteristic ground ball inducing repertoire working. Too many of the balls were hit well to the outfield. It happens.

• Raburn did have the one misplay in the outfield, but he also did have 3 hits, including a homer. He also threw out a guy at the plate and made a very nice running catch to end an inning and leave the bases loaded. His positives far outweighed the one negative.
• Thames with a sacrifice fly, and the Tigers are finding out how to score runnners from third with less than 2 outs.
• Nate Robertson being used out of the bullpen was odd. The Tigers had burned through both lefties which I get, but why not activate Clay Rapada as a 3rd lefty?

PREGAME: The Tigers look to extend their 4 game winning streak tonight in Tampa. Did you know that the Tigers haven’t had even a 4 game winning streak since June when they swept Milwaukee and the Cubs in back to back series (and added a win against the Cardinals to make it a 7 game streak. And they hadn’t won 4 games in a row against AL teams since they swept the A’s and Rangers back to back in May.

James Shields, who has allowed a league leading 203 hits, takes the mound for the Rays. The Tigers picked up 10 hits off of Shields in 7 innings in Detroit last time (including 2 homers) but only plated 4 earned runs.

Armando Galarraga returns from his Toledo sabbatical  without getting that rehab start the Tigers were hoping he’d get.

Detroit vs. Tampa Bay – September 5, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers managed a .500 road trip and a series win the last time they ventured out beyond Montcalm and Witherell. That hasn’t happened a whole lot this season. They’ll try to build on some recent success as they head under the cat-walked dome.

Justin Verlander faces the Rays for the second time in a row. He managed 8 innings and a win when Polanco guided a 3 run homer into the Tigers bullpen rescuing Justin from another stagnant offensive performance.

Jeff Niemann will be his adversary again. Niemann only allowed 5 hits and no walks in 7 innings last Sunday against Detroit. The Tigers will have to do a little more. Their offense has plated runs the last couple games, but they’re not really tearing the cover off the ball.

Detroit vs. Tampa Bay – September 4, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I find sometimes I work backwards on these post game reports. The Tigers have had their share of late inning comebacks, but today it was the outing of Fernando Rodney that is catching my attention. Rodney was not good. Not at all. He’s been very good this year, and he hasn’t even been having many scary saves lately. Prior to tonight he had a 10 game stretch with 10.1 innings, 9 K’s and a 200/273/200 slash line against him. Not tonight though.

It may have been just one of those nights. It may have been the fact he pitched 2 days in a row, fully warmed up the third, and this was nearly his 4th game in a row. Regardless, with 35 pitches to the Rays and one ball heaved into the stands (not sure what’s up with that, but it wasn’t cool) we won’t see him tomorrow night.

But beyond Rodney, Verlander pitched a tremendous game once again and Jeff Niemann has to be thrilled to not go up against him anymore this season. Niemann got the short end again, and he was better tonight than last time. On Sunday the Tigers hit some balls hard right at fielders. Tonight they hit about 3 balls hard, one of them was a Cabrera blast that left the yard and 2 were Aubrey Huff doubles down the line.

But the Tigers put an impressive rally together in the 9th. Like Thursday’s 10th inning it involved Ryan Raburn getting on base. And then Leyland pushed the right buttons. Inge fanned, but Thames worked a walk as a pinch hitter for Laird. He stuck with Everett (a move that would have raised ire had it not worked) who delivered the go ahead hit. Granderson avoided the sombrero with a first pitch grounder between first and second that plated pinch runner Wilkin Ramirez. Then a sac fly from Polanco and it was a 3 run lead that they’d need all 3 of.

Oh yeah, back to Verlander. He was awesome again. I still think Zach Greinke is the most deserving Cy Young candidate at the moment (stuff can certainly change and it doesn’t mean Grenike will win it even if he is deserving), but Verlander has the wins, the first place team, and a gaudy strike out total to support his cause.

• I can’t believe how quickly Ramirez got around from second base and his slide was a thing of  beauty
• Raburn did a nice job getting the ball in quickly and keeping the tying run on 3rd base in that 9th inning.
• You have to tip your cap to Longoria on his first RBI double. That was a 97mph pitch that was off the plate inside and he turned on it and pulled it. That’s just nice hitting.

PREGAME: It will be Nate Robertson and Fausto Carmona today as the Tigers try to extend their lead to 5 games. The Twins have an off day so there is no need to scoreboard watch.

Carmona has been inconsistent to say the least this season. He got so bad he was bumped al the way down to A ball. Still, he has held the Tigers to 2 runs in each of his 2 starts against them. Carmona has some extreme platoon splits (970 OPS for lefties, 615 OPS for righties) so I’d guess Leyland will tilt the lineup accordingly.

Robertson gets a second turn after pitching well for 4 innings against the Rays. Robertson providing competent innings this month could be a huge boost to the rotation.

As an aside, the Tigers have never been 11 games over .500 this season…

Cleveland vs. Detroit – September 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: At the last minute I decided to head down for this game, even though it was a day game after a night game, and I’m glad I did. A sweep and a 7 of their last 10 is a nice way to head out on the road.

Robertson looks like a new man, or at least like the guy that wore number 29 in 2006. He spun 6 shut out innings today with 4 K’s and he only needed 80 pitches to do it. Whether or not it lasts remains to be seen, but in his 2 starts he’s given the team a lift and with Washburn missing a start because of his knee, and Rick Porcello’s mounting workload, an extra arm could become very valuable this last month of the season.

Zach Miner also was a big part of today’s win, going the last 2.1 innings and only allowing a walk and a hit by pitch. Ni-Miner was the poor man’s Seay-Lyon today. Ni struggled to put away hitters after getting 2 strikes on them, but Miner held firm until the offense could get that extra run.

And the offense needed the extra time. They only mustered 5 hits all afternoon, but one was a homer, and one was a triple with 2 men on. The last one was a leadoff double leading to the walk-off sacrifice fly (the 3rd sac fly for the team in the last 2 days).

• Adam Everett with 3 walks today. That’s the kind of thing that would make me nuts if the Tigers had been the ones issuing them, but kudos to Everett for getting on base 3 times.
• Aubrey Huff hit his first ball deep to right-center, but that was the extent of the carry-over from his big night on Tuesday.
• Ryan Raburn had an up and down game, or more specifically a down game that ended up. He fanned with a runner on 3rd and one out in the 7th. And he made a diving attempt that resulted in a double instead of a single when he couldn’t come up with the ball in 8th. But he scored the winning run after leading off the 10th with a double and putting the whole inning in motion.

PREGAME: Remember Aaron Laffey? The Tigers roughed him up pretty good early in the year.  Well, Laffey has been pitching much better as of late, to the tune of a 2.47 ERA in his last 7 starts (and that includes getting pounded for 7 runs in 4 innings in one of those starts). The strange thing is though, is beyond allowing only 5 homers in 90 innings, his other peripherals aren’t that great.

Rick Porcello takes the mound for the Tigers. He hasn’t shown any ill effects from the increased workload so far this season. He shut down the Indians for 8 innings his last time out, and would love to have the same kind of success this time around.

As an aside, I’ll be at the game tonight and enjoying some beers at The Park Bar prior to the game so feel free to stop by.

Now, your “the chalk in the left hand batters box shall remain unblemished” lineup:

1. Raburn, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Thames, DH
6. Inge, 3B
7. Ramirez, LF
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

Cleveland vs. Detroit – September 2, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: A couple of 4-2 finals both worked out in the Tigers favor today, and that makes it a good day. Joe Nathan had been flirting with disaster his last few outings and this time disaster got him. As for the Tigers own business, they were shall we say opportunistic?

The Tigers didn’t really kill the ball, and they hit into 3 double plays (Gerald Laird would have had 3 on his own had Ramirez not been running his 3rd time up). But they key was they put the ball in play with regularity and the Indians were kind enough to kick the ball and throw it all over the place. Laffey was charged with 2 earned runs, and I think that’s probably twice as many as he should have been charged with. But, to the Tigers credit they did push runs across when given the chance with sacrifice flies from Ramirez and Cabrera.

And the offense didn’t need much tonight because Porcello was on top of his game. He was a ground ball machine once again and his pitch count had him in position to pitch a complete game (80 pitches through 7+). Part of me wanted to see it, the sensible part of me was happy to see some pitches conserved for perhaps later in the season. The pen did the job again and Fernando Rodney didn’t even make me nervous.

• Very slick grab by Porcello on one of the few hard hit balls against him
• I was a little sad to see only 25k at the park tonight. It was a gorgeous night and not all schools are back in session yet, and the Tigers are about to head out on a road trip. Would have loved to see the place fuller.
• The Tigers were 2 for 3 in sac fly situations, and the third time Everett ripped a line drive to third (surprisingly Peralta caught it)
• Cabrera went 1 for 1 in 4 plate appearances today
• Wilkin Ramirez looked good all around tonight and he added a walk to the sacrifice fly
• The Tigers had lost 11 straight times when they were 9 games over .500 prior to today’s game.

PREGAME: And away we go. It’s September. This is like real-pennant-chase-scoreboard-watching-finger-nail-chewing-why-won’t-the-Twins-lose time. The Tigers shook off their August doldrums and posted their first winning August since 2000. Can they craft a formidable September and hold off the Twins?

Tonight the Tigers send out Edwin Jackson. When Jackson last faced the Indians he threw eleventy (a word whose etymology is tied to the developing counting of skills of preschool aged children and is invoked when the child runs out of fingers or simply can’t comprehend a number larger than the last one uttered in the sequence) million (added for emphasis by me) pitches in 4 innings. The Tigers will face new guy Carlos Carrasco.

The Tigers don’t fare well when they don’t have a scouting report on a pitcher so this could be frustrating. Carrasco was a part of the Cliff Lee deal and a prominent enough prospect to warrant a wikipedia page where I learned that he appeared in the Future’s Game 3 years in a row. Carrasco posts some very impressive minor league numbers and rates as a top prospect. Your “Aubrey Huff not so much with the protection for Cabrera” lineup, also known as your Viva Venezuela lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, LF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Ordonez, RF
6. Huff, DH
7. Inge, 3B
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

POSTGAME: The Tigers took care of business and really thumped a rookie starter and made his debut entirely unpleasant for said starter rather than the fans. Nice. Even the outs were crushed. Polanco smoked a ball into a double play. Granderson was out (I think he got the foot in) on a triple attempt. Everett lined out sharply. It was a hitting clinic.

And let’s talk about Aubrey Huff. Also known as the much-maligned Aubrey Huff. I don’t know if he is back, as declared by Rod Allen, but he was certainly productive today with a single, a double, and 2 walks. Hopefully it is the start of something, but regardless he was a big part of today’s win.

Also a big part of today’s win was the bullpen. Zach Miner allowed a lead off homer, but then retired the next 3. Then Bobby Seay got the next 4. Then Brandon Lyon got the next 2. Then Rodney got 3 of 4 allowing only an infield single (that should have been an out Mr. Everett).

Not a big part of the win was Edwin Jackson. He was definitely “owed” in a sense for the squanderings early in the season. But aside from the 6 K’s in 5 innings, he wasn’t that good. He got hit pretty hard. He’d fall behind after getting ahead, and he need 90 pitches to get through 5 innings. Not great but good enough tonight.

PREGAME: James Shields and Jarrod Washburn on wrap-around day.

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 31, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: This was a slightly different script than many Tigers losses. They got some offense this time, especially from Carlos Guillen who had 4 hits including 2 homers. It was the complete lack of pitching that cost them this time. Unfortunately it was another bad outing for Washburn who aside from the Royals start has found a way to struggle in every outing. He’ll usually find a way to record a bunch of outs in a row, but that is usually sandwiched in between homers.

This time Washburn pitched into some bad luck with 3 flukish doubles in the first inning. He made good pitches and didn’t have much to show for it. But that doesn’t excuse the walk or the homer that also took place that inning, or the runs in later innings either.

And Ryan Perry has looked dominant at times, and at other times like today he has looked anything but. The travails of rookie-dom.

PREGAME: Wrap-around series just mess with my baseball equilibrium. It’s a Sunday afternoon and instead of talking about a series win or a series loss or someway to punctuate the series, it is merely game 3 of 4.

But it is a Sunday afternoon, and the Tigers do have Justin Verlander on the hill. Hitters are OPSing .551 against Verlander during day games. Maybe the high heat is harder to center with sunshine, or may it is nothing.

Jeff Niemann, taken exactly 2 picks after Justin Verlander in the 2004 draft. The rookie has done a good job keeping the ball in the park with only 14 homers allowed in 139 innings. There is no platoon advantage with Niemann with hitters from both sides of the plate OPSing 721 against him in virtually the same number of PAs.

Random Factoid: Niemann has only allowed 2 extra base hits when the hitters has put the first pitch in play against him. Bad boding for the Tigers.

Your lefties in the outfield lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Guillen, LF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Huff, DH
6. Inge, 3B
7. Thomas, RF
8. Laird, C
9. Santiago, SS

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 30, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: It’s been 8 hours since the game ended, and I still can’t believe that Polanco’s ball made it over the wall. I was at the game Saturday and I was shocked that with 2 lefties on the mound, and with a very brisk wind blowing out that we didn’t see a wind blown homer that day. I don’t know what the conditions were like today, but regardless, where the Tigers were 2 feet short on Saturday, they had those 2 feet today. Those 2 feet were enough to maintain their 5 game lead on the Twins.

Justin Verlander wasn’t especially sharp in the early going. He wasn’t pitching bad, but he was unable to efficiently put away the Rays and it looked like getting through 6 would be stretching it. Jim Leyland let him go 8 as the Rays were kind enough to make some quick outs in the late going.

The offense was mostly stymied, except for Clete Thomas who had 3 hits. Unlike the game against Price, the Tigers hit a number of balls well, but they routinely went right at Brent Zobrist and they had little to show for it.

But they got enough.

Oh, and Fernando Rodney was good. Again.

PREGAME: Nate Robertson makes his return to the starting rotation, and it’s really hard to know what to expect. Do you draw on his 3-4 years as a slightly below average pitcher who will give you 6 innings, or do you draw in his last 2 years which have been ripe with injuries and ineffectiveness? He battled a hip problem which he never mentioned last year, and this year he had stuff in his elbow. His most recent history, be it at the AAA level is a rehab start where he fanned 9 in 6.2 innings on only 68 pitches.

He’ll go up against David Price. Price has nice strike out numbers (74 in 85 innings) but he has been vulnerable to the walk with 41 issued this year. He also has given up 13 long balls, but none in his last 3 starts.

This is a Fox “National” game meaning many of you get blacked out, but not as many as usual. Beyond Michigan and Florida it looks like Boston, Dallas, Minnesota, and the Dakotas will get this 4 pm tile.

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 29, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I’ve been a big believer in the theory that the Tigers pitching has improved this year because of the efforts to improve the defense. However, if someone had only watched the last 2 games I’d have a hard time convincing them. In Friday night’s game the defense had 3 misplays. In today’s game the defense had 4 misplays. That the pitching has held the Rays to 5 total runs is pretty remarkable.

Adam Everett was charged with 2 errors, but it looked like one should have gone to Polanco. Gerald Laird had a passed ball leading to a run. Miguel Cabrera battled the wind (which was screaming) and lost on a foul pop-up.

Robertson pitched well. He was limited to 4 innings because a) he had only thrown a max of 68 pitches in his rehab assignment b)the max came in his start Tuesday meaning he was following up on his longest outing on 3 days rest c) his innings kept getting extended and he should have made it through another inning.

• The offense did remarkably little. Only 2 of their hits even left the infield.
• I didn’t mind the Laird bunt, Longoria was playing way back. Bunting is part of Laird’s game. It was a good gamble.
• I actually would have liked to have seen Granderson try to bunt because Pena was playing him well behind the base and he might have had himself a hit and if he didn’t it should have scored a run – it didn’t even need to be a suicide squeeze.
• Granderson ended up fanning on the only real threat. But he made a bid at redemption in the 8th that was about 3 feet short of being a game tying homer.
• Ordonez had 2 hits and drove in the only run.
• The 8th inning was a nice little rally and the team made it interesting. The 9th inning was a buzz kill.
• Zach Miner did very well in relief of Robertson and he ate up 3 innings.
• I would love for the Tigers to display scoring decisions on the scoreboard. They never indicated wild pitch or passed ball on Laird. They never indicated if the 9th inning play was E4 or E6. There was no indication of what runs were earned.

PREGAME: The Tigers welcome in an AL East opponent in late August in a game with playoff implications for both teams, and it’s a very wet Friday night and the Tigers send out there prize prospect and first round pick. Reminds me of a similar game from 2007. This though instead of Andrew Miller it is Rick Porcello, and instead of the Yankees it is the Twins. And I’m not at this game and I doubt it ends at 3:30am.

Porcello kinda got clobbered by the A’s of all teams. Prior to that he had been pretty good shutting down Seattle, Baltimore, and the Indians and taking down Kevin Youkilis.

Garza has quality starts in 4 of his last 6 outings and he’s pretty good. Granderson and Polanco are a combined 1 for 22 with 1 walk off of Garza, so table setting may proove to be an issue.

The lineup:

1. Granderson, CF
2. Polanco, 2B
3. Ordonez, RF
4. Cabrera, 1B
5. Huff, DH
6. Guillen, LF
7. Inge, 3B
8. Laird, C
9. Everett, SS

Tampa Bay vs. Detroit – August 28, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: For those that don’t frequent the comments, Coleman has dubbed the guys at the bottom of the order the BOOBs (bottom of the order boys). The BOOBs were big tonight. Inge got things going with a homer, and Gerald Laird and Adam Everett had back to back doubles to drive in runs in the big 4th inning. In the end the BOOBs drove in 5 of the 6 runs and had 5 of the 8 hits.

Rick Porcello was wonderful and had to pitch around some poor defense. He had 2 men on in the first without a ball reaching the infield dirt, but back to back K’s ended the threat. In the end he had 5 k’s and allowed just 4 hits. He also topped 100 pitches for the first time this season.

The bullpen was on their way to a perfect showing until a pinch hit Gabe Kapler homer with 2 outs in the 9th made things a little more interesting, but Fernando Rodney finished things off with a strike out (after the requisite walk).

• Aubrey Huff started a rally instead of ending one when he drew the walk in the 4th inning. He also nearly hit his first homer as a Tiger but it hooked foul.
• Granderson had 2 hits and built on a road trip that saw him have success. Grandy hasn’t been able to get hot for more than 3-4 games at a time this year and hopefully he can really heat up heading into September.

PREGAME: It’s Joe Saunders and Edwin Jackson today. The Tigers try for a sweep, which is always fun to write. A guaranteed .500 road trip is certainly acceptable, but a 4-2 mark would be immensely satisfying.

The Tigers have faced Saunders twice this year and have plated 9 runs in 11 innings. He’s making his first start since coming off the DL.

Jackson has faced the Angels twice this year. The Angels worked him over pretty good running his pitch count up to 104 in just 5 innings. In Detroit he pitched a complete game and struck out the side in the 9th.

Detroit vs. LA Angels – August 26, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: A loss is a lot easier to take after a couple of good wins. The Tigers just came up short in so many facets of the game today. Granderson came up just short of robbing a homer (I’m not dogging him for this, just saying it was close). Rallies came up just short. Gerald Laird’s throws on the numerous stolen base attempts just missed getting runners. And Edwin Jackson just missed the strike zone too often today. It happens.

• Jackson had 4 walks today and that is certainly a concern. It’s been a pattern in the 2nd half of the season and something that he has had to pitch around.
• The Angels stole 5 bases which is pretty much unheard of with Laird behind the dish
• Adam Everett last homered in the last road series the Tigers won. I don’t mean to imply anything by this expect to point out an interesting coincidence.
• Everett hitting in the 9th is a fairly curious move, but with the lefty starter Leyland had deployed all his right handed hitting weapons. Even with a platoon disadvantage an option like Guillen was probably safer bet.
• Too bad Inge moved out of the way of the ball that was about to hit him or the bases could have been loaded with 1 out for Everett.
• Ryan Perry turned in another impressive performance and showed no ill effects from his Sunday shellacking.