Category: Game Post

PREGAME: The optimist in me looks at last night’s win and thinks “hey, the Tigers have 2 more chances to win this series,” while the pessimist in me thinks “hey, at least they won’t get swept.” It’s not such a bad deal when the pessimist can even look on the bright side right?

Jarrod Washburn will try to stifle his fondness for giving up long balls as he has mistaken the Old English D to stand for “Deep.” Washburn is familiar with the Angels. That isn’t necessarily good. He has faced them 3 times this year and in 2 of the outings he allowed 6 runs and didn’t complete 6 innings in those starts.

John Lackey is on the bump for the Angels. He hasn’t started against Detroit since 2007. His last time out the Indians got to him for 6 runs in 5.1 innings. Aubrey Huff is 2 for 30 lifetime against Lackey. Gerald Laird is 3 for 30 lifetime. Ordonez is 4 for 11 with 2 homers. There’s no way that Huff and Laird can start tonight is there?

POSTGAME: At least those who stayed up until the wee hours (after staying up to the really wee hours the night before) were thoroughly rewarded. It wasn’t just that it was a win, it was that it was a terrifically entertaining game, punctuated by some key hits and even key-er defense.

Washburn was hard to watch the first 3 innings. The pattern was unpleasantly similar for almost everyone that came to the plate. Fall behind 2-0 or 3-1 by missing badly to both sides of the plate, then see the ball hit hard somewhere. Curtis Granderson saved a double in the first and Brandon Inge started a diving double play in the same frame. Washburn was bailed out of what would have been a crooked number inning without both of those plays occurring.  Fortunately after slogging through 2 more innings of struggles and allowing a 3 run bomb, Washburn settled in and somehow made it through 6 innings.

On the other side the Tigers continued to hit and threaten and they got enough big hits (and by big I mean extra base big) to post 5 runs on the board. The Polanco-Ordonez-Cabrera trifecta resulted in a run in the first. Solo shots by Grandy and Miggy tied the score. And a damn near homer turned triple (more on this in a minute) by Granderson set up what turned out to be the first of back-to-back triples punctuated by an Ordonez sacrifice fly.

But then there was the bullpen. Leyland has decided that Zach Miner has earned himself a more prominent role in the pen following his outing last Thursday. It didn’t turn out well on Saturday and I can’t really say it turned out well Tuesday either. Miner, staked with a 2 run lead walked the bases loaded before escaping due to an inning ending wild pitch 2-1 out at the plate. And then he came back out for the 8th inning. My guess is that Leyland wants Miner to have some confidence in his stuff and his abilities and to coax him out of his habit of nibbling that leads to walks – even after he’s ahead in the count. Decent intentions, but it ain’t working so much.

Bobby Seay entered with a man on and 2 outs in the 8th and gave up a long drive that Clete Thomas snared with a leaping grab at the fence. Not a home run robbing play, but it was definitely a “keep the run from scoring and keep the tying run out of scoring position play” that also ended the inning.

Rodney got the save.

• I’ve been frustrated and critical of many of Granderson’s at-bats lately, but one thing about Grandy is he never takes a moment off. The fact that he busted it all the way to third on the near triple is a testament to hustle and doing things the right way. Big applause for Curtis.
• Miguel Cabrera has 5 extra base hits and 8 RBI as he makes a play for AL Player of the Week. And it’s Tuesday. The tear he is on is incredible and it even has people whispering about MVP. Now Mauer is so ultra deserving that others aren’t reall close. But if people are going to make a case for Mark Teixeira, I don’t know how Cabrera doesn’t get factored in.
• The thing with both Cabrera and Ordonez right now is that they seem so in control of the situation when they are at the plate. They are willing to take strikes down the middle early in the count because it wasn’t the strike they wanted. And when they get what they want they are hitting it hard. Ordonez only had 1 double to show for last night, but he also hit a bullet at first and his sac fly was a rope to centerfield.
• Aubrey Huff is pretty much the opposite. He K’d 3 times last night, 2 on check swings. To his credit he saw a lot of pitches and worked the count full in each at-bat, but he has looked awful whenever presented with RBI opps, and he’s had a ton.
• For a change it was the other team stranding guys all over the place. The Angels had runners on base every time you turned around, but the only 3 that scored came on the big fly from Howie Kendrick. Bad luck, good defense, and bad execution kept the Tigers on the right side of this game.

PREGAME: How many times are the Tigers going to lean on Justin Verlander to right the ship? This time it would be stopping a losing streak from expanding to 3 (and possibly beyond). He’ll go up against Jered Weaver meaning we have ourselves a dandy of a pitching match-up.

Verlander faced the Angels twice this year. Once when he and the Angels were struggling and they managed to run his pitch count up high by fouling off a ton of pitchs and with the help of some horrendous defense from Ryan Raburn. The other time Verlander schooled them and pitched 8 innings of shut out ball.

Weaver picked up a no decision when he faced the Tigers in April. The Tigers beat him up pretty good the first 2 times they faced him, but Weaver has spun quality starts in the last 2 outings.

Your, “I dare you to bring in a lefty to face Huff-Guillen back to back because I’ll pinch hit Raburn and Thames” 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. Santiago, SS

Detroit vs. LA Angels – August 24, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Loved the Tigers offensive explosion, scoring more runs in the 6th than they did the whole Oakland series. Hated a dominant Verlander becoming unhinged in the subsequent inning and not making it out of the 6th. Loved Fernando Rodney’s 4 out save with 2 K’s and getting out of a runners at the corner situation. Hated the combined evening of the Seay Lyon and the Tigers burned up the top 3 arms in their pen in what was a 10-0 game in the 6th. Loved Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez and Venezuelan power. Hated seeing Aubrey Huff twice fail in 2nd/3rd 1 out situations. Loved the final outcome. Hated the ending time of the game. Yawn.

PREGAME: The Tigers have a chance at a road series win. If they succeed, it would be their first since they took 3 of 5 from the White Sox in early June.

The Tigers will send out Rick Porcello who has been quite solid as of late. Over his last 4 starts the opposition is OPSing just .486 against him.

The A’s send out Brett Tomko who is making just his 2nd start of the season. His first time out he shut out the Yankees for 5 innings on 5 hits, no walks, and no strikeouts. The Tigers don’t have a lot of history against Tomko, but Adam Everett has taken him deep so make of that what you please.

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers won a road game. Is it getting too greedy to want them to win 2 in a row? Tonight it will be Armando Galarraga taking on Trevor Cahill.

Cahill has some pretty brutal peripherals with 25 homers allowed in 139 innings, only 70 strikeouts, and 57 walks. He somehow has an ERA under 5. But the Tigers have made lesser pitchers look greater.

Galarraga has 2 starts against the A’s. The last one was pretty good and gave us reason to think that Galarraga was starting to bounce back as he limited Oakland to 1 run on 2 hits (but with 6 walks) in 6.1 innings. The one before that he didn’t make it out of the first inning…coincidentally that one was against Trevor Cahill

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 22, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers start their last left coast swing and they do it in Oakland where the Tigers haven’t been particularly impressive, save for 2 games in October, 2006.

Edwin Jackson slogged through a victory against the Royals last Saturday. He wasn’t especially crisp, but he got plenty of run support for a change. Really, out of Jackson’s last 4 starts only the one against Baltimore would you really call strong.

Gio Gonzalez is on the mound for the A’s. The lefty took the loss when the two team’s hooked up in July. His game log shows someone who a)rarely pitches through the 7th inning and b)seems to be really good or really bad. He strikes out a batter an inning, but he walks one every other inning and has allowed 8 homers in 56 innings. In 67 PAs lefties are OPS over 1.100 against him, bolstered by a freaky .459 BABIP

Detroit vs. Oakland – August 21, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: Some lefty-on-lefty action today with Jarrod Washburn taking on his old team and the hyphenated one Ryan-Rowland-Smith (yeah, it’s an extra hyphen but I don’t have time for a proper pregame so instead you get lame punctuation jokes – sorry).

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 20, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: The Tigers were wheels up for Oakland just before 7 p.m., but thanks to a Clete Thomas line drive to right they’ve been flying since Miguel Cabrera rounded home plate to head to first base and congratulate Thomas. A late rally from 4 runs down surely lifted the spirits of the team and the hopes of a fan base as the Tigers put a dramatic capper on a 4-2 homestand.

For a change today, it was the offense bailing out the starting pitching. Washburn has been extremely homer prone since coming to Detroit (his homer/flyball rate was unsustainably low with Seattle but c’mon with the ultra rapid regression) and with 4 more today it meant 3 bad outings out of 4.

Of course the Tigers did some thumping of their own and solo shots by Raburn and Inge cut a 4 run lead down to 2…but Washburn promptly gave those back. One of them on a near Pepsi-Porch shot by Russell Branyan. Coincidentally, I believe it was Branyan who hit one off the facing of the Porch back in his Cleveland days.

And then the rains came…but not before the Tigers loaded the bases in the 6th and chased Rowland-Smith. And then Jim Leyland started to really manage. He pinch hit Huff for Laird (who hit the ball too softly to second for an inning ending double play). And then Avila hit for Everett and came up with the big knock to close the gap to 6-5.

Fortunately Zach Miner (aka “the much maligned Zach Miner”) and Bobby Seay were perfect for 3 innings the giving the Tigers 3 more cracks at plating the tying run. They would have tied the score in the 8th were it not for some spectacular defense from Gutierrez and Wilson to rob Avila and Polanco on consecutive would-be run scoring plays.  But then there was the 9th.

A walk, a pop-out, some cursing, a double, a IBB, a sac fly with a collision, and a big knock and we had ourselves some walk-off fun.

• Inge made a couple of nice plays going into the stands. It was against Seattle 2 years ago where he literally laid out going into the stands. I’m sure they are tired of seeing that.
• The Tigers made a few loud outs today as well and were it not for some sterling defense maybe this one isn’t close. Cabera and Avila were both victimized by Gutierrez
• Unlike most of Granderson’s days off, he actually got the whole day off…and he’ll get tomorrow off as well
• Ryan Raburn (there is no y in Raburn) slotted nicely into the 3 spot with a homer and 2 singles.
• With 2 walk-offs recently, I think it is time for some Clete’s Cougars:

PREGAME: Justin Verlander has been a little up and down lately. He sandwiched 2 monster starts against Sox of different colors around 3 outings where he allowed at least 4 runs. The last time he faced the Mariners he had no hit stuff, except for the 5th inning where he had multi-hit stuff.

Ian Snell is still adjusting to the Pacific Northwest. He has made 3 starts since the M’s acquired him. The first one was pretty good (6 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits). The next 2 were pretty awful and he was chased in the 2nd inning in one of them. Snell lost to the Tigers earlier this year. He only allowed 2 runs in 7 innings, but the Tigers tagged him for 10 hits and 2 walks (they had some RISP issues)

The 80 plate appearance countdown to $18 million lineup is:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Tigers didn’t hit good enough. Verlander was good except for a rough-ish inning. Tigers lost. Maggs didn’t make an out in 4 PA’s. Tigers waste a favorable pitching match-up. That is all.

PREGAME: Aubrey Huff makes his Tigers debut tonight and he’ll be batting 5th in the lineup. I don’t know if Daniel Fields will make an appearance tonight or not, but he’s in town.

As for the pitching match-up it will be a rehabilitated Rick Porcello. Rehabilitated in the sense that he has done time for his crime of having a helmet chucked at him (yep, still bitter). He’s facing Seattle after a lengthy layoff having only gone 1 inning and 1 pitch his last time out. The last time he faced Seattle it came on the heels of his summer vacation (that 2.5 week stretch where he was off) and it didn’t go so well.

He’ll have to be better this time out though because Felix Hernandez takes the mound for the Mariners. Hernandez is awesome. He just is. But he has had some problems with walks as of late with 14 issued in his last 3 games.

Your Aubrey-ized lineup is:

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

Seattle vs. Detroit – August 18, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it’s safe to deem this game a battle. Porcello and Hernandez battled. Tigers hitters battled. Fernando Rodney battled Jose Lopez. Fortunately for the Tigers they won more of the battles.

Porcello and Hernandez was essentially a draw. Porcello was better than at any ponit this season through 5.2 innings. He picked up 8 K’s and he had the fastball and breaking ball working. It appeared he tired a little in the 6th though, because the ball started leaving the infield. Through the first 5 if the M’s weren’t whiffing they were grounding out meekly.

The Tigers didn’t fare any better at the dish while Hernandez was in the game and he held them to 4 hits and 1 walk and 1 run in 7 innnings. He made Granderson look particularly foolish as Grandy was on his way to the golden sombrero before he was lifted.

Bobby Seay struggled again against the Mariners. You may remember it was Seattle who broke Seay’s scoreless appearance streak in July and got to him on consecutive nights. This time it was a jam job double by Ichiro that set up a couple sacrifice flies.

Fortunately Mark Lowe struggled more with some “help” from his defense. Alex Avila started off the 8th with a monster mash to visitor bullpen and that opened things up. A great pinch hit at-bat by Santiago resulted in a single. A Granderson foul out was followed by a chopper to short . Probably not a double play but there should have been an out except the misplay resulted in runners at the corners. A Guillen walk was followed by a Cabrera clutch 2 run single that would pull the Tigers ahead and be the difference.

The Tigers added on with a “double steal” where Lowe tried the fake throw to third (after a nice job tagging up and getting to 3rd by Raburn who Leyland inserted for Guillen) then get the guy breaking off first. The play that never works…except Cabrera was actually moving on the play. Raburn managed to score as everyone was safe.

A composed Rodney gave up a ground ball single and a line drive single, but he fanned Russell Branyan and eventually fanned Jose Lopez after a tremendous 12 pitch at-bat to end the game. Rodney threw 28 pitches, 22 of them for strikes.

• A longer postgame than normal, but after a detailed bashing of the lack of offensive execution on Sunday this team/game deserved equal positive treatment.
• And to that end how about Adam Everett with the big hit early in the game to plate the first run.
• Very nice outing by Ryan Perry who came in with the bases juiced and 2 outs and got out of the innning, then fanned the side the next inning.
• Seay threw a lot of pitches, Rodney threw a lot of pitches, Perry pitched in parts of 3 innings. Is the pen thin tomorrow and do they make a move?
• Cabrera stole bases in consecutive games for just the 2nd time in his career, the other time was May 21-22, 2006
• Aubrey Huff was introduced to Comerica Park by hitting a 410 foot out to center

PREGAME: The Tigers have answered their 3 game losing streak with a 3 game winning streak, let’s keep it going today.

I love going to Comerica Park, and I enjoyed myself down there the last two nights. I’m happy to be watching this one in “crystal-clear HD” from the comfort of air condition. It is a scorcher today and many eggs could be fried various flat heat gathering surfaces today.

Throw in the fact that there are two run-preventionally challenged starting pitchers today and there could be much offense given the temperature and breeze and it could be a very long day.

A illness weakened Armando Galarraga will take the mound for the Tigers. I can’t imagine he’ll last long either due to the heat and fatigue or maybe just getting bludgeoned.

Kyle Davies is on the mound for the Royals. Earlier in the year when Davies was pitching good, the Tigers still beat him up twice scoring 12 runs against him and chasing him in the 6th inning both times. He was since demoted and in his 2 starts since returning to the rotation one was effective (5 IP, 1 Run, 3 W, 6 K) and one not so much with the effective (3.2 IP, 8 R, 2 W, 3 K). But he hasn’t allowed a homer in either of those starts.

The lineup gets a little bit of a shake up today with a lot of righties against Davies, who has struggled with righties this year. This might not be an optimal defensive configuration.

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

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 16, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I think it is safe to tally this one under the column of “bad loss.” The game was there for the Tigers the whole time. Kyle Davies was nothing special as the Tigers repeatedly put runners on base. But their failure to do anything with those runners was somewhere between comical and pitiful. Let’s rehash it:

3rd Inning: Adam Everett leads off with a double. Curtis Granderson who routinely pulls ground balls to first or second manages only a pop-up leaving Everett at second. Polanco and Thames follow with grounders to the left side and Everett doesn’t move.

4th Inning: Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen single so Ordonez his hitting with runners on first and second and nobody out. And he hits a 6-4-3 double play. Ryan Raburn catches the Royals off guard with a bunt that Kyle Davies fumbles. Cabrera was also caught off guard as he doesn’t budge off of third. Gerald Laird lays down a beautiful bunt but gets jobbed by a bad call at first by Country Joe West. The inning ends. At least Raburn and Laird gave the team a chance to score.

5th Inning: The Tigers are now down a run but Adam Everett leads off with a single. Granderson once again fails to advance him by striking out. A hit and run puts runners at the corners and fortunately the Royals incur a wild pitch allowing Adam Everett to score. The Tigers have the go ahead run at second but a K by Marcus Thames and a Cabrera ground out means once again he doesn’t move.

6th Inning: Carlos Guillen leads off with a hustle double. An Ordonez ground ball would be helpful here, but instead he flies out to shallow center. Guillen tried to take matters into his own hands and steal third which was unsuccessful and costly as Rabun singled.

7th Inning: Adam Everett again gets on base, this time via HBP. Once again Granderson can’t advance him, but Everett moves up on a passed ball while Polanco is batting. Polanco at least hit a grounder to get Everett to 3rd. The second time that Polanco actually advanced a runner. But he’d go no farther as Thames grounds out.

8th Inning: Cabrera reaches base via an error and then steals second! Guillen hits a ground ball to get him to 3rd (silver star for Carlos). But Ordonez strikes out and Raburn hit the ball deep to right center but it was easily tracked down by Josh Anderson.

9th Inning: Alex Avila walked with 1 out. Not that exciting as Granderson once again didn’t advance a runner and the inning ended quietly.

Yes, Ryan Raburn completely blew the 10th inning by biffing two routine grounders and undoing a very effective stint by the bullpen including 2 innings from Ni, 1 from Perry, and the 2nd inning from Rodney. But the truth of the matter is it never should have gotten to the 10th inning. This was a collective effort. It wasn’t just the inability to get a hit with a runner in scoring position (0 for 16) it was the collective inability to even advance runners save for Placido Polanco. In the end the Tigers wasted a very solid starting performance from a sick Galarraga, a great bullpen effort, and even all the offense that they did generate to start innings. And they wasted a chance to add an a win.

• Granderson failed to advance runners with less than 2 outs in 4 different PA’s. But he did make a tremendous catch and sacrificed his body crashing into the wall.
• If Brandon Inge is in the game at the end this one might have turned out differently, or at least it wouldn’t have ended in the 10th. But the guy is hurting and this was a chance for 2 full days off. I can’t fault Leyland for holding him out…but let’s be consistent. Don’t bring him in as a defensive replacement in a blow out game (like in Texas).
• I thought the Avila pinch hit move was curious. I thought that after Laird fouled the ball off his leg perhaps Leyland was going to take him out of the after the at-bat and I thought the move made sense because you might as well get Avila an AB if he’s coming in anyways. But it didn’t so much play out like that.

PREGAME:  The Tigers haven’t allowed a run since the Freddy Dolsi 5th inning horror show on Wednesday night. That’s 21 innings and counting. Let’s keep the streak going.

Edwin Jackson will be tasked with keeping the Royals off the board. He’s only lasted 4 innings in 2 of his last 3 starts, but in between he shut out the Orioles for 8 innings and then gave up a 2 run homer in the 9th as he went for the complete game. Maybe the every other thing will work in Jackson’s favor tonight.

He’ll be opposed by Luke Hochevar. Hochevar has been giving up a ton of hits, and subsequently a bunch of runs. But he’s also striking out quite a few and not walking many, so he’s probably been a little unlucky. In his last 3 games he’s allowed 15 runs in 18 innings, but he’s fanned 16 and walked 6. In the 2 starts prior to that he fanned 22 and walked none over 13.1 innings. He’s clearly capable of being dominant.

Hochevar has limited lefties to a 234/316/430 line but righties have hit him 293/338/503.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 15, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

PREGAME: The Tigers come home and they get to face Zach Greinke People have been saying that Greinke is fading some. I just don’t see it. In his last 3 games he does have a 5.50 ERA, but he still fanned 21 and walked just 6 in those 3 starts. Six of the 11 runs in those 3 starts came in one bad outing where  he allowed 10 hits in 5 innings. I think that is more of a hiccup than a fade.

Speaking of hiccups and/or fades the Tigers send out Jarrod Washburn. Washburn has allowed 11 runs in 11.1 Tigers innings including 4 homers. He last faced the Royals in May and held them to 2 runs (1 earned) in 7 innings.

Kansas City vs. Detroit – August 14, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: I’m going to defer to my friend Ian’s intro to his game recap:

The Detroit Tigers have apparently found their formula for winning.  Don’t allow the other team to score any runs, and then wait for the third baseman to do something awesome.

You kind of got the sense in this one that it would take somebody “running into one” because there wasn’t a lot of manufacturing to be done. The Tigers had a couple of scoring chances, but those both came with 2 outs.

The Royals didn’t have any scoring chances until the 8th inning, but Washburn pitched out of that. (despite walking his former teammate Yuniesky Betancourt…really…Yuniesky Betancourt…the only guy he walked all night…Yuniesky Betancourt). In fact they didn’t get a hit until 2 outs in the 5th. That’s the Washburn we were looking for.

But all of that just set the stage for Brandon Inge’s heroics. Of the bat it looked to be hit well, but the David DeJesus seemed to be slowing down to track it. Fortunately he was just slowing down to time a fruitless jump at the wall.

• Granderson didn’t seem to have too much of a problem with Greinke notching a single, a double, and a walk
• Clete Thomas on the other hand, 3 K’s. Ouch
• Miguel Cabrera made a very nice sliding stop on a grounder and then got up and beat Billy Butler to the bag. Gerald Laird used the opportunity to go talk with Washburn, and let Cabby catch his breath
• Brandon Lyon with another 1-2-3 inning of relief.

PREGAME: Talk about leaning on your ace. Justin Verlander simply has to come up big today, and that means rebounding from back-to-back 5 run outings. The Tigers faced Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz once last year and got to him for 10 hits and 5 runs. He has a WHIP of 1.97 and I hope he doesn’t “figure things out” at the Tigers expense.

Detroit vs. Boston – August 13, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: He’s got a way about him. I don’t know what it is. He comes to me when I’m feeling down. He inspires me, without a sound.  He touches me…uh…well…he doesn’t do that. But man does he bring it when it needs to be brung. The he of course is Justin Verlander who donned his ace cap today and put the team on his back, or his right arm and stopped a 3 game slide pretty much on his own. He also rescued a depleted bullpen.  And it’s not the first time this year.

You may remember a similar performance against the White Sox in the front end of a double header. It stopped a slide and rescued a bullpen. And like that other game he was spectacular again. A K an inning. Blistering velocity carried past pitch 120 (96.57 mph average on the fastball today).

Ryan Raburn was the offense knocking in both runs, and 2 ended up being more than enough as Fernando Rodney pitched a completely uneventful 1-2-3 9th inning for the save.

Great bounce back game before coming home.