Blog

Toledo 8 Ottawa 2
Timo Perez was 2 for 5 with a homer. And Ramon Santiago added a single and homer as well. Chris Shelton picked up 3 hits and Ryan Raburn added 2 hits and a walk. Jordan Tata started and allowed 2 runs on 9 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s in 7 innings.

Altoona 4 Erie 1
Matt Joyce was the offensive leader with a double and a walk in a game without much offense for the good guys. Andrew Kown allowed 4 runs on 5 hits in 6 innings. Zach Miner pitched an inning of relief and allowed 2 hits and fanned 2.

Altoona 4 Erie 3 (8 innings)
Mike Hollimon doubled and singled. Jeff Larish didn’t play in either end of the double header. Randor Bierd moved from the pen to make the start in the double header and allowed just 1 walk and 1 hit in 3 innings.

Lakeland 4 Dunedin 6
Ryan Roberson doubled and singled and Cameron Maybin doubled and walked. And Ovandy Suero is up to 51 stolen bases now. Jsoh Rainwater allowed 2 runs on 5 hits, no walks and 3 K’s.

West Michigan – All Star Break

Oneonta 4 Lowell 2
Kody Kaiser likes pro ball and he added a single and a double and 2 RBI tonight. Catcher Devin Thomas doubled and singled.

GCL Tigers 1 GCL Phillies 6
Luis Arlet had 2 hits and a walk. Wade Lamont added 2 hits as well. Brent Clevlen was 0 for 4. Aaron Fuhrman allowed 4 runs, 2 earned, on 4 hits, 2 walks, and 2 K’s in 3 innings.

PREGAME: The Tigers have a chance to sweep the Nationals tonight. They’ll send Jeremy Bonderman out to the mound. Bonderman has allowed 5 earned runs in 6 innings in each of his last 2 starts. His last time out he allowed 4 homers. But he also got a single so I guess that evens out.

Mike Bacsik starts for the Nationals and he throws lots of pitches. I don’t know about different pitches, just that he’s not terribly efficient. He hasn’t made it to the 6th inning in his last 3 starts.

The Tigers lineup has a different look tonight with Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco getting the night off. Craig Monroe will bat second and Marcus Thames will hit 3rd and play first base.

For stats and such see: DET @ WSN, Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Here’s hoping that Pudge’s hamstring spasm doesn’t keep him out too long. The off day tomorrow is very fortunate. Nothing against Mike Rabelo, but I’d just assume see the Kenny Rogers-Pudge battery on Friday.

• Note to Todd Jones – if you pitch like that people won’t pick on you. Very nice effort tonight by Jonesy. Eight pitches, 7 strikes, 3 outs.
• Jason Grilli, Tim Byrdak, and Fernando Rodney had pretty good results but were far from perfect. Grilli allowed a couple of balls to the warning track. Byrdak allowed 3 hits. Rodney was erratic around the strike zone. But I’ll take one run in 4 innings from the pen.
• How spoiled am I by Magglio Ordonez that when he doesn’t get an extra base hit I’m disappointed despite the fact he reached base in 4 of 5 PA’s? And even a couple of those hits were cheap. C’mon Maggs!
• I totally understand pinch hitting for Bonderman in the 6th. That decision is one that could be defended either way. I think if the Tigers had one more run at that point, Bondo would have stayed in the game. I can’t blame Leyland for wanting to get all the offense he could in that situation. It’s just the beauty of NL baseball where pitchers get taken out prematurely.
• The first 3 innings Jeremy Bonderman looked every bit as good as Verlander did in his no hitter. Then the 4th inning happened where Bondo was hammered. It reminded me of the Mets game where he was cruising, and then struggled in the 7th.

PREGAME: Baseball Reference continues to develop really cool stuff. My game thread prep was usually drawn in large part from that site. Now they’ve made it even easier – by compiling game preview. Here’s tonight’s for the Tigers/Nats match-up.

Looks like my work here is done. Off to play a quick game of pickle with the family before the game starts.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: So that’s what a real blow out feels like…

• Sean Casey finally goes yard. I didn’t call it tonight (cuz I didn’t expect it) so I won’t take credit for being a couple days off. The silent treatment in the dugout was great.
• And Neifi doubles. You know things are going right.
• Rod and Mario seemed very loose in the booth tonight. Favorite moment came early on when Rod lamented not going to Montreal. He said it was a great city, clean. Mario asked him his favorite part – pregnant pause – Rod “umm..the restaurants?” – Mario – “I see”
• All 3 pitchers made cases to keep their current roles tonight. Durbin was very solid again – 5K’s, no walks and a 4.37 ERA for the season. Wil Ledezma fanned 3 in 2 innings and Frankie DLC looked very good for the second consecutive night.
• With a 3 for 3 and another double, things keep going well for Magglio. Baseball Musings notes that even if he returns to his normal double pace here on out, he still threatens the record of 67. Never mind. Bad math. But still visit Baseball Musings on a regular basis. Nice catch Kyle

PREGAME: One NL series down, 2 to go. This time the Tigers head to Washington D.C. to take on the Nationals. The Nats are chuck full of former Tigers including Nook Logan, Dmitri Young (who is really doing well, sobriety – who knew?), and Robert Fick. Each made their mark on the Tigers in their own special way with Logan being the only member of the trio not to be a Tiger All Star representative.

The Tigers will send out Mike Maroth who may be auditioning for several teams tonight with Kenny Rogers definitely returning to the rotation on Friday. Maroth wiggled out of jams in his last start and handed a 1 run lead to Fernando Rodney and well, we know how that worked out.

The Tigers will take on Matt Chico. His peripherals are pretty unimpressive with him fanning only 5 per 9 and walking almost 4. But he’s been much better in his last 4 starts with a 2.74 ERA.

Game Time 7:05pm

POSTGAME: Well the bullpen looked good for awhile. Bobby Seay allowed a couple inherited runners to score, but also got a couple outs which were more important at the time. Jason Grilli went an 1 1/3 pretty easily. Eulogio De La Cruz looked very good in his debut, attacking the strike zone and showing a good fastball, a sharp curve and a change that subtracted 12mph. And then Jones happened.

It’s questionable whether Jones should be in the game, and in Leyland’s presser he says that 4 runs is a save situation for them this year. It’s hard to argue with that given the collective struggles and inconsistency this season. So Jones comes in and it’s basically batting practice. It took 5 hits before Leyland bothered to get anybody up in the bullpen, because you don’t want to mess with your closer’s confidence. Funny thing is, is that once Tim Byrdak started warming up, Todd Jones got the next 3 outs. Ugly.

• Maroth was cruising in this game. He’d even racked up 4 K’s in the first 5 innings. And then his defense collapsed behind him. He could have been out of that inning with nothing scoring. Instead after a single Gary Sheffield really misplayed a flyball into a double. Curtis Granderson threw a bullet to third, right on the bag in plenty of time but Brandon Inge misses the ball. Worst case is it should have been one out and none on and one run in. Next Carlos Guillen boots a ball, so instead of none on, 2 out another run scores and an a runner is on first. That’s what shortened Maroth’s outing.
• Curtis Granderson continues to hit the ball well, with a couple more hard hit balls off a lefty. He’s got to see more time in the lineup and less platooning.
• Carlos Guillen saw his batting average dip below .300. He’s now hit in 7 straight and has pushed his average to .317, and he’s crushing the ball.