Blog

PREGAME: So today will be Justin Verlander’s turn to flail hopelessly at the plate. Of course, no one really cares about Verlander’s lack of hits at the plate, but they do want to see how long he can keep this no hitter thing going on the mound.

The Tigers will hope for better success against Adam Eaton than they had with Jamie Moyer. Craig Monroe has yet to play in this series, so we’ll see if Leyland works him into the lineup today against the right hander.

Oh yeah, and I think Sean Casey homers today.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: Happy Father’s Day by the way. I kind of forgot about that this morning. On to the game.

Great win for the Tigers. Solid starting pitching, timely late inning hitting, and a relatively stress free outing from the bullpen. But let’s focus on the 7th inning and Jim Leyland for a few minutes. This was the inning when all the managing took place, and it’s an example of why I have a hard time blaming managers for losses. I’ll walk you through my thoughts as the action transpired.

Brandon Inge doubles with one out and Jim Leyland pinch hits Carlos Guillen for Neifi Perez
Me: Finally this offense starts to resemble something. Let’s hope it’s not too late – but good move Jim.
Carlos Guillen singles to put runners on the corners and Gary Sheffield steps to the plate
Me: It’s all or nothing this inning, but of course Sheffield can stay in the game and go to left field. Monroe’s almost as bad today with 3 straight pop outs. I guess it depends on how deep this inning goes, but if Monroe makes the last out the pitcher can take his spot. And why didn’t Inge score on that play, Rings and EZ are going to come on here in the comments and bash him and I’ll another Inge war on my hands.
Sheffield hits a rocket to score Inge and put runners on first and second. Charlie Manuel brings in the lefty and Leyland pinch hits Infante for Granderson.
Me: Nice job Sheff, but what is Leyland doing? Granderson has been hitting rockets all series, off of both lefties and righties. This is exactly what Manuel wanted to happen and Leyland played right into it. Not to mention weakening the outfield defensively. This game is still in doubt either way, and why do you want Grandy out?
Omar taps the ball to the pitcher advancing the runners, Polanco gets intentionally walked to pitch to Monroe.
Me: Nice job with the lineup today Leyland. How many teams will give a free pass to the number 2 hitter to face the number 3 hitter? Then again how many teams have their out making-est regular hitting in front of their best run producer? So much for this rally. Oh man Craig, please do something. For everyone’s sake.
Craig singles in two, and Magglio knocks in two with a double before Casey ends the inning.
Me: Now what should Jim do? He could put the new pitcher in Casey’s spot since he made the last out, and bring in Thames. Trouble is he’s the last position player. Well, I guess he’ll just put Sheffield in left and the pitcher can take Craig’s spot in the lineup, it won’t come up for 7 more batters.
The new pitcher Bobby Seay takes Sheffield’s spot
Me: What the heck is going on? You burned through Sheff for one at-bat, and now the pitcher is scheduled to bat 4th in the next inning as well? Why do that? This better not come back to haunt us.

My point in this exercise is that there were a couple moves that I really questioned – starting with the lineup – and yet the Tigers won going away. Sometimes the decisions, even the ones that don’t make sense, work out. That doesn’t make them the right decisions, but they ended up with the Tigers picking up a W. I also wanted to show that I’ll even second guess decisions that pan out and I’m not just slamming things after the fact. Thanks for joining me in my head.

Other notes:

• Very nice outing today by Fernando Rodney. He came in a high pressure situation and got the strike out. He then followed it up with a strong 8th inning allowing only a double, and ground ball right through Carlos Guillen’s legs to score the run. Inexplicably that was ruled a hit and an earned run. Just as curious a scoring decision as Pudge’s double in game 1 that Rowand dropped.
• Rodney threw 39 pitches meaning that he probably won’t be available tomorrow at least, and possibly not until Wednesday.
• Todd Jones kept it simple allowing just a single. It’s almost like the bullpen of last year reappeared for an afternoon.
• A couple of awesome defensive plays in this one with Granderson showing his ups, and Casey showing his moxie. I can’t believe that Dobbs, the runner on 3rd didn’t score on the Casey play, but it was a nice job regardless.
• Granderson picked up his 8th steal and is closing in on a quadruple double – double digits in homers, triples, doubles, and steals. I just made that up, but considering he’s one homer and 2 steals away and it’s mid June, that seems impressive.
• The strike zones the last 2 games were ridiculous. Guillen got hosed on Saturday night, and then Bill Welke’s zone was all over the place today. And the Phillies were right to be pissed on that Marcus Thames pitch. Whether or not he swung (which he did) shouldn’t have mattered. That pitch was a strike regardless. And to not appeal is just foolish on the part of the home plate ump.

Tigers 7 Phillies 4

PREGAME: Andrew Miller is pitching for the Tigers so the opposing starter must be an ancient 40 year old – ah look, it’s Jamie Moyer. Okay, so it’s only the second time it happened (with Braden Looper being the other starter Miller has faced), but the only possible way to move up the old crafty left hander ladder from Tom Glavine is to go to Jamie Moyer right?

In any case, Miller has limited opponents to a .622 OPS in his 2 starts. A key may be taking care of the leadoff hitter who has reached base in 5 of the 12 innings Miller has started. Of course it hasn’t bothered Miller to pitch from the stretch because over 27 PA’s with men on, he’s held the opposition to a 130/231/261 line.

As for Moyer, he made his major league debut when Andrew Miller was 13 months old. Moyer has been pitching like a guy who is older than dirt over his last 6 starts with a 6.69 ERA and 55 baserunners allowed in 35 innings. Ivan Rodriguez is hitting 369/423/615 against Moyer in his career and that spans 65 at-bats.

Game Time 7:05 – This game is on FSN + so check here for the channel on your cable/satellite system

PREGAME: The Tigers make their first journey to a National League park this season. So here we are, real baseball. Pitchers hitting. Double switches. There’s nothing like seeing a sacrifice bunt with 1 out. Or the excitement of seeing a pitcher who’s having a great game lifted for a pinch hitter. Maybe it’s because I’m from an American League city, and I’m at an age where the DH has always existed, but I just don’t get the appeal of the NL. I’m pro DH all the way.

But on to tonight’s contest. The Phillies are currently residing in second place in the NL East. They lead the NL in scoring, walks, and on base percentage. They’re 2nd in slugging percentage and 3rd in home runs. So it’s probably a good thing that Bonderman-Miller-Verlander (aka The Future) are set to throw in this series.

Tonight it’s Jeremy Bonderman’s turn. In his last start, he seemed to pitch pretty well but his final line was an unimpressive 6 runs allowed in 6+ innings with 4 K’s.

The Tigers will be facing Jon Lieber. Lieber’s last start was a complete game 11 K shut out of the Kansas City Royals. He’s been much better on the road with a 651 OPS allowed on the road and 824 at home. Sean Casey is 17 for 38 lifetime off Lieber and Neifi Perez has 2 homers in 21 at-bats against him.

And as a final note, Jose Mesa made his first appearance for the Phillies and allowed 2 runs in 1 1/3 innings with 2 wild pitches.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME Ergh the bullpen. Again. Is there any other team that can really use every bit of an 8 run cushion like the Tigers?

• Bonderman had allowed 5 homers all season, and then 4 solo shots tonight. He wasn’t nearly as sharp as his last outing against the Mets, yet the result was the same.
• Great game once again by the offense, and everybody contributed in one way or another. Casey had 4 hits, but Pudge gets the nod for blowing the game apart with 5 two-out RBI.
• I really think Casey will get his first homer this series, and really thought he had it tonight.
• Brandon Inge drew 2 intentional walks. That was the good. After having a great couple of weeks, he went back to looking tentative with a couple half/check swing strikeouts.
• The one good thing about pitchers batting is watching all the other pitchers laugh at the sacrificial lamb from the dugout. And with Bondo going station to station tonight, there was quite a bit to take in.
• Technically, Fernando Rodney’s string of 5 straight appearances allowing a run was snapped. Yes he only recorded one out, and yes an inherited runner scored, but the streak is broken.

Detroit 12 Philadelphia 8

PREGAME: Afternoon tilt today. Ben Sheets against Chad Durbin.

Tigers are fielding the Sunday lineup with Mike Rabelo catching, Perez at shortstop, and Omar Infante playing 2nd.

Game Time 1:05

POSTGAME: I missed the bulk of this game, catching bits and pieces on the radio between meetings. I’ve since lived it through the comments here and the FSN Squeeze Play.

I don’t think there are words to overstate how bad Craig Monroe was. He whiffed in his final at-bat on Wednesday night, meaning that in 6 straight trips to the plate now he has failed to put in the ball in play. And the 3 AB’s prior were another K, a double play, and a single. From what I gather from the condensed game as well as last night’s performance, it doesn’t appear that he’s reverted to his old form of chasing a bunch of bad pitches. He’s just swinging right through belt high fastballs.

I can’t profess to be able to break down someone’s swing. But Rod Allen mentioned that he was working on the bat wiggle and taking the ball the other way last night. If that’s what is causing the problems, go back to swinging away because his timing is all mucked up.

As for pinch-hitting for him, of course it is the move that makes the most sense for all of us watching. Tactically in that game it would have been the right move. But right or wrong I think we all knew it wasn’t going to happen. Leyland is going to stick with his starters (the bigger debate is should he be a starter). There are probably issues about what it would do to his confidence to pinch hit for him, but at the same time what did 5 K’s do for his confidence either? I thought Leyland was crazy when he left Jones out there that night in Cleveland (he was) and questioned how he’d motivate a team who he let that happen to. Then they won 7 of the next 9. Clearly I have no ability to evaluate these “soft” issues.

I’m not saying it’s right, just that I didn’t expect anything else. And no amount of complaining is going to get Leyland to change his ways and the guy isn’t getting fired – nor should he. Jim Leyland brought winning baseball back to Detroit. Part of the deal is that we’re going to have to suffer through odd strategic decisions.

Maybe because I didn’t watch it unfold, I don’t view it as crushing. Disappointing to be sure, but not crushing. When you’re going up against the other team’s ace and your starter doesn’t make it through 4 things aren’t looking good anyways.

• The bullpen combined to throw 5 2/3 allowing only 3 runs, one out short of a kind of quality start. (ed: my bad, 4 runs in 5 1/3, nothing like a quality start) And yet it was largely unsatisfying. Probably because a run scored on a freak balk and another on a wild pitch.
• Curtis Granderson had his 13 game hitting streak snapped.
• Placido Polanco was ill which is why he didn’t pinch hit.
• Bill Hall. Shakes Head. Freakin Bill Hall.