PREGAME: It’s the pitching stupid! Justin Verlander and Johan Santana will do battle tonight – barring inclement weather of course. Then again, starting the game and experiencing a lengthy rain delay would probably help the Tigers. While I’d prefer to see Verlander throwing, I think our fresh long relievers would have the advantage against the Twins weary bullpen.
But Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, and Craig Monroe have all had success against Santana in the past. Tonight’s lineup feature Pudge at DH with Vance Wilson catching. Ramon Santiago gets the nod over Placido Polanco at 2nd base.
Great job by Inge at third. He blocked Cuddyer perfectly.
@$#$#@$#@ I flipped to check the pistons score and missed Vance’s homer!!!!
Want to know why I’m willing to give Leyland the benefit of the doubt when he does something seemingly stupid (start Santiago, have Gomez bat second,…)? Because of what he did for Inge last night. Brandon missed the squeeze sign and Ordonez got thrown out. Leyland tells the media afterwards that he, Leyland, messed up. He told LaMont to tell some players to look for the squeeze sign and Leyland forgot to tell LaMont to tell Inge. Now I think LaMont should be able to figure out who to tell and, anyway, Inge should know the signs. But for public consumption, Leyland takes the fall. In private, I’m sure Leyland had a talk with Inge — or maybe knew that he didn’t need to because Inge would beat himself up. Either way, Inge knows he owes Leyland one. And that can come in handy down the road.
Heck, Gomez might have enough confidence that he ends up with a game-winning hit in September, not just in April.
Leyland is the second coming of Sparky — the sentences are shorter but they still make little sense.
Very true, SJC. Anyone that’s paying attention knows that Inge dropped the ball, but since Leyland took the blame, not a single paper in the state could write an article saying “Inge makes mental mistake”. This would have been even more important had they lost.
I still remember a game where Sparky used Stan Papi at DH. If memory serves me correctly, he went 3 for 4 with a game winning hit. Leyland is just as shrewd (or lucky) in his lineup choices.
It amazes me the way some people are reacting to Leyland’s managing. You’d think that the Tigers were 5 behind KC, Dimtri was O for 600, and Jones had 75 blown saves already.
Can anyone explain to me why Yahoo!’s caption under a photo of last night’s game said small ball rules? Not only were the only runs from a two run homer, every time somebody tried to advance their chances by running, they were gunned down.
Great comment, SJC. I think those type of things are what make good managers. The in-game stuff is so hit or miss; your value is mostly the things the fans can’t see. (As long as you’re not that old Expos manager torching your entire rotation’s arms)
Interestingly enough, Brandon missed a bunt last week (against Baltimore, IIRC) and then hit a 3-run shot.