PREGAME: So prior to the season, this matchup looked like a dog. Two perennial 4th place teams duking it out. Instead the Tigers are leading all of baseball, and the Reds 24-16 record is good enough for second in the division. I’m excited enough to take in two games, including tonight.
Typically when I look at the pitching match-ups, I look to see how the opposing team has done. In this case there isn’t a lot to talk about. The Tigers as a team have 4 at-bats against Brandon Claussen (Polanco has 3, Wilson 1). It isn’t much better going the other way with only Scott Hatteberg having more than 10 at-bats against Jeremy Bonderman.
What I do know about Claussen is he has been brutal on lefties. He’s allowing a .484 OPS to hitters on the left side, but .912 to righties.
I will point you to a couple of excellent Reds blogs, Red Reporter and Redleg Nation, for more info on this weekend’s opponent.
Let the quest for the Sparky Cup begin.
POSTGAME Uh yeah. At least the Pistons won.
Hopefully the Tigers will finally remember, “We are right handed hitters and we should be able to crush a left handed pitcher.” It’s okay if Granderson is confused and thinks he’s hitting right handed too. 🙂
They’ve been hitting lefties this year like they are left handed hitters!
Ahh, what a game. I went into this game with high hopes that were blown by the second inning. The fact that the tigers let them get a 3 RBI triple is depressing, and even more depressing they let him go home with a stupid throw