PREGAME: The Tigers look to finish off the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon (1:05pm). The Cardinals have probably felt like they’ve seen enough of the AL Central after dropping 5 straight to the White Sox and Tigers.
Sidney Ponson will start in place of the recentl DL’d Mark Mulder. Ponson has been awful as of late with 19 runs allowed in 15 2/3 innings. Magglio Ordonez might normally get today off, but with 3 hits last night and a .464 lifetime average against Ponson, I’d guess he’s in the lineup.
Meanwhile Jeremy Bonderman has been scary-good with back to back 1 run, 12 K outings.
POSTGAME: One day Curtis Granderson will come up in the 8th or 9th or 10th inning and have a chance to change the game, and he’ll fail. It is hard to believe given his performance this year. It will feel strange and unpleasant, but it will inevitably happen. But until then (and really even after that) it is okay for men and women alike to declare their love for Curtis Granderson.
But the clutch-iest moment of the game probably came in the first inning when after a couple bad luck singles, the Cardinals had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Albert Pujols, Scott Rolen, and Jim Edmonds looming. Bonderman fanned Pujols and Rolen and enticed Edmonds to hit a fly ball. The game could have been blown open, and Bonderman slammed the door. After that he cruised to another 1 run, no run support outing.
And while it might be aggravating to see the White Sox match us win-for-win, isn’t it kind of fun and exciting at the same time. I know it’s only June and we haven’t even hit the halfway point, but so far this has been a very entertaining battle.
Hey everyone, Is Clemens going Tuesday for sure?
Mr. Snappy? Is this a Rod Allen special or a common piece of ballfield jargon?
Brooks freakin Robinson!
He doesn’t hit for average and he makes some errors, but there aren’t many players playing third who can make the play Inge just did. I would leave him be.
I wasn’t listening on the radio, but I wonder if Price called that play by Inge, “one off the all-time good plays we’ve seen this year”
Please score some runs for Bonderman. Please. Please
Haha. That sounds like Price.
Watching at home today. I have work to do for my job. Great game to be watching. I hope Bondo gets the win.
>>>>>Great roadie coming up in July for all you D-Towners, 12:30 game in Cleveland on 7-26.
Inge is awesome, gets beat on for his hitting, but me, I like the guy. He plays hard everyday and contibutes with HR’s and good field play. Too often people make him a better “player” if he hits better. Great play by Brandon today, I dont think everyone could make that play so lets take what we get and be happy.
Thames just got picked, Im back to the grind.
Later Tiger fans ………………………………….
Steve
So do the Cardinals qualify as a good team?
Can the media stop dismissing the Tigers’ record as an aberration resulting from an easy schedule?
SWEEEEP! Jones looked good in the 9th, and we got the runs we needed in the 8th. These guys are starting to turn me into a believer; they better not break my heart. Chisox have won 11 of 12, and have only gained 1 game on the Tiges. Minnesota too. Amazing. We’re getting great pitching when we need it; Bondo pitched great today…too bad he didn’t get the win. Inge may not hit for the highest average, but his D is pretty tough to argue with, and he hits HRs. Everybody’s getting the job done. Rock on, boys!!
“The Tigers caught the Cards when they were struggling, so it doesn’t count. Besides, the White Sox beat em by like, a hundred.” I swear we’ll hear that from someone.
But I think most of the media have taken the Tigers pretty seriously and this should continue to cement the decision for them.
It’s quite simple, anyone looking to discredit the Tigers will. The only true test of a great team in a lot of people’s minds is a team that beats up on the Yankees and Red Sox.
But, let them keep counting the Tigers out. The Pistons were build a lot of drive out of the “no one respects us” card. Let the Tigers do that too.
To quote Lou: “The only true test of a great team in a lot of people’s minds is a team that beats up on the Yankees…”
Does that make the 2005 Devil Rays (who beat up the Yankees) a great team?
What the national media think of the Tigers is irrelevant. Even what the hometown media think isn’t that important. What matters is the serious baseball love this town showed its team this weekend, and the love the Tigs gave us back in the form of three exciting wins.
PS Billfer–thanks for the permission to declare my love for Curtis Granderson. I’ve been doing that all weekend, since his lead-off homer Friday night, and my husband was getting a little annoyed. 🙂
Tiger centerfielder Granderson breaks late inning tie with blast over head of perhaps the best centerfielder in baseball for 4-1 win over Cards. Remind you of anything? Tiger centerfielder Jim Northrup breaks late inning tie with blast over head of perhaps the best centerfielder in baseball, Curt Flood, for 4-1 win over Cards and 1968 World Championship. Hmmm.
yeah, Dave, I remember watching it. Flood took 1 step in, and was toast…….. 🙂
Ok, looks like the Tiges will galn a game on the Sox; Houston’s busting ’em up pretty good right now (7th inning there). Finally. I knew they couldn’t win ’em all…….
Speaking of the local media…
Did anyone catch the Drew Sharp column in which he labels Detroit baseball fans ignorant because we are worried about the Tigers’ apparent deficiencies?
When did this guy stop being a thoughtful sports-writer and turn into an arrogant, talk-radio inspired, vitriolic, dookie-peddlar?
If the ballclub’s “competive inertia” is the cause of this ignorance, as Sharp concludes, than I suppose fans here in New York would be incapable of such second-guessing and hand-wringing over the state of the Yankees.
Yeah right.
Apparently Sharp has never talked shop with Yankee fans or flipped through the back pages.
Good god almighty!!!! The stinkin sox tied it up in the 9th! How do you give up a game tying granny to Iguchi?
Does anyone remember when Lidge was the best closer in baseball?
lost in the fact that the white sox are matching us win for win is the fact that we are still at worst adding a little distance between ourselves and the other wild card teams. it may take 95 wins for Detroit to get the wild card this year, but we can play roughly .500 ball from our current 51-25 mark and get there.
Love how the Tigers are grinding out these wins. I love how they scored the three in the 8th by just getting hits (not homers). Then, Jonesy shutting them down in the 9th for his 20th save of the season.
Man! It is great to be able to talk about Tigers baseball in June (almost July now) and have a SMILE on your face! I am so giddy I feel like a kid again.
I’m with you Andrew. Giddy is the perfect word for how this team makes you feel!
Great story in the Freep this morning about Jeremy Bonderman. If what that article claims is really true, Kenny Rogers is even more my MVP this year. He’s had an impact on the entire rotation.
from what I’ve just seen v the Sox, if the Tiges can knock out Clemens on Tuesday, and Pettitte on Wednesday, there’s nobody left who’s any good. 3 Salami’s in 3 games? Blowing an 8-run lead from the 7th inning onward? That’s reminiscent of the Tigers pitching…..even last year. I couldn’t eat for a week if the Tiges did that. I just saw at least Houston won in 13 innings, so we did gain a game on the Sox anyway…..whew! Hopefully, it’s feast time for the Tiges v the Houston pitching…….
I know this is a little off topic, but wasn’t there a game vs. the Orioles on May 11 that was postponed. Are there any plans to make that up. We can’t just forget about it, Can We? Chime in if u no anything
As bothersome as the White Sox matching us game for game (until last night) has been, imagine being a Twins fans. They’ve gone 9-1 over their last 10 and haven’t made up a single game on either the Tigers or the White Sox.
CURTIS GRANDERSON IS MY $#@%ING TIGER!!
That is all.
Yes, But we must remember, The Twins are simply happy to take their record over 500. 10 games ago, they were 4 games under, to now be 4 games over has to be a huge boost in their moral, even if they havn’t gained ground in the best division in baseball.
DTW–that game against the Orioles has been re-scheduled for Sept 21, in Baltimore.
Plus, the Twins are 11 games back. It’s great for them to suddenly get hot and play well, but I can’t see any way for them to make up that kind of ground, especially not againt the Tigers and White Sox. This division will leave everyone else in the dust, in terms of excitement, wins, competition, excellent play–you name it.
Well, the Twins have gone from 4 games under .500 to 4 games over .500. In most divisions, they’d be in contention. My main point was to point out how amazing the Tigers and the White Sox–two teams in the same division–have been. You expect that if you go 9-1 you’re going to at least make up 2 or 3 games on the division leader.
unfortunately, the Sox next 6 games are against the Pirates and Cubs. We can’t expect much help there. We play the Bucs after the ‘Stros. So we still gotta win 5 of the next 6……After that, off to the west coast for us…..
If there’s anything at all to be depressed about at this point, it’s that the Tigers are going to be in a fight down the stretch among five of the six consensus best teams in baseball, competing for just three playoffs spots.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/john_donovan/06/26/power.rankings/index.html
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/powerranking?season=2006&week=13
Scott, I’m gonna go ahead and knock on some wood af ter that prediction.
Scott, 5 out of the next 6 shouldn’t be that hard. We should easily sweep the Pirates (notice they just got knocked down to 30th in ESPN’s power rankings), then all we have to do is take two out of three from the Astros Tonight, Tommorrow and the Next Day. SOOOOOOOOEAAAASSSSSYYYYY. And remember, we’re talking about the Tigers.
Does anyone know of any good league wide rankings of win-percentage added? Granderson has to be near the top.
At the top of fangraphs, they rotate ML leaders by various positions. If you keep hitting refresh, the batting leaders will eventually appear. Currently, Granderson is 4th among hitters, Bonderman 4th among starting pitchers.
http://www.fangraphs.com/