PREGAME: The story of this game may turn out to be last night’s Houston/White Sox game, which Houston was kind enough to win a a very protracted fashion. With the game going 13 innings, the Astros bullpen is tired physically. With the team probably not getting to their hotel until 4am, chances are they are sleepy too.
Zach Miner continues his quest to become the best rookie in the Tigers rotation. He’ll be opposed by Wandy Rodriguez. I don’t know much about Rodriguez except his first name is Wandy and he weighs 160 pounds. He walks his share (4.26/9IP), and doesn’t strike out a ton (5.71 K/9IP). Oh yeah, and he’s left handed.
The game also marks the return of former Tigers Phil Garner, Brad Ausmus, and Eric Munson. I’d like to see Munson hit a meaningless home run in this series. I always liked Eric, and I thought he got a raw deal from the organization with the various position changes. Then Trammell really relegated him to the bench. Of course if he’d performed better, he might have met a better fate.
POSTGAME: This is some kind of fun. Of course Jeremy Bonderman once again looks at Zach Miner’s run support and says, “What the?” The Tigers got production throughout the lineup. Fernando Rodney was filthy (yes I’m channeling Rod Allen) as he fanned all 4 hitters he faced.
On another note, I don’t know what Phil Garner was saying, but I’ve never been a fan of CB Bucknor. He was yelling more demonstratively than Garner was on that ejection. Make your call, take your abuse, and go back to your job.
Bring on Roger Clemens.
Game Time 7:05pm
Hey Guys, Up 5-1, 4 inn, this looks like a good one. Miner’s pitched out of some great jamups, including bases loaded one out in the first. WOW, they just need to keep up the good work. Look’s like Miner won’t be going back to the Miners any time soon.
FYI, Tigers draft pick Nickerson is starting for OSU in the final game of the College World Series, happening right now.
Billfer, be careful what you wish for on Munson! Let’s just hope the other part of your wish comes true, and that HR in fact proves to be meaningless.
I’d like to see Munson hit a meaningless home run
Is everyone happy now?
Man those Tigers! Sure there’s been a couple of problems, but you can’t argue with the sheer quantity of highs this team has already produced this season…
As for tomorrow’s game, all I’m saying is that Nate better be on his game. I have nothing but love for Robertson–he’s doing an outstanding job–but the Astros are mighty pissed, and I’ll bet they are planning a rather vengeful rally behind the Rocket tommorow. I hope the Tigers feel like playing a hard game…
My questions is this: What are the umpire and the manager actually yelling at each other when they get in each other’s faces. I mean it’s a simple question: was he safe or not? (In this case, the replay clearly showed he wasn’t.) But I assume they’re not just yelling back and forth, “He was safe! No he wasn’t! He was safe! No he wasn’t!”
Putting aside the precise nature of the conversation, Garner was clearly trying to get tossed to light a fire under the Astros. Didn’t work last night (except that Munson immediately hit the HR). Here’s hoping the fire isn’t lit tonight, either.
part of a manager’s job is to stick up for his players. Even when they’re wrong, like in this case. He was out by half a step. When the player goes berserk-o, the manager must step in, not only to protect the player, but to keep the respect of his players. In my opinion, this is why Trammell lost his job. I still remember last year – I was watching this game, I think v the Yanks…their pitcher hits our very 1st batter in the 1st inning. Nothing else happens that half-inning. Our pitcher proceeds to throw his 1st pitch behind their 1st batter….the ump tosses him! But not the Yanks pitcher. Just ridiculous and not fair. So Trammell goes out there to have a “chat” with the ump. Actually, it’s time to get tossed. Something as blatantly unfair as that; you gotta stick up for your players. Yell, scream, wave the arms, make a fool of himself, that’s his job at that point. Gotta stick up for the team….Tram goes out there, hands in his back pockets, gets an explanation from the ump, MEEKLY accepts it, turns around and goes back to the dugout…not even a whimper. Didn’t even take his hands out of his pockets. I was appalled. HE DIDN’T STICK UP FOR THE TEAM. This was the week of July 4; I was at the folks house watching this. Shortly after, the Tiges tanked….at one point I think they were 61-61; they go 10-30 the last 40 games. Only one explanation for this: they quit on the manager that didn’t stick up for them. This is critically important for any team, knowing your manager will back you; will fight for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re wrong – the manager must be there with you. This is why Garner got himself thrown out; he had to make a point of sticking up for his team that still has a chance for the playoffs if they play decently.
and another point – pure speculation on my part: this is why Trammell was let go. They bring Leyland in, tell him why. All undercover of course. The Tiges try to “backslide” there early on, and Leyland goes “ballistic” early in the year. Had that major coniption fit. Remember? That was the players’ test to see what kind of manager they had. They found out…. 🙂 They played much better after that, and since. Of course, I have no proof of any of this, just the 3 brain cells of gray matter (that’s all that’s left) in that hollow between my ears.
And another aside to this: Trammell will never manage in the majors again (maybe he doesn’t want to), but everybody knows if you don’t stand up for your players…..well……..
I was not a big supporter of having Trammell manage the Tigers. Not because of his inexperience, but because I did not want fans lasting impression of him being a less-than-stellar manager. I wanted him to be remembered for the great double plays he and Lou turned and for all of the good that he did for the organization.
You just knew it was not going to end well for Trammell when they announced hiring him as manager. It it a terrible thing to say about someone (because it should be a complement), but he was just too nice of a guy for the job.
I think this is a huge oversimplification, but you’re bottom line is correct: they did quit on Tram and that was why he was fired. I don’t think anyone needed to explain this to Leyland though. I think he would have had the same “coniption fit” with any of his teams that were exerting less than 100%.
The typical fan probably doesn’t look at it this way, but in my mind, it further cements his reputation as the ultimate team player. He sacrificed his good name on behalf of the organization in order to buy DD a few years to build the farm.
I hope he gets a chance to manage in the minors and work his way up, assuming that he wants that kind of responsibility. He may decide that he prefers to just coach.
As far as Buckner’s concerned, he wasn’t very animated until the last 30 seconds or so, at which point it was really obvious that Garner was begging to get tossed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were messing around with the yelling, saying stuff like “let’s put on a good show and pretend we’re yelling”.
did you see the smirk on buckner’s face when he finally tossed him? and Garner said as much, that he was trying to get tossed for the last 2-3 minutes of the argument, but Buckner wouldn’t oblige him. Inge also said he was cracking up watching the argument, because it was obvious what Garner wanted (to get tossed).
and I also love the fact that Munson hit the homer, but it didn’t really hurt…I hope he catches on somewhere and makes it back as a starter…I really liked him when he was here.
I think you missed the irony when the others said that. Either that, or I invented the irony in my head.
Munson was infamous for his meaningless homers, so I think everyone was wishing the same fate on Houston.
I actually wasn’t going for irony with Munson. I wanted to see him have a good game, but not at the expense of a Tigers W. Things worked out good!
I guess I’m just a vengeful jerk 🙂
I wasn’t talking as much about Garner as much as I was talking about Berkman…and even Burke. Did you see the way he refused to swing at any of his pitches in the 9th? Just staring coldly at Grilli as Strike 3 (really, Strike 4) was called. yikes.