2006 Season, Game Post

Game 100: Tigers at Indians

17 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and clinch a series win, and hopefully do it in under 4 hours.

Tigers starter Kenny Rogers will be facing the Indians for the 4th time. The first two efforts were great, the last one was a 9-0 shutout for the bad guys.

He’ll be opposed by Paul Byrd. Byrd has seemed hittable, except for when he faces the Tigers. In two starts the Tigers have mustered only 4 runs, with only 2 being earned.

A couple of lineup notes: Marcus Thames will sit out again today with Dmitri taking DH duties and Craig Monroe manning left. I’d expect Curtis Granderson to get the day off tomorrow so Thames should return. Also, Placido Polanco returns to the lineup. For the Indians Victor Martinez will be playing first base.

POSTGAME: Well, the offense made a game out of a miserable outing by Kenny Rogers. Roman Colon and Wil Ledezma combined for 4 1/3 shaky yet effective innings of relief. While the Tigers pitchers have struggled the last 2 nights, part of the credit has to go to the Indians. Tribe hitters have made Tiger pitchers throw strikes. The result is a lot of full counts and hitters counts, and shortened outings.

The game saw Curtis Granderson pick up his first error. While this one was pretty cheap, Curtis did misplay a ball against the A’s without being charged with the error. Things even out.

And then there were the rally killers. Polanco, Pudge, and Ordonez combined to go 0 for 13 and negated a 4 for 5 night from Curtis Granderson.

17 thoughts on “Game 100: Tigers at Indians”

  1. And I was really believing that second-half Kenny Rogers thing was just an abberation for a few years in Texas. Let hope Rogers has the blowouts out of system now.

  6. I love how Leyland finds ways to give Wilson a free at-bat the day before he’s slated to start. I wouldn’t be surprised if he picks up two hits tomorrow.

  7. The Tigers must make a trade – for a pitcher.

    Think about it. Rogers has become a pillar of suck, Miner’s mojo isn’t working anymore, and Verlander’s innings are a cause for concern. This leaves us with two effective starters: Bonderman and Robertson. That’s not enough for a stretch drive.

    Maybin, Miller, and Zumaya are off limits. Everyone else is for sale. Could we fetch Smoltz or Maddux?

  8. It’ll be interesting to see what Maroth is capable of when he returns. Miner has been exposed of late, he’s not the kind of guy you want to roll out every fifth day. I’d be interested to see what Sanchez might be able to do in a relief roll on the big club rather than deal him. He may be better than any middle reliever we might be able to bring in at this point. It may be worth a shot. Colon, Ledezma, and Grilli are definitely not play-off bullpen material.

  9. Scary moment when Granderson bounced off the wall on the inside-the-parker. I was very relieved when he got back up and went after the ball.

  10. The thing to remember about pitching is that we won’t need a 5 (or 6)-man rotation in the playoffs. That means Maroth (if he comes back okay) and Miner move to the bullpen, and Grilli/Colon/Ledezma move to the cheering section.

    If we can keep Verlander fresh, I like having him, Bonderman, and Robertson or Rogers starting playoff games, with Zoom-Zoom, Maroth, Miner, Walker, etc. in the pen.

  11. One more thing; this time about Soriano. I think he’s a good fit. Everyone talks about Monroe/Thames being capabable in LF and giving Dimitri the chance to come back. But why do we assume he would only play LF/DH? He can also play another position where the Tigers occasionally need a better bat–2B (although PP has been better of late). No one mentions this.

  12. How bout those Twinkies? They beat the White Sox today again, if our pitching don’t go back to the way it was in the first half we might be in big trouble with two teams hunting us

  13. Soriano at 2B is not a viable option because this team’s foundation is its defense and Soriano just isn’t any good as a middle infielder.

    Also, whoever said Maddux is a good option should take a look at his stats and translate them from the weak NL to the AL. I don’t think he would be much of an upgrade for the Tigers.

  14. I watched every inning of this game and frankly was impressed with the way the Tigers did not back down.

    Yes..a silver lining.

    Over the last few years the old Tigers would have given up and we would have seen the “why am I here” looks on their faces as they sat on the bench.

    This team just doesn’t give up and that in itself is something to applaud.

  15. well, this was a lost game with horrendous pitching. 9 walks? At least 4 of ’em scored that I can remember. Take them away, and it’s 8-7, and Rogers pitches alot longer. But, you can’t allow free passes and expect to survive. Old baseball saying: every team will win 60 games, and lose 60 games. It’s the other 42 that determine where you end up in the standings and / or any post-season play. This game falls under the category of: 60 losses. So let’s forget it, and win today; we can still win the series if we do.

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