PREGAME: Sorry about the site today. My host is having problems, and it took me 45 minutes just to post this. Vincente Padilla against Kenny Rogers on a soggy night.
Joel Zumaya has a sprained wrist and will miss the next couple and Polanco could be back for Chicago according to reports on 1270.
Game Time 7:05pm
POSTGAME: Great win. The bats still are struggling, but they got just enough. Kenny Rogers continued to deal followed by a strong outing from Fernando Rodney. Craig Monroe made throw after throw that were right online. Pudge did a great job blocking the plate preventing Kinsler from scoring (horrible slide by Kinsler, anything creative or to the side and he’s safe easy). And of course there were those late inning heroics. It was the kind of win we expected early in the season, and the kind of win we’ve been craving for the last month.
Now this certainly seems like a momentum building win, but we’ve seen several of those over the last couple weeks. Unfortunately they were followed by mini-losing streaks each time. But I’m not going to worry about that until tomorrow night. For now I’m just relishing the fact that today is one day when nobody gains on the Tigers. And who knows, maybe this is the start of something. Afterall, a winning streak has to start with 1 doesn’t it?
Wow, two assists for Monroe already. Rogers doesn’t look too sharp. Need to get the bats going.
getting polanco back should help although he may be stale…casey just hit into another double play…not sure if i feel the same about casey as i do about neifi. they shoulda dumped both of them and it would take us all at least a week or so before we felt the same about shelton.
boy i would like to see a little bit of a turnaround…get a few under our belts and then see how things look. ramble, ramble
This game looks very familiar so far. I note that Marcus Thames (.125 BA, 1 HR, 4 RBIs in September) is not exactly vindicating those of us who said he should play every day…
Nice throws by Monroe, about the only highlight other than Guillen.
Does anyone seriously expect the Tigers to score another run? I hate to be a total cynic, but they look like a AA team facing Roger Clemens.
Did I mention that I love Marcus Thames?
Um…who’s talking about Thames?
well pete…there you go…nice homer by thanes
yep I think it was Thames.
looks like the tigers are working hard for another gut-wrenching loss…
Where exactly does Maggs rank in terms of all-time biggest free agent flops in Detroit sports history? It’s pretty apparent why the Tigers were the only team offering him a big deal.
after scott mitchell and az hakim somewhere right?
He’s batting like .292 – or he was coming into the game. What’s wrong with that?
walkoff!
Viva Guillen! (And let’s go As/Angels!)
Alright Guillen! (And let’s go As/Angels!)
Is this the late inning magic we’ve missed for the past 2 months?? Here’s hoping its the boost of confidence the team needs to gain some momentum and breathing room in the standings!
Wow.
(Sorry about the double post – that’s what happens when you combine a terrible connection and a surplus of walkoff-generated excitement!)
Woo! I hope this helps carry them forward this month!
Great game by Guillen. Just need a win tomorrow, a couple in a row would be great for the confidence. And the Twins are down 5-3!
Yes!
And the even better news than this win is Polanco making it back in time for the Chisox series.
Perhaps this is the first stage in righting the ship.
Nice comeback tonight. Let’s hope they can build a little momentum.
Adam in NY: Don’t forget about Uwe Krupp.
Woo-hoo Guillen!! And go Oakland go! I finally feel like I can breathe, at least for the next 24 hrs.
Oh, I forgot about Bison Dele too on the Detroit free agents list. He might be the worst ever.
Your jinxing the team by hoping for a winning streak…next time they win, don’t say that 🙂
Man, Twins are kicking butt on their home turf. Can’t wait until they go on the road!
I was there, so I didn’t get to see the replay. It looked like Kinsler was safe easily. Did Pudge really manage to block the plate??
“Where exactly does Maggs rank in terms of all-time biggest free agent flops in Detroit sports history?”
“after scott mitchell and az hakim somewhere right?”
Are you talking about the first time the Lions signed Hakim or the second time?
From the replay, there’s no indication that Kinsler ever touched home plate. Pudge’s foot prevented him from sliding onto the plate.
Magglio hasn’t been a very good value for the size of his contract, but everyone knew that going in. I don’t think he’s been a huge flop given that (1) we knew he could have injury issues (last year) and (2) his performance was bound to decline as he aged. His current numbers, .293/.341/.461, aren’t severly out of line with his career numbers–.305/.361/.512. I suspect his PECOTA numbers for this year would have been about half way between those two sets of figures.
Kyle,
His PECOTA weighed mean for those numbers was: .288 / .350 / .440. So his OBP is off but his power is up. His home runs and RBIs are both above its 90th percentile projections. Finally, his Equivalent average is .265, which is actually below his mean projections and near the 25th percentile. That’s kind of a catch-all for offensive production.
Did antone catch the Leyland interview after the game? I believe it was Trevor Thompson that asked him (paraphrased)
Waht about you , Jim? After the game you more animated than I have ever seen you.
And Jim replied ” I had just took my arthritis medicine ten minutes before the walkoff by Guillen, I had to make sure that sh*t works.”
Hilarious, as is true Jimmy fashion. It was also good to see him as fired up as I was. He is just better at hiding it.
I went to the ballgame. Although I was glad that the Tigers won, I was unimpressed.
Just one dumb, dumb at-bat after another – making weak outs while ahead in the count, pulled ground balls, refusing to use the opposite field. It took impeccable pitching and flawless defense to squeeze out a one-run victory.
Whatever Don Slaught is or isn’t doing, he needs to radically re-think his approach. It’s failing the team and its fans.
In the eighth and ninth innings, we who were huddled under the covered parts of Comerica knew that the only way for the Tigers to win would be a third home run – they weren’t going to score any other way.
But it was a wistful hope – we’d already hit two home runs, and the odds were against a third. When Guillen hit his shot, it was like the bell to end the last day of the school year – everyone went nuts and cleared out.
The only Tiger to touch third (aside from the home runs, of course) was Inge. Might that set an obscure Retrosheet record?
I didn’t see much of the game, but from what I DID see I have 2 comments:
1. Bench Ordonez (at least for a week)
2. Bench Casey
Coach Jim,
I agree with you; we should bench Casey. Shelton would be better (and that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a huge Shelton fan). Unless Casey goes 3 for 4 tonight (that’s if Lelyand even has him in the lineup), I still say bench him. Maybe he can hit National League pitching, but he’s mediocre to horrible against almost every pitcher I’ve seen him face. As far as I’m concerned, just another hole in the lineup.
However, how do see the lineup without Ordonez? Gomez in right? While I certainly am disappointed with Ordonez, he still hits as well as anybody else in the lineup right now…If he was hitting like Casey, I might agree, but he is hitting sporatically (which is more than we can say for most of the lineup). I think he even has something like a six-game hitting streak going. Problem is, of course, he always gets those hits with the bases empty–and yes, he does hit into double plays with runners in play. In my opinion, it would also be a demoralizing move to bench your cleanup guy (and arguably your top marquee player) for no apparent reason save for the fact that he hasn’t “carried the team” when they hit the skids…
Keep things status quo with Ordonez. He does have the potential to get hot–and we despirately need him to–and even when he’s not hot he’s as good as anybody else we’d put in there.