PREGAME: The Tigers played poorly for the first time this postseason last night and they find themselves in a 1-0 hole. They also find themselves in what is probably the biggest pressure game of the postseason. When they were down 1-0 to the Yankees, they were supposed to lose. This time they are the favorites looking to even the series. Whether or not it is the team that is feeling the pressure, or just the fan base, remains to be seen.
The Tigers will turn to Kenny Rogers who has been absolutely dominating in 2 post season starts not allowing a run. He faced the Cardinals once this year and the results weren’t that impressive with 10 baserunners and 6 runs in 5 1/3 innings. Scott Spezio is the Cardinal with the most success against Rogers posting a 395/439/605 line over 38 at-bats which helps explain why he was added to the Cardinals lineup DH’ing from the 2 hole.
The Cardinals will trot out former Tiger Jeff Weaver. Weaver made 1 start in Comerica this year and took a loss despite allowing only 2 runs over 7 1/3 innings. Lefties posted a 1.004 OPS against him as opposed to a .743 OPS for right handers. Here’s hoping that Sean Casey looks better than he did last night.
Pudge Rodriguez, Placido Polanco, and Craig Monroe are a combined 2 for 19 off of Weaver while Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen have had moderate success.
In the postseason Weaver has posted a 2.16 ERA over 3 starts and 16 innings. The small run total is a little surprising considering the 7 walks and only 5 strikeouts over that span.
St. Louis Lineup
SS – Eckstein
DH – Spezio
1B – Pujols
3B – Rolen
RF – Encarnacion
CF – Edmonds
LF – Wilson
C – Molina
2B – Miles
Scott Rolen has been moved up as right hander to try and keep Albert Pujols from being pitched around. Also, Ronnie Belliard and his 2 for 22 lifetime record against Rogers has been swapped out for Aaron Miles.
Detroit Lineup
CF – Granderson
LF – Monroe
2B – Polanco
RF – Ordonez
1B – Guillen
C – Rodriguez
DH – Casey
3B – Inge
SS – Santiago
Same lineup as last night. I’m not a big fan of Sean Casey DH’ing, but it is a lot more palatable tonight given Weaver’s left/right splits.
Game Time 8:00ish
Was that not the most awesomely bad National Anthem ever?
“… and the Home of the Brave. Wooooooooooooo!” — Anita Baker
Lets Play ball……………. I had a nap and can now make it. 100 buckes for ANYONE of you who takes Tim McCarvers place tonight. He is Booooooooooooooooooogus.
Great start. Monroe and Guillen are MONEY!
What’s up with the stuff on Roger’s hand. if it is illegal, what will it mean for the game, series, etc.????? idk
if anyone knows, chime in
Ramon got a hit!!!
Kenny got poop on his hand.
Ouch, that stunk
Jesus! 7 ef’in guys left on! How do you not score with the bases loaded and no out?
Great job by Rogers to get through that inning after the huge disappointment in the 4th. Can’t leave more guys on base.
Rogers is working his a$$ off. 🙂
2 more innings and we are back in this series . . .
Imagine how good the Tigers would be if Rodriguez got on track and started hitting.
That was a sweet double play……………….
I’ve got Rogers at 96 pitches right now. Do you let him start the 9th? With Spiezio/Pujols/Edmonds I almost with it was the 8th inning and Zumaya coming in.
Jones has been good, but man…
KENNY KENNY KENNY
I say Give Kenny the ball, if he gets in trouble make a move, hard to leave success.
Go with the hot hand and leave him in.
I almost want to start smoking again aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh
This is a typical Todd Jones rally. Two outs, a blooper, something screwy in the infield…
Not to put too fine a point on it:
but Todd Jones is terrible
& a homophobe, too boot.
Well I could have used an easier inning but hey its a good Win, now we need Nate to come up BIG.
There is no such thing as an ugly win
Wow-
Now we are 1-1, let’s take 2 of 3 down there. Then the Gambler can win game 6 and close it out.
-Sam
I’ve never seen a starting pitcher without a plus fastball pitch as effectively as Rogers. These last three starts have been magnificent. As Lou Pineilla said during the ALCS, the way to beat Rogers is to move back in the batter’s box, and the Cardinals aren’t adjusting.
Jones’s job is to shut the door, and he didn’t do it tonight. Perhaps he’ll rebound for the rest of the series.
So, a good split in Detroit, and we now need 2 of 3 games in St. Louis. The team needs to hit with men on base for that outcome, and Rodriguez needs to hit, period.
Is it possible that each outing for Rogers has been consecutively better? I would have left him in for the complete game… (I was calling for Rogers in the ninth before the Jones near debacle). Why not? His pitch count was low. It would have been a great achievement, a huge statement, and a nice way to roll into game three.
The runners left in scoring position are a little troubling. This could have been, what, an eight run game fairly easily with only a couple clutch hits and a sacrifice or two…
Jones, rollercoster Jones. I’m not sure my ticker can take it. Even with two outs and a three run cushion, I still find myself on pins and needles. And after what happened tonight, I guess my paranoia is not unfounded. Wow. I’m very happy the inning worked out the way it did.
This is beginning to look like 68′. Let’s hope for the same results.
Okay, general question for the board: How many run lead are you comfortable with with Jones closing?
I say five, I have no worries. Four, still a concern. Three, definately too close to put it in the books. And no disrespect for Jonesy; he’s got the job done this year. It’s just came with a lot of drama.
Another question, do you ever pull a closer? I guess the game is his to save or blow, right?
there i was, all reclined and enjoying another rogers masterpiece, then the wife wants a back rub. Fine, no problem, i’ll put my recliner down and give her one, but if the cards score it’s her fault….runners on 2nd & 3rd, she gets up and says put the recliner back up. i’m not superstitous (same sweatshirt every game not washed yet…same shaving pattern, game one then only on off days) but i still told her that you can’t mess with karma……gotta love roller coaster jones, not to mention 4 more scoreless innings from mr (it’s a wonderful day in the neighborhood) rogers and christy mathewson is a footnote
i would always play jones in that situation, he’s the closer. everyone knows he’s not a lights out stopper, he gives up hits because he pitches to contact. he seems to thrive in clutch situations (frank thomas and now jim edmonds) the guy delivers, he’s one of the top 5 closers in the game, he just likes to make it exciting
Steve Palermo, the MLB Umpire Superivor, was just live on ESPN. He portrayed the mark as dirt that Kenny picked up at some point due to the wet conditions. Says it could have happened in the bullpen. Says there was no formal request made by the Cardinals to inspect Rogers.
This is fairly strange. There seem to have been several conflicting statements. My only comment is that people keep talking about a “clump.” I didn’t see a clump. I saw a dark discoloration. Maybe that doesn’t matter if it was actually pine tar. But it was a dark stain, and then it was a light stain. I don’t know if that’s enough to doctor a ball with.
Another excellent outing by Rogers. He wasn’t confounding the hitters like he was in the other series, but he definately kept the Cards contained. Jones of course made things interresting at the end, but I wasn’t overly worried. I have no trouble with Jones in most situations. Its when he gets runners in scoring position with fewer than 2 out when I want to bring in someone else, and he’s usually been pretty good at keeping runners on 1st base.
I dunno what happened to Granderson or Polanco, but they got shut down tonite. Pudge continues to come up with nothing this postseason. Ordones, Inge, and especially Guillen had pretty good days today. And you cannot discount Monroe jumpstarting the bats in the 1st inning. Gotta love it! Weaver had pretty good stuff tonite and I was happy to see the Tigs battle it out. Would’ve prefered about a dozen runs, but can’t have it all 😛
And since I’m sure it’ll be talked about for a while, anyone find anything about the substance on Rogers hand? Kenny avoided it in the post-game interview. I can’t imagine a veteran of his tallent and experience would be cheating. And being where it was on his hand and very obvious, I think we can assume it wasn’t intentional.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/knlevine/Pinetar2.jpg
anyone who doesn’t think it was pinetar and intentional is kidding themselves. i feel sick.
I don’t know what was on Kenny’s hand, and I don’t know how or what it would impact performance. But the stuff was there in the other playoff games as well. I remember noticing the yellow-ish ness in earlier games, without an extreme close-up, and thinking it was a bruise. Clearly it wasn’t.
Now if this was something that other teams were worrrying about, wouldn’t it have been called to someone’s attention? With the number of people watching these games, and the detailed scouting and video analysis someone must have seen it and decided it was a non-issue.
Maybe it wasn’t so obvious in the other games? I never noticed it. I never heard about it anywhere. But clearly after BuCarver made it obvious to the entire veiwing world (and implied it was pine tar), and pratically stomped up and down in prime time for a “time out”, the issue amplified in a hurry.
I’m also puzzled by the way Kenny completely skirted the issue in the post-game interview.
In any event, I would like an explanation.
Yep, that’s pine tar Shiny with tiny specks, like dirt stuck to it. I’m pretty sure dirt mixed with rosen, even wet, doesn’t make anything shiny like that. Maybe he wasn’t aware that it’s not a good thing to do? Yeah, no. He knew.
Check out the thumb too.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/knlevine/Pinetar3.jpg
Daming evidence was when Fox put up side by side pictures of Kenny, one from last nights game and one from the A’s series and he had identical marks. Kinda funny to get mud stains that look just like pine tar in the exact same place two different nights.
However – he did wash it off and still spanked the Cards.
I’m sure that MLB immediatley called the umps and said – “tell him to wash his hands of that dirt” Last thing you need is another “scandal” (See Barry Bonds) where players are cheating, and the games are unfairly decided. They will call it dirt to protect the integrety of the game when we all know it was pine tar.
However – great game – Todd Jones is a roller coaster but He is the guy I want in there. The other guys (Rodney, Zoom Zoom, etc.) can be good but they also make those mistakes where the ball ends up 475 feet away from Home plate.