PREGAME: The Tigers look to bounce back from a shellacking in the Metrodome by taking on the best team in the American League.
The Red Sox sport the best record, and the best run differential. Like the Tigers they are winners of 8 of their last 10 and 14 of their last 20.
The Red Sox will send out some rookie from Japan named Daisuke Matsuzaka. I hear he throws 14 different pitches for strikes at various speeds and arm angles. Basically, his pitches are like snow flakes, no two are alike. In all seriousness, he’s better than his 4.80 ERA and is striking out a batter an inning. He has struggled at home with two-thirds of his runs and only a quarter of his strikeouts coming at Fenway.
He’ll be opposed by Nate Robertson who has been quite good, except for his last outing where he was rocked by Seattle.
This series is always a treat. I really enjoy watching games at Fenway (on TV of course) and wish the Tigers traveled their more often.
Game time 7:05pm
POSTGAME: The Tigers have dropped two in a row since losing the first 2 games to Minnesota. Nate Robertson battled, but had a hard time putting hitters away. There wasn’t a lot of hard hit balls, but enough balls in play fell for hits to run up his pitch count and plate 3 runs.
Of course the Tigers couldn’t muster much offense either, save for Curtis Granderson. For the first time in a while they weren’t driving the ball. I don’t know if it was Dice-K, or the looming monster, but there seemed to be quite a few grounders to the left side. The right handers seemed to be looking to pull the outside pitch and there appeared to be a lot of “roll-overs.”
Bobby Seay was the latest member of the pen to blow-up. Turns out it didn’t matter much, except that with a high pitch count tonight, he probably isn’t available tomorrow. Tim Byrdak however did excellent in 2 innings of work.
Horrible call there on the stolen base, twice. Neifi did a poor job applying the tag the first time, but he definitely got him on the knee. At the same time, Ramirez thinking he was walked stepped in front of Pudge’s throw and should have been called for interference.
That was a shameful call at 2nd Lugo never touched the base. He stood up a foot short of the bag. Not to mention that Manny crossed in front of Pudge no doubt interference.
Has Monroe hit in the number 2 spot this year? I don’t think of him as a number 2 hitter.
How many outs are we going to give them???
-Sam
Goodness this looks like one of those nights…..
Well…better late then never on the DP…
Polanco is just resting, right? Though I’d still rather see Omar in there…
Nice, Curtis!!
The Boston announcers just said that Curties has one fewer extra-base hit than Magglio, who leads the league in XBH.
Wow.
The 2nd inning of the season is Over!!
If you break a 162 game schedule into nine 18-game innings, the Tigers have just completed the 2nd inning.
They were 13-5 in this inning matching best perfmormances form last year (inning 3, games 37-54, and inning 5, games 73-90).
Top performances in the 2nd inning:
Mags 5-21-.443/.547/.869!!!!
Sheff 5-12-.348/.436/.636
And the 3 interstate (1xx) performers from the 1st inning:
Monroe 4-13-.317/.348/.603
Inge 2-7-.302/.389/.444
Casey 0-4-.306/.352/.408
The worst performance was:
Pudge 0-4-.192/.192/.242
Top Pitching performances:
Durbin 4gs-2.13-(3-0)
No other starter was below 4.00 while Robertson was 5.40 and Bonderman was 7.41 (but 2-0) battling the blister.
Out of the Pen,
Seay was 2.13 with a whip below 0.50
Rodney was 2.79 with a whip below 0.70
Jones had 6 saves with 3.12 and a whip below 1.00
Zoom-Zoom was roughed up in 5.2 before going on the DL.
Ledezma, Mesa, and the Cheeseman were all over a 6+ era.
-Sam
Nate’s really pitching pretty good, not a lot of hard contact at all. Too bad he’s only got one more inning left in him. This game’ll be up to Byrdak, Seay, Rodney, and Jones.
And the hitters.
I just hope Nate can get through the next inning. I’d imagine they won’t let him throw more than 120 pitches. I think only one Tigers’ starter has gone over 115 since Leyland arrived.
Actually, it looks like three guys, including Nate, went over 115 pitches last year.
115 pitches in 5 innings by Nate ;-(
If our guys would just try and get some base hits instead of HR, we might be better off. Also, is anyone else tired of hearing about how comfortable Gary Sheffield is at the plate, now. I say, “put your money where your mouth is, Gary” and put up or shut up.
He doesn’t seem to have that good of stuff. They must be tired from the trip. They also appear a bit anxious at the plate. Example Guillen’s third strike
Well, our batters can still get in it, esp if they decide they don’t all have to hit homers, like Maggs just did. But the relief…ugh, I’m nervous….Hold ’em down, guys..hold ’em down…
I think that was a makeup call. The previous missed call was more blatant.
Good relief by Byrdak (sp). He’s got that 33 year old maturity.
Byrdak has been respectable. He does a good job keeping the ball down.
is this typical of byrdak? looks to me he could really strengthen the bullpen.
He might just earn himself a spot in the bullpen and if he keeps throwing strikes, he’s got a good chance. The guy’s been through hell trying to get to the big leagues and I’m a sucker for those kinds of things.
I Seay a loss forthcoming… sigh…
It doesn’t unduly bother me that they couldn’t get many hits off Matsuzaka – not because he’s OMG(!) awesome or anything, but because he’s the sort of pitcher we always seem to have trouble with. What did surprise me is their inability to work him for walks, or even to push his pitch count terribly high.