PREGAME: I wish I could exercise some game post mo-jo, but I’m at a loss. I’ve tried long posts and short posts. I’ve tried 3 different hats and 2 different pieces of furniture to watch the game on. Nothing is working. Mrs. Billfer asked during last night’s debacle if the Tigers had any easy games coming up. I explained that the Royals and White Sox were last place teams and the Angels had lost 7 of their last 10. Right now I don’t think any game is easy for the Tigers.
Maybe Jordan Tata can be the elixir. He’ll make his first career start tonight instead of Kenny Rogers who is on the DL. I’m sure Kenny is disappointed to miss this game, what with his 25-4 career record pitching in Oakland. Maybe this is just the sort of unfortunate coincidence that the Tigers need.
Hopefully the Tigers can get to Joe Blanton early and often. Blanton has allowed double digit hits in his last 4 starts. Scoring off of Blanton means going station to station because he’s only allowed 11 homers in 153 innings this year. He’s also a much better pitcher at home with a 568 OPS against in Oakland and a 732 OPS against on the road.
Game Time 10:05
DET @ OAK, Monday, July 30, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
POSTGAME: Ah, a win. Delightful. Jordan Tata delivered more than I could have expected by a)not allowing much of the offense and b)doing it for 7 innings. Six easy outs later from Chad Durbin and Todd Jones and the Tigers are embarking on a new win streak. Yes, the A’s offense is no great shakes, but neither was the White Sox and that proved to be a struggle.
The hat thing may be the trick–just needs to be done on a bigger scale.
I’ve been wearing my home hat the last week–switching to the away cap tonight.
Everyone else with two hats: Switch!
It can’t get any worse than this past week, can it?
I’m not expecting Jordan Tata to go very deep in this game. Someone needs to step up big time in that pen of despair.
Oh – and I’m changing my routine tonight of watching the Tigers bat and then switching to radio for the opponents at-bats. Tonight, I’ll watch the bloody horror of Byrdak/Grilli/MacBride/Seay/Durbin and TJ with my own eyes for a change.
Hopefully I’ll be hearing Dan and Jim call lots of Tigers runs!
I just put my hat on. I liked Tata when he was up for a bit last year. Sounds like he’s matured a bit down at Toledo. All they need is one solid decently pitched win to get back on track.
Let’s not get too excited…
i’m glad monroe is finally getting a chance to play.
He’s throwing strikes. I like him already.
Can they please PLEASE do somthing about cmo
Is there a guy with an airhorn in the stands, or am I just imagining a loud bleating sound at various critical moments in the game?
I know it’s early and all, but according to gameday Blanton has got 3 pitches clearly off the plate as strikes while Tata has had 3 in the zone called balls.
Loved the look on his face when that pitch came in.
Yeah inge
The stands look pretty empty this evening.
Same thing here…
Btw how much fun would it be to stand on first with Swisher and Van Slyke?
Pudge actually tried to take a walk there. That pitch was definitely at the upper reaches of the strike zone.
As for my other comment, stuff has evened out.
Is it just me or does Blanton perhaps employing the infamous pine tar a la Rogers? Every pitch he goes to the same spot on his cap (which is also visibly soiled).
Solid outing from Tata. Can’t really ask much more than this. Would love to see him get an out or three in the 7th. The less bullpen, the better.
Trade Tata!(?)
Tata did the job tonight, we needed a starter to go deep and he did just that. The A’s are one of the worst offenses in baseball, not to take anything away, but hopefully it would raise his stock among other general managers.
Holy sh*t, only 20 responses. People weren’t lying about tuning out.
Did the Tigers win? I don’t know, I am still pretty depressed from this weekend.
Do the Tigers have to do something at the trade deadline. I mean I think Leyland can get it together, but they have looked awful, and I mean awful since the KC series.
Thank you Mr. Tata. Great start. Now here’s your plain ticket back to Toledo, please let Virgil Vasquez know of his flight time to the West Coast to join the team.
Mike R., why would you want Tata to jump on a plane to Toledo in exchange for Virgil Vasquez? Tata looked better tonight than VV looked in either of his starts for Detroit. Hopefully Tata will get the nod for Sunday’s game at CoPa vs. the ChiSox (Rogers next scheduled turn in the rotation).
I’m thinkin’ make Kenny pitching coach, sent Nate to Toledo and get Virgil into the rotation
but that’s Jim’s job to do this kind of think’n
the bartender told me the Tigers’ schedule for August was a cake walk.
I don’t see that. All these guys can play ball and we gonna have to play our best to stay on top
The Tigers already have a pitching coach and he’s been quite effective as near as I can tell. And barring injury Nate isn’t heading to Toledo.
well OK but like I said, it’s Jim’s job to do this kinda think’n
thing is though we will have to play a lot of guys who have loaded their lineups with hitters. and it ain’t easy to get them guys out
Well, because Virgil Vasquez is better then Tata (though, not saying much) at he can at least miss some bats. I’m not too amped about being able to shut down the A’s offense. And in Billfer’s postgame, I disagree with him. The White Sox offense was underachieving, the A’s offense is just bad. Oh, and Oakland is a pitchers park.
I’m done with pitcher-bashing. It’s getting old.
Has anyone notice Polanco is only .008 behind the league lead in batting average?
Baseball is all about pitching, ain’t it?
Mike R
I don’t understand the strong preference for Vasquez over Tata. Before this season, they were remarkably similar with the major difference being Vasquez’s increased hits allowed and Tata’s increased walks compared to one another.
This season, Vasquez did indeed start missing bats early in the season, but over the past two months the two pitchers have again put up very similar numbers. Their age difference is negligible as well. I’m not sure the difference between Tata and Vasquez is WORTH the plane ticket and the hassle, and when you consider their historic ground ball rates, I might prefer Tata.
Kevin in Austin wrote “Holy sh*t, only 20 responses. People weren’t lying about tuning out.”
I’ve watched the Tigers in their darkest days so there is no reason for not watching when they’ve had a slump while winning 60 from 104 (now 61-44)
Problem for me with these West Coast Matches: The starting Time ist 10.05 pm ET which is 4.05 am CET here in Germany.
Now we have 1.15 am CET, eyes are falling down a little bit and the Verlander vs Haren Showdown is still 3 hours away.
So, good night to all, and when I get up in the morning I will read something like: Quality Start from Verlander, Offense explodes, A’s were shutdowned by Tigs 😉