PREGAME: Happy 4th of July. The Tigers kick off the second half of the season tonight.
It’ll be Jake Westbrook and Kenny Rogers on the mound.
CLE @ DET, Tuesday, July 4, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 7:05 pm
POSTGAME: Now that I’m back in town, I’ll comment on the last 2 games.
First of all the extra inning loss was a heart breaker, but I thought it was a fascinating game to watch. There was the Hafner/Pudge interference/not in the batters box debate which FSN captured brilliantly. There was the Betancourt issue and again FSN picking it up right away (were they tipped as well?). There was the back and forth of the game. There was a clinic in the advantages and disadvantages of playing no-doubles-depth. But in the end the Tigers lost a tough one so you look for someone to blame.
The bullpen is a typical culprit, but they collectively did pretty well save for 2 homers. Jose Capellan looked awesome for the first 5 batters he faced, and really if Carlos Guillen had come through in the 10th that 11th inning homer would have never happened.
So is it Guillen’s fault? He didn’t have the best at-bat but did deliver a bases loaded single earlier in the game so it’s hard to not call him clutch. With some other non-clutch performances by the rest of the offense maybe they aren’t in extra innings in the first place.
But even then, the Tigers hitters blasted some balls that just turned into outs. Magglio Ordonez had an awesome at-bat that ended in a deep drive to left center. Curtis Granderson hit a rocket to the wall to start the 10th. Pudge Rodriguez hit a deep drive that landed just foul. It’s not like they were flailing hopelessly.
In the end it was just a loss. Nobody was to blame. Of course it’s easier to say that 24 hours later after a win…
Of course tonight’s game was better – they won. The offense had 14 baserunners so that seemed to be back to normal. Kenny Rogers was good enough, and the bullpen was good enough as well.
As was the case with the bullpen, there was some good and bad. Jason Grilli comes into a pressure situation, gets out of the inning unscathed, and then walks the lead-off batter the next inning. Macay McBride then doesn’t do his job giving up an opposite field homer on a 2-2 count. Miner got in a little trouble, but didn’t really get hit hard, and ultimately didn’t allow a run thanks to a great play by Brandon Inge.
The best of the pen though was Todd Jones who recorded his 3rd straight 1-2-3 outing.
- How much fun is Comerica Park where you can get back to back triples? Love the triple.
- Carlos Guillen really brought the glove tonight making 2 great plays on the back hand. He routinely makes the tough plays but can’t make the routine ones. It makes me wonder if moving to first would really help him.
- Speaking of defense Marcus Thames made a very nice diving play. I guess Craig Monroe finally managed to play his way out of the lineup, at least in the short term.
- I had a real good feeling about this game early on when Travis Hafner wasn’t able to score on a ground rule double. Somehow the ball bounced over the highest fence. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a ball bounce over the fence in triplesville.
Guillen couldn’t do that last night?
Happy 4th everyone, I’m on my way to a BBQ and Tigers are up 1-0.
I’ve been thinking of doing an article called Detroit Suffers Power Outage. Lets hope we step it up a notch and don’t have to talk about a complete blackout.
Lets go Tigers!
Ok,
Let’s get the W guys!
-Sam
2] Guillen couldn’t do that last night?
Can Mags please hustle a little bit. Check out Marcus, Ordonez.
I think Maggs took your advice Ron. 🙂 Happy 4th everyone.
Ron – what makes you think Maggs doesn’t hustle? I’ve never seen that from him at all. I’ve seen him tentative, but I view that different than not hustling. Hustling to me is more of an effort thing.
Oh, and Ron, Carlos did do that in the 5th inning last night.
OK. Only 5 or 6 more runs and we’ll have a lead our bullpen can hold.
3] Guillen couldn’t do that last night?
We’re talking walk off Bilfer-clutch.
With out a doubt, from time to time, Maggs doesn’t hustle. It used to kill me last year. Honestly, we can’t afford a pedal to the metal Maggs. Just need him to stay healthy.
God is the bullpen a mess. I don’t even know what can be done about it.
*** We’re talking walk off Bilfer-clutch. ***
Guillen’s problem last night was that he was trying for a clutch hit or at least a clutch fly ball. All he needed was a walk.
The pitcher threw four straight balls, all of which were clearly out of the strike zone. 4-pitch walk, run comes in, game’s over. Unfortunately, Guillen swang at two of them.
Joey how about leaving our starters in longer? I know I’m old fashioned, and always talking about when I was a girl, there was no pitch count, Mickey Lolich would throw 150 pitches a game and come back the next day, blah blah, but hey! And if you do go to the bullpen, why don’t we stick with a guy when he is going along okay. Like Miner last night. I’m only asking.
4] never mind.
I don’t disagree with your comments on his pitch selection, but I don’t think you can really go up there looking for the walk. I think it was a case of Guillen going after pitches that he thought he could work with and not waiting back and having to hit pitchers pitches. Clearly it didn’t work, but given that it was Guillen up there, one of the team’s more selective hitters, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems to me that you can really tell the difference between a young, hungry team like the Tribe, and a veteran club like the Tigers. I know that it’s a long season and you have to pace yourself, but the Indians look sharper and much more into the game. The Tigers seem a bit lackadasical (a generalization, of course– Polanco and Granderson would not fit this profile, for instance; Sheffield and Ordonez would).
*** I think it was a case of Guillen going after pitches that he thought he could work with and not waiting back and having to hit pitchers pitches. Clearly it didn’t work, but given that it was Guillen up there, one of the team’s more selective hitters, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. ***
I agree he shouldn’t have been looking for a walk, but none of the pitches were strikes. Never help a pitcher out in that situation, especially not on pitches in at the fists that are tough to hit. The reason it bothered me is because, as you point out, Guillen has a good eye. If it was man on third, two outs, then the calculus is different.
No sooner do I post the preceding than Inge makes a spectacular play to end the 8th.
Nice play by Inge!!!
That was big. We need to make Miner an 8th inning guy. That will help!
-Sam
re: DH in DC
Shef has been the opposite of lackadaisical. His base running has been brilliant. The Tigers are trying their collective asses off. Those D.C. politicians are making you too cynical.
Here we go…
BTW – Sorry I missed all the fun last night. I was watching, but didn’t have internet access.
Time for some gasoline?
This is really embarrassing, but I look just like Todd Jones. God, I’m a buffoon.
YES!!!!!!!!!!! Casey is amazing at the bag!!!!!
Don’t look now, but that is 3 straight 1-2-3 outings for Jones.
DR– thanks for the advice. You’re probably right. A 1-2-3 ninth for Jonesy; anything’s possible.
5] Nice play, Carlos.
I think everybody should admit we have seen two good games between two good teams so far. Also, happy 4th of july everybody!
Billfer, I thought you and the wife might have gone out of town or something you were so quiet last night.
Well, the All Stars did indeed step up tonight!
Ahhh! The thrill of victory.
A good win! finally!
btw, did anyone else notice mags swing was set up different? seems like he wasnt making a kinda circualar motion with the bat while it was up in the air.. but more choppy back and forth
1) We should give some credit to Leyland for going with Thames over Monroe (and indicating he’s going to do this regularly for a while). We bash him quite a bit for sticking with certain guys. At least he’s finally giving in on Monroe. Of course, with 34 HR in less than 500 AB over the last year and a half, one could argue Thames should have been getting more regular PT a long time ago.
Hopefully, Monroe will turn things around at some point, though. I think an ideal situation is Thames playing full-time between LF and 1B with Casey and Monroe basically platooning.
2) “Of course it’s easier to say that 24 hours later after a win…”
Truer words have never been spoken. It will be much easier to get to sleep tonight.
Re: Maggs in the outfield: I remember reading a quote from him somewhere last season where he said that after tearing up his knees in Chicago making a sliding catch, he swore to himself he would never do that again, which maybe led to the perception of lack of effort. However, I’ve seen him make some fine sliding catches, most recently to save Verlander’s no-hitter. Could he make more? Probably, I honestly don’t know. I kind of agree with Rabbit that we need him more at the plate than in the field (if that is indeed what you were saying.)
Also Rabbit, I think Jones is rather nice-looking. More importantly, he looks like he’d be fun to hang out with or have as a neighbor. Nothing to be embarassed about. 🙂
I have figured out the cause of the Craig Monroe slump. C-Moe is now refering to himself in the third person.
http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070704&content_id=2067028&vkey=news_det&fext=.jsp&c_id=det
“It’s on the wall. Average-wise, I haven’t been consistent,” Monroe said. “Have I driven in some bigger runs? Have I gotten some RBIs? Yeah, but I haven’t been consistent like Craig Monroe likes to be consistent.”
This does not bode well for C-Moe. He must be listening to Rod Allen too much. He also refers to his physical condition as ‘phenomenal.’
He has the ‘tude of Ricky Henderson and the skills of Wendell Magee.
$2.8 million salary, no trade value either.
Bilfer, thanks for the re cap.I was at work , did not see the game, getting inning by inning updates off my buddies cellphone. Did not realize Guillen had singled in the fifth.Got a little frustrated there.Got off on the wrong expressway going home.Go tigers.
I don’t understand the idea of giving Leyland credit for going with Thames over Monroe. Thames has been a far, far better hitter for a substantial amount of time now. There is no excuse, none, that it should have taken this long. And the worst of it is that I fear it’s temporary. Finally giving into stubborness is not a virtue I want in my manager. Figuring it out a long time before would be nice though.
“Finally giving into stubborness is not a virtue I want in my manager.”
I suppose you’re right, but it’s better than not giving in at all (i.e., Neifi still being on the roster AND getting playing time).
We should also recognize that we as fans usually want to pull the trigger too soon. Leyland probably waits too long. Hard to tell which is the bigger error–probably doing it to soon, since eventually you run out of players if you keep pulling them when they slump.