2007 Season, Game Post

Game 117: A’s at Tigers

66 Comments

PREGAME: Dallas Braden and Nate Robertson.
Game time 1:05pm
OAK @ DET, Sunday, August 12, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Okay, the Tigers have secured at least a split of the series and have won back to back games. We were here last Wednesday too, and look how grumpy we turned out. But for now, relishing in a thumping by the good guys will suffice.

Today the Tigers beat up on a bad pitcher, exactly what they haven’t been doing enough of. Of course you’ve heard that Magglio Ordonez homered twice, and he’s the only Tigers not named Al Kaline to accomplish the feat in the same inning. With the week he’s had, he’s pushed his slugging percentage up to .599 and is back in the MVP discussions.

Nate Robertson wasn’t great, but the 5 walks were in large part due to Angel Hernandez’s awful strike zone. The two teams combined for 15 walks, so it wasn’t an issue that was exclusive to Robertson.

Again, I went with the super short pregame post, and it worked, so we’ll do that again tomorrow. Just didn’t want to think I was mailing it in or anything.

Oh yeah, and thanks to the Indians and Yankees the Tigers are back in first…barely…for now.

Tigers 11 A’s 6

66 thoughts on “Game 117: A’s at Tigers”

  5. That 2nd one was a no-doubter, huh boys? Looks like a great day to be at the park.

  6. Maggs: Having a mvp year. Awesome!
    Inge: still hitting in the low .240s. Of course he’s going to get some hits, that’s why he’s in the major leagues. If he was hitting .000 he wouldn’t be out there. The question is whether or not he is an adequate starting third baseman.

  7. TBone,

    According to Dan Dickerson it’s only the second time in the 107 year history of Detroit Tiger Baseball.

  9. I think that Inge certainly is an adequate third baseman. He will never be the batter that we all want him to be but he is still not the rally killer that everyone makes him out to be. He is batting .287 with runners on, .326 with RISP and .444 with the bases loaded. And while it is true that he will strike out often, he doesn’t kill rallies by GIDP (only 5 this year). He is good for a no. 9 hitter and the biggest thing that he brings to the team is very good defense.

  11. I was thinking that after that inning Maggs had pretty much secured Player of the Week honors. But that just helped him catch up to Raul Ibanez: (doesn’t include today of course)

    Stats for the week

  12. I’ll say it again regarding Inge: This is his 4th straight season of offensive decline. And there’s no sight of it getting better next season. We’re in for at least 3 more years of declining offense from 3rd base. Also, this year, he’s not as good defensively as he’s been in the past.

  17. I love discussing Inge halfway thru the game. This means we have a comfortable lead. Go Tigers.

  18. Perralta just picked off first with bases loaded and no outs for the Indians. We may yet win the AL Special Olympics Division.

  19. In this lineup–with Thames back–I can live with Inge. But he is not a good hitter and somewhere down the line, when the old guys get too old, he’s likely gonna be replaced.

    I’m holding my breath for a series victory here. It’s been a long time coming.

    Stephen you have tickets for the upcoming series in NYC?

  22. Not yet. I’ve been so disheartened by the Tigers’ recent slide the idea of humping it from Brooklyn to the Bronx to watch them get hammered in front of 50,000 people has stopped me from buying tix. Don’t get me wrong, I would watch all of them–as i will watch all their games– but I can curse in the privacy of my own home and cry into my pillow.
    Although now that they’re playing decently, I’m back on the fence…I’ll probably hit one or two of them..

  23. Joey C.: don’t hold your breath for the series win. I don’t mean that in a pessimistic sense, but this is a 4-game set and I think you’ll need a breath sometime between now and tomorrow night.

  27. Yeah, I get really lazy when it comes to getting tickets but I feel that I need to get my butt over to the stadium. It isn’t going to be around for ever and having the opportunity to watch a meaningful late season series involving the Tigers and Yanks isn’t going to happen too often.

    Any other New Yorkers want to try to get tix? We should at least get together and take over a TV in a bar and annoy the crap out of New York fans.

    If anyone is interested, hit me up at joeycolista@yahoo.com

    Sucks that Nate couldn’t get past the 6th.

  29. Dave W, do you mean the 8-24 game – I have that one too, we must have the same series, but I am beginning to think that I am the curse. Either that or there have been a lot of Friday night games where it’s the first night back from a road trip and they seem out of sync.
    You’re right about the glasses. Yow. There doesn’t seem to be a margin big enough for us to not get nervous.

  30. Thank God Leyland pulled Byrdak. I thought for sure he was going to ride him another batter.

  31. I’m going to that one, too, cib, but I meant the game in New York this Friday. These plans were made when they were a much more inspiring team, keep in mind.

  32. Dave I can relate. Last year I planned an exciting road trip to Cleveland for the kids and me. We got tickets for the series at the end of August. Needless to say by that time they were mired in The Slump. Well, good luck to you, it was tough being the “other team” at Jacobs Field, I don’t know if I’d have the guts to do so at Yankee Stadium!

  35. This reminds me, whatever happened to the idea of the friendly DTW posters meeting up at a game? Anyone else attending 8/22, 23, and/or 24?

  37. i can, but then i have to sit with all the other blowhards and pretend like i don’t care who wins, which nearly killed me when Monroe hit a game winner either last year or the year before.

  38. I’ll be at the game 8/25

    ha ha I can imagine you jumping up among a buncha stone faced people when CMO hit it.

  39. Going to Fri. game courtesy of big time Yankee fan brother in law in a limo no less . Myself, I couldn’t afford the seats. Used to take the bus down Fort St. from Wyandotte and sit in the bleachers at Briggs stadium for .50 cents.

  40. this is old news, but I haven’t seen in mentioned anywhere:

    if anyone still cares, Mike Maroth is back on the DL after performing absolutely atrociously in St Louis. If I had to guess I’d say his career is over.

  43. I have no clue who to cheer for in an Indians/Yankees matchup. Sure, the Indians are in our division, but, but… they’re the Yankees

  49. Yeah we got to beat the Indians. The Yankees are looking like the 200 m salary killing machine they were supposed to be. We might be able to beat them in a short series, but i don’t like our chances of finishing ahead of them over the next 48 games.

  50. also about Maroth: Albert Pujols apparently noticed he’s been tipping his pitches. The two of them are now trying to fix his delivery. Maroth and Pujols, bff.

  52. The one thing that conserns me about this upcoming series against Cleveland is the starters for both teams. The Indians have ace #1 C.C. Sabathia against the struggleing Bonderman, and then they have their ace #2 Carmona vs. TBD (likely Vasquez called up from Toledo). If the Tigers do somehow avoid a sweep in this 2 game series, I’ll concider it a very positive outcome.

  53. let’s don’t get ahead of ourself here. first we gotta finish off the A’s. and both teams have expended a lot on this series. it’ll be an ugly game tw nite

    anyway you slice the cake to suppress a power house offense like so many teams have — including the A’s — you gotta have MLB pitching. without an MLB pitcher on the mound ya gonna get pounded. and beleive me our Tigers have done that in a lot of games.

    But that is all good cuz we love to dish out a pounding for whoever we are playing

    what worries me now is what kind of shape Kenny is in. we need him, obviously. like tw nite.

    I think Jim is on the BullPen problem and I think he’s gonna get it under control. Ya notice he’s swaped a few slots and given some of the guys a chance . Buzzard will likely get another chance to throw; I ain’t sure about Burdock, that was the 2d time they tried him this year. I bet we see Lopez get another chance too- maybe we gonna need him tw

  58. 2 things from me: 1) I started to think about the Yanks and whatnot, and is it bad that I kind of hope we win the wildcard so we don’t have to face them in the postseason? Honestly, not sure if the 06 division series can be replicated.

    2) What’s going on with Polanco’s head. I saw pictures of him in Philly and his head wasn’t that abnormal. It’s ballooning out above the temples. I can’t be the only one to notice this.

    Look at his head here compared to his head here. Call me a skeptic in this new age of baseball but his numbers have spiked since arriving in Detroit.

    He’d never posted an OPS+ higher then 119 and now he’s on pace for two seasons of 127 in the last three years and he’d never hit .330 in a season and is about to twice in the last three years.

  59. Oh, and before I get labeled as crazy for thinking a middle infielder who isn’t noticeably bigger is on the roids, consider that no one would’ve pegged Alex Sanchez as on the juice, either.

  60. I actually hate where this is headed because we have no way of knowing, except of course for the MLB testing which nothing has been announced (he could have tested positive once and it wouldn’t be announced). Plus nobody can prove their position one way or the other.

    And comparing him to Alex Sanchez, who’s entire game involves running fast isn’t really a great comparison.

    I’m nipping this in the bud.

  61. I’ve always thought Polanco has had a really weirdly shaped head, but I never even considered once that it was due to any kind of performance enhancing drugs. Like Bilfer said, he doesn’t really have the playing style that would benefit greatly from steroids. His ability to make contact and play sound defense relies more on instincts than anything. He’s passing the tests, unlike Neifi Perez, so I’m not worried about it at all. You would think he is smarter than that.

  66. For the record, I don’t remember posting that last night — Guess I was celebrating back-to-back wins which feel like a rarity now-a-days. However, I do stand behind (most) of what I was saying.

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