2007 Season, Game Post

Game 129: Yankees at Tigers

53 Comments

PREGAME: Earlier this week the Tigers won a pretty dramatic game and sent one of their young aces out the next night. Things didn’t go so well as Justin Verlander was rocked early and often. Tonight Jeremy Bonderman will try and better that effort, and help rest a bullpen that pitched 6 2/3 innings last night.

A key to that will be getting Bonderman off the mound with fewer that 20 pitches thrown in the first inning, which we know to be a struggle.

The Tigers will go up against Chien Ming Wang. The Tigers knocked around Wang last weekend, but only converted 11 baserunners into 3 runs in 6 innings.

The task will be tough tonight with a lineup with 4 consecutive hitters who don’t exactly scare you. I know that guys need a break after last night, like Rabelo playing was a given. But after Carlos Guillen the Tigers will send up Mike Rabelo, Sean Casey, Brandon Inge, and Ramon Santiago. It’s not exactly murderer’s row. It’s not exactly toe-stubbers row. I’ll amend this slightly. In looking back at the last start Mike Rabelo did have 3 hits off Wang, and Sean Casey hit the ball hard 3 times in that game. Small sample sizes and all I know, but Wang might pitch to their strengths.

Game Time 7:05pm
NYY @ DET, Saturday, August 25, 2007 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Pretty disappointing follow up to last night’s game. The extra base hit string is snapped. Bonderman’s slider wasn’t there any he recorded now strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches and didn’t get out of the 6th inning because he couldn’t put anyone away, even going up 2 strikes. Just a terrible showing.

Ordonez had 2 ground ball singles, but when your number 2 hitter hits 3 back to the pitcher and your number 3 hitter fans twice, that doesn’t make for a lot of RBI opportunities.

If you’re looking for bright spots, Jason Grilli was quite good for the second night in a row and pitched 3 scoreless innings. And Brandon Inge had 2 singles, one was solid and one was a snort and he looks to be breaking out of his funk.

But when the perennial whipping boys represent your highlights, you know it was a rough night.

53 thoughts on “Game 129: Yankees at Tigers”

  1. Yikes! with that kind of bottom lineup, I hope Magglio & Carlos are patent and selective at the plate. If I were the Yankee pitcher, I would feel no need to give those two anything to hit.

  2. Anyone up for taking a flyer on Wickman? He seems like a jerk, but he’s got five weeks to show other teams he’s not washed up. While his problem was not wanting to pitch in non-save situations, I can bet he’s gonna be more willing to pitch in 6th/7th innings situation now if only to assure himself of another payday in 2008. I’m not proposing he take the place of our Big Three, but as a guy who comes into a 6th/7th inning when we’re tied or down a run, he would be an upgrade.

  3. MLBTR is saying “There’s informed speculation that the player to be named later going to Detroit in the Craig Monroe deal will be Clay Rapada.”

    i also read in one of the detroit papers that the tigers could possibly be looking for another bat in case sheffield is out longer than hoped.

  5. I almost knew it was too good to be true when he had 2 strikes on Abreu with 2 outs….I was right.

  6. What a dud Bonderman has turned out to be. I don’t care if he gets out of this inning or not. Every year for the last 2-3 years, this is going to be his breakout season, and every year he falls flat on his face. Bonderman = Not An Ace. Bonderman = Cheeseman II.

  7. Do you think Porcello is sitting facing the pitcher by design? If anyone of them screw up real bad, he might puke on national TV.

  8. Some things never change: runner on third with 0 outs and if Wang doesn’t throw a WP, we wouldn’t have gotten Inge home.

  13. Over his last ten starts Bombedagain has given up 48 runs, 78 hits (12 hr) in 62.2 innings and his ERA has gone from 3.58 to 4.87. He has not won a game since July 13th and this will be his 6th loss in his last 8 starts. No “Ace” would have such numbers over such an extended period of time. By comparison, for the season Grilli has given up 42 runs and 78 hits in 60.2 innings.

  14. I think its about time they skip Bonderman & possibly Verlander once through the rotation and spot start someone else.

  17. I think Virgil Vasquez would be a fair choice. And actually, I’d rather have Durbin pitching instead of Bonderman, the way Bonderman’s been eating it.

    His ERA is basically 5, people.

  20. I feel bad for cib. Last night she waited and waited and finally went home and she’s at this game tonight. Probably depressed.

  21. Seriously, since the D-Rays fiasco on August 10th, Grilli has posted an ERA of 2.64. He also has 6 scoreless innings since Aug 15th.

  23. When the rosters expand Sept 1 they should use the opportunity to seriously try out some of the youngsters that are on the 40 man roster. I don’t mean a game here and there, but some consistent, day in and day out play. No way are they going to the playoffs – the quality of play is just too inconsistent for them to put a streak together – and they can use the last 25-30 games as an advance “spring training” mode. There is going to be a lot of shuffling going on over the winter anyway since the pitching staff is a disaster and there are some real holes in the lineup as well.

  24. Boy, I sure hope that 3-J tomorrow has the stuff he had last Tuesday. We need somebody in this starting rotation to show some consistency & quality.

  25. Missed the whole game, but from my quick glance at the box score let me say this…

    For the love of christ, can Bonderman PLEASE learn how to prevent the other team from scoring in the 1st inning?? >:-o

  26. Since the collapse of late July begun, we have seen three factors in that collapse: Bullpen troubles, poor clutch hitting & inconsistent starting pitching. Which is the most problematic? I say starting pitching.

  27. Driving home from the game right now…this is the way i see bondo: he cant throw his slider for a called strike unles it hangs. His ‘good’ sliders stay low and relys on the fact he’s established his 4-seamer. Well his 4-seamer has no command therefor the batters wont mess w the slider. Oh, and he really needs to ditch that 2-seamer wow its bad.

  28. From what I’ve heard, the way they have been dealing with Bombedagain’s 1st inning struggles is ignoring it. The thought is that worrrying about it would make the problem worse. But, clearly, this approach has not worked, and if anything has made his overall game tank. I think they should try to address it directly now in some way, if they can.

  30. I went to the game tonight, a couple of thoughts:

    – When I saw the lineup, I was confused. I can understand playing the midget at SS to give Guillen’s knees a rest and I can understand Rabelo at C because Pudge will be in the lineup tommorrow, but why no Maybin? He is 20 years old, you would think he has the energy to play after the drainer last night. Plus, don’t you want his defense in LF? I wonder if he would of ran down Matsui’s 1st inning double.

    – When Bondo loaded the bases in the 6th and I saw byrdak was in the pen, I just assumed when Leyland came to the mound he would brng in the lefty. Bondo was shaky to that point but had had a decent effort. Leyland waited 3 batters too late to make the move.

    – I DID NOT do rally shirt

    -Sam

  31. I’m just gonna look forward to tomorrow’s game and see if Jair can consistantly continue striking out batters. Sure would be nice.

  32. Was at the game and I can sum it up in one word: brutal. If our star of the game is Jason Grilli, we’ve got problems. In the sixth, Leyland needed to get a lefty up earlier, to pitch to Cabrera and Damon. Damon owns Bonderman. Instead, he waited until Abreau was up to bring in Byrdak. Where’s Captain Hook when we need him?

  34. Hi Kathy and everybody. Thanks for worrying about me! No, I didn’t suffer thru this one. My friend’s son got married in Jamaica earlier this month and tonight was a lovely hometown reception. On the way over I heard NY go up 2-0. Ran into the hall and got a drink. When I got in the car to go home and started hearing the commentary, I figured, go Bondo. I should have had more to drink!

    Damn. One of my favorite movies is Space Jam – I am thinking that the MOnstars have just sucked up our talent and that’s that. I’m not angry, sad, whatever, just kind of resigned at the moment….

    Next home game in my package is Sept 4. What I really have to decide now is whether to let Mike Ilitch earn interest on my playoff ticket money for the month of September; or passing on the option. What are those of you who have a season package doing?

    Good night and talk to you all tomorrow during the game (I am a glutton for punishment, ’tis true)

  35. Unfortunately I missed both games because I was traveling. Was Bonderman having command problems again? If so then this marks like the 8th time in the past 9 starts or so that he has struggled. He did have a good start against the Tribe a couple weeks ago but got a ND because he received only two runs of support.

  36. After playing heavenly in the Twilight Zone Saturday morning, we’ve fallen back to Earth Saturday night with a thud. Grilli & Inge cannot do it alone. Gotta take the next two. GO TIGERS!

  37. Their were 400 more posts for the game played in the middle of the night than for this game. Waddya, a bunch of vampire Tiger fans?

  40. I guess Bonderman’s continued brilliant performance really left the fans awestruck and speechless, and thus unable to find any words to say on the blog. =P

  42. I went into this series thinking we could take three out of four and I still believe that after tonight. With Wang pitching tonight, I was ready to concede the game before it started as it seems we cannot hit the guy. Even though he looked a bit shaky in the first few inning giving up the walks, he eventually calmed down and had the Tigers hitters guessing all night.

    It is just me or does Bonderman seem dour and depressed on the mound? Even though he is struggling lately, he should still be coming to the mound with the mentality that he is going to win every time he pitches. He approaches the mound as if he is going to lose every time and his actions and demeanor on the mound reflect it. We all know his slider is not working lately as he is hanging too many up and many batters have been just been laying off of and forcing him to throw more pitches, which have had drab results. In order for Bonderman to move to the next level we have all been waiting for, he needs to learn how to pitch if a certain pitch isn’t working right on a certain night. He had good stuff and needs to rely on other pitches to put batters away if something isn’t working. To his benefit (or not) he did try to pitch hitters inside tonight for the first time in a while, but with terrible results as he almost hit at least six batters.

    Even though it kind of pains me to say it, we should really be grateful for Grilli’s performance tonight. He saved the bullpen for the more winnable games Sunday and Monday. Perhaps I am too much of an optimist, but the next two games look to be in our favor.
    Let’s go Tigers!

  43. Hey, what’s a good website for the comparing of players’ OPS? I know we’ve talked about it before, but can’t recall it. Thanks!

  44. Shane,a lot of Tigers seem to have that look. Of course losing doesn’t help. It might not be the best chemistry either. You’ve got hired guns mixed with young talent. Leyland might not be doing a good job of melding the two into a cohesive unit.

  45. As a spot start I would seriously (I know this probably sounds crazy) give Grilli, Tata, or Vasquez a start. Also, I would have kept Maroth until this season was over, Miller isn’t doing much better than him. Another issue I have is with Thames, he is not consistent, strikes out too much, and swing at pitches too early in the count too often; he should not be in the 3-spot.

    I would like to see the batting order like this as of today:

    1. Maybin
    2. Polanco
    3. Granderson
    4. Ordonez
    5. Guillen
    6. Casey (1B)
    7. Raburn/Thames (DH)
    8. Rodriguez
    9. Inge

    You can mix with Raburn for whoever needs a day off and until Pudge plays better bat him lower in the lineup, 7th or 8th.

  46. Before everyone pulls the sky down on our Tigers remember we was playing the Yankees. They are pretty good team so if ya don’t beat ’em every time it really ain’t the end of the world

    and now this: “Good job Inge”!!

    I know we have a lotta anti-inge faction on this blog and oh well. Our announcers talked about that on radio and noted that around the league most managers would snap up a player like Inge in a heartbeat. I agree.

    the key comments ont he blog today are these, I think:

    Sam: Bondo was shaky to that point but had had a decent effort. Leyland waited 3 batters too late to make the move.

    i agree here: Leyland needs a trigger job. he needs to face trouble earlier, nip it more before it gets really bad. I think Leyland is an optimist though, and I like that.

    after that series with the Tribe everyone was in the dumps. That ain’t a good thing. And then Robertson got out there and blanked them Yankees for 9 innings. what an effort. and then we finally put things together and beat those guys. Well they return the favor.

    but there are two more games in front in this series and so we turn to Kathy’s comment:

    Kathy: I?m just gonna look forward to tomorrow?s game and see if Jair can consistantly continue striking out batters. Sure would be nice

    we ain’t gonna win every game and we ain’t gonna be in the series every year. and that is beacue there is a lot of good competition out there. really good competition.

    and it wouldn’t be worth the trouble if those guys were not out there.

    Sp let’s see if Grandy can learn to be a switch hitter ( way cool ) and let’s focus on Jar’s start this afternoon.

    Go Tigers!

  47. during the post game show after game 1 vs NY Leyland was talking briefly ( does he ever go beyond that ? tee hee I like a man of few words )

    anyway he said Zach has to “pitch to the bat, don’t try to keep the ball away”

    I just thought I mention this again cuz it’s my impression that when we are having pitching troubles our guys are just tring to out-do themselves

    there are two easy ways to get the batter out and one tough one: the easy ways being a pop up or fly ball or (2) a gound ball. and the hard one is K

    K is a last resort if the batter refuses to ground out or hit a fly for us to catch. we prefer the ground ball of course so we can double someone up

    I think it is critical to note that as the number of pitches thrown to the batter increases the probability of a hit increases as well. I think this is what Jim is talking about. don’t let the batter have a “good at bat” running up the pitch count. make him play ball.

    of course this is what “command” is all about. pitch has to be good enough to entice the hitter to swing but not good enough for him to get hold of it. but we expect that from our regulars, after all this is the Big League not a AA game

    problem seems to be pervasive all aound the league though and I often wonder if we shouldn’t review Umpire calls more than we do. Calling a real tight strike zone creats a slug fest and wrecks the game

  48. I read an interesting essay on the specifications for the Baseball diamond on the net at work. Today is Sunday and all I have is my old beater computer and a cup a coffee but anyway what the essay said is that the dimensions of the baseball diamond have been derived carefully from experience in order to create a balance between offense and defense. the 90 ft base paths. and the exact size of the plate ( 17 inches ? )

    now the Umpire doesn’t try to make the base paths longer or shorter and the shouldn’t try to make the strike zone bigger or smaller to suit his own perception of the game, either. and I think there is some of that going on here and there and it needs to come to and end

  49. Detroit Tigers SP Jeremy Bonderman’s streak of 126 consecutive starts with at least one strikeout recorded ended Saturday, Aug. 25, against the New York Yankees

  50. I think Shane trapped in Ohio made a good observation regarding Bondo’s demeanor. A good pitcher is dominating, not only with his pitches, but the way he presents himself on the mound. When a pitcher is pitching well, are eyes are glued to him. He’s the commander, the dominator. You can see it in his face. If we can, the battlers certainly can. Yea, yea, yea I know all about the stats, but a dominating starting pitcher is the key to the game.
    He has been dominating in the past, but what his troubles are now, is something either he or his coaches need to address.

  51. You all know I like to listen to Dan Dickerson and Jim Price. Last night they got to talking about umpiring and how ridiculous that the players/pitchers can hardly say or do anything to disagree without getting a warning or get tossed. They both agreed that in all the years they have either played or watched baseball they have never seen it enforced so strictly. Think Selig might have something to do with this?

  52. Thames, my Tiger, is struggling. I’ll concede that (oooh, it hurts).
    That being said, even if he doesn’t start, I still think he’s great off the bench. Being in that underdog role seems to be his forte. I’d hate to lose him.

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