2008 Season, Game Post

Game 22: Rangers at Tigers

126 Comments

PREGAME: For those anxious to see the Tigers new defensive alignment, you’ll have to wait. Gary Sheffield and Placido Polanco miss tonight’s game so Miguel Cabrera DH’s and Carlos Guillen plays first. Here’s your lineup:

  1. Granderson CF
  2. Rodriguez C
  3. Guillen 1B
  4. Ordonez RF
  5. Cabrera DH
  6. Jones LF
  7. Renteria SS
  8. Inge 3B
  9. Santiago 2B

That line up will be taking on Luis Mendoza. In his last start Mendoza allowed 5 hits and 3 walks and 7 runs in 3 innings. In his two starts so far this year he has twice as many walks as strike outs.

He’ll be opposed by Kenny Rogers. Rogers nearly picked up quality start against the Blue Jays on Friday night but was hurt by 4 walks. For the season he has 12 walks and only 9 K’s over 4 starts.

TEX @ DET, Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

BTW – Please don’t post pretending to be a player/coach type person. Your post will be deleted as outlined in the comments policy. Thanks for your cooperation.

Game Time 7:05

POSTGAME: That was a nice offensive performance. Granted, the Rangers pitchers weren’t putting up much resistance (unless you count the 10 walks and 2 HBPs as resistance). But this one started off pretty ugly.

Kenny Rogers was doing a nice job of getting into two strike counts early on. And it wasn’t nibbling that was killing him. It was infield singers and choppers that made their way through that kept Kenny pitching from the stretch. Plus, his defense didn’t exactly help him.

The first run came when Carlos Guillen dropped a pick off throw. The second run came when Pudge Rodriguez ole’d a catchable pitch resulting in the runner from 3rd scoring. Twice Rogers had would be double play balls bobbled by his middle infielders (one each for Santiago and Renteria).

Bad luck turned to bad pitching as Rogers walked 3 in the 4th including the go ahead run. Fortunately Clay Rapada got out of a bases loaded situation and combined with Aquilino Lopez and Jason Grilli to go 5.2 innings of scoreless relief.

And the offense, just check out the box score. There’s too much to recap. But do note the stolen base by Carlos Guillen who didn’t appear hobbled for the first time in awhile

Tigers 19, Rangers 6

126 thoughts on “Game 22: Rangers at Tigers”

  2. Billfer

    1. Whats the deal with the Player / Coach thing ?

    2. I would rather see Clete in Left instead of Jones. I just cant get behind Jones this year.

    Lets get a win for Kenny tonight

    Steve

  3. Bilf, I am eagerly awaiting your number crunching with the announced switch between Guillen and Cabrera. I expect charts and graphs!! You know things that my math skills don’t allow me to understand, but of course, I still try!

    Oh ya, to piggy back on Steve’s comment..I totally agree. JJ needs to receive his pink slip. Keep Clete, err…as Ian says, ‘Clete’s Cult’.

  5. Dang is it to late to get my Clete shirt?!

    I love that Guillen is at 1B after yesterdays announcement.

    I used to coach some kids soccer, but I will never bring that up here. Crap, I just did. Sorry Billfer.

  6. i found it kinda odd they announce that shift yet guillen is back playing 1st tonight, lol

  7. Joe Z:

    That’s exactly what I thought. Does this mean that the move is more because of Cabrera’s woes at 3B than his comfort at 1B? Or is it just a function of who needs a night off?

  8. JOEY AND JOEL, and JOE haha. i found that funny.

    i would think the move is most because carlos just totally uncomfortable at first and i dunno, he doesnt have the body or the mindset of a first basemen.

    i kinda wish carlos would fit in at first, or we got larrish or someone called up and/or traded for a bomb first baseman.

    basically, i want inge at third and move miguel to LF , he played there one season while lowell was at third right? maybe i need read a report if he played good or not in LF. carlos can be a fill-in around the diamond when he doesnt want to DH (sheff looks pretty tore up!)

  9. I’m a little surprised Leyland didn’t hit Santiago third given last night’s performance. I mean, he hit Timo Perez there multiple times last year. Besides, Ramon brings that bunting ability the Jimmy likes in the 3rd spot.

  12. Too bad, b/c Kenny is really hitting his spots tonight. A couple of weak singles and some bad fielding. That’s a ball that Pudge used to get.

  18. joel, yes, a throw to first got away from our 3rd basemen carlos guillen . rolled to the wall.

  19. they still haven’t hit a ball hard off Kenny. fortunately our defense is bad enough to give away a couple runs.

  20. wow…these first two innings are unbelievable. luckily texas doesn’t have much of a pen.

  21. What a bunch of crap this is. We can’t catch the ball and Texas drops in 5 bloop hits and an infield single to plate 4 runs.

    Unreal, this is reminiscent of our 0-7 Tigers where nothing goes our way.

  22. So it looks like they have 4 runs off of Texas-leaguers…

    “Incoming pitch has been hit in play” is a warning of impending doom tonight.

  24. Looks like mike in ct was right kenny good for 5 tonight thought he might pitch more than 2 though

  30. I like the way our guys are battling the pitcher tonight. As Leyland is so fond of – “they’re grinding out at-bats” tonight.

  32. Yeesh. Kenny can’t buy a double play tonight — that’s two that have been bobbled now.

  34. Man, awful job by Rogers. The #9 hitter is trying bunt and he walks him. Horrible.

  39. Kenny absolutely blew himself up this inning. The defense did it for him earlier, though.

    Given how bad our bullpen is at stranding inherited runners, I think we’re looking at at least another 3-4 run deficit.

  41. you cannot walk the No. 9 guy, especially when he’s trying to bunt. stick a fork in Kenny, he’s done.

  46. Billfer

    1. Whats the deal with the Player / Coach thing ?

    2. I would rather see Clete in Left instead of Jones. I just cant get behind Jones this year.

    Lets get a win for Kenny tonight

    Steve

    There it is Steve, someone named Brandon Inge as a user name.

  47. what they really need, when willis is ready to come off the DL, is for Rogers to create a phantom injury so he can sort this out. If he doesn’t find his control he cannot pitch in the AL soft-tossing at 85 mph.

  51. one run in that spot, kind of a let down. mario made it sound like maggs’ shot was gone and it was 20 feet short. bad job by him.

  52. Wow – this game is just crazy. 2 hours to play 4 innings, you’d think we were watching Yankees/BoSox.

  56. Kathy thanks…. Hey, with Grandy back you do not have to fend off Pudge leading off.

    And Grandys on now………

  57. Does any one like Pudge bunting here???,
    he is a good contact hitter why not let him swing away with a 1 run lead?

  59. Bunting wasn’t the worst idea given who was coming up. I’m rarely in favor of it, but 1st and 2nd nobody out is one of the better situations.

    It does annoy the heck out of me when Rod Allen says the Tigers “manufactured a run”. If Pudge had not bunted but rather struck out, that Guillen double still drives in both runs. The bunt had nothing to do with the runs. An extra base hit with men on base drove ’em in.

  67. Granderson is sure getting a big welcome back. 12 runs, two of which were him scoring. Nice.

  68. I actually feel bad for Littleton. For the second night in a row he’s standing out there having absolutely no idea where the ball lis going.

  71. There’s still one out. And it was a sacrifice. We did it on purpose! This inning may never end.

  73. This is getting ugly, Do we plunk one of their guys after two of ours get nailed or let it ride?

  74. Its kind of painful for me to watch at this point. You know the other team is completely demoralized. It’s great to see the hitting, but our starting pitchers don’t look too good. How willl we look against LAA, NYY and MINN.

  75. Curtis Granderson! Apply directly to the leadoff spot.

    Curtis Granderson! Apply directly to the leadoff spot.

    Curtis Granderson! Apply directly to the leadoff spot.

    Curtis Granderson in your lineup is the cure for a sluggish offense.

  77. Took a quick look at the team batting stats. Before today’s game, the tigers had scored 92 runs on the season for 10th place in the AL. With tonights action, they are up to 110, good for 2nd behind Boston. About time . . .

  79. I couldn’t be having more fun tonight. I think I’m the bloggers resident gambler, and I put $200 on the Tigers to cover 1.5 runs. After we went 0-5, I was ready to pack it in, but this is exactly what the MLB expected out of us this year. 11 runs in one inning?? That’s sick nasty folks. Just sick. BTW, I loooooveee Granderson. The outfield looks so much cooler with him in it. Break out the Little Debbies a bit early, Steve!

  83. I’m not near a TV. Have they said when the last Tigers double-digit inning happened? I can remember plenty of eight-run innings within in my memory, but this is just sick.

  85. i went for a walk at 7-6 and now i come back and we get 11 in the 6th…is this what we mean by a strong offensive ballclub lol?

  86. …okay, but here’s the problem with football scores, even when they’re in your favor–doesn’t it always vaguely bother you when you’ve got, say, eighteen runs? Because that’s not a football score! That’s, what, six field goals? What are the odds of that happening? You just want them to hurry up and get to 21, so it’ll add up to three touchdowns.

    But then again, this may just be me.

  88. With the grand effort by the Rangers staff tonight, they have now passed the Tigers in BBs allowed, and lead MLB in that dept.

  89. …and now they can tack on that extra field goal, if Santiago can just display his legendary power. 🙂

  90. The Rangers just can’t develop or get anyone who can pitch; sadly, how many former Rangers end up pitching for us?

  93. 213 combined pitches by the rangers through 7 innings…wasn’t all that long ago that was us.

  96. What I like about this game is that they have scored all of the runs by taking 10 walks and hit only 2 home runs. I guess this means that they are being patient and taking what is given.

  98. Did anyone catch the stat about the Tigers bullpen? I saw they had a 5-something ERA for the first 9 games, but I didn’t catch the rest.

    I feel like they’ve been pitching much better lately than we give them credit for, but I’m curious what the numbers are.

  99. so what do you think will be the theme from the beat writers, all the runs because grandy is back in the lineup?

  101. Weirder things have happened. Aquilino Lopez and Armando Galarraga, anchors of the Detroit rotation! Yikes.

  104. We need to get Jones in the 9th and hope he can spend one of his due 9th inning blow-ups on a easy blow-out win

  106. Jason Grilli now has an ERA of 3.86…. Pretty respectable IMO.

    Shouldn’t we all get off his case while his ERA is below 4.0?

  107. Here’s the thing:

    This game was fun to watch, but the downside of this is, this formula ain’t gonna work when the Angels come to town, or when we go out to the Bronx next week… or play Cleveland or WSox again… sure, this lineup can score 20 runs off a pitching machine, or perhaps a slightly more challenging Texas Ranger’s pitching staff recently demoralized by Bosox, but when we fall behind 5-0 to a more formidable opponent, it’s gonna be an uphill battle to get back into the game. Tonight it worked out differently, but the starting pitching has to show up to these games. If we weren’t playing the Rangers tonight, I’d wage to say we’d all be alot less happy at this hour — and likely looking at a 6-4 loss after it was all said and done.

    If we can’t get better preformances from Rogers, Bondo, Verlander, and Robertson, we’re not going to win a lot of games.

    I like what I’m seeing from Rapada/Lopez/Bautista — and am optimistic about Cruceta — suddenly, the bullpen no longer seems the biggest concern — in addition, the offense is clicking — but the starting pitching just sucks. It just sucks. Unless it improves drastically, this is a .500 team.

  108. Yes i think he is doing pretty well now too, don’t ever let him pitch under pressure though.

  112. Can we talk about Kenny for a second? I thought he looked sharp in the 1st, despite giving up two runs, he went 0-2 on the first three batters. But it looks like he’s throwing BP out there. He’s lost 2 mph on his fastball, and that is making a huge difference. We need 12 wins from him, and I don’t think that he’ll get them.

  113. this might not even matter but remember how he was in 06 playoffs, pitching angry yelling,

    i seen a little of that tonight maybe it light a fire under his but?

    a little pine tar wouldn’t hurt either!

  115. hey i just found out i am not the only Scott in the universe, so if any of my comments made any sense its because they weren’t mine and i will change my name

  116. A win for tomorrow has a simple stratagy. Make the opposing starting pitcher throw as may pitches as possible. The Ranger bullpen is absolutely worn out to where their manager will have to come in the game and pitch the 9th.

  117. Think of this. If we’d just won 2 of our first seven games, we’d be at .500 right now.

  121. Play of the game: Miggy’s HR. How many hitters in all of baseball can hit an opposite-field HR with that much lift on it?

    I’m digging the video highlights on Gameday–very fun to be able to watch plays like that one over and over right after the game.

  122. hey ya’ll. I just got back from the game (with cib!) and it was a complete range of emotions. Kenny did not look good, we were in an 0-5 hole, then it was tied, then it was back and forth and we were on the edge of our seat, and then it was a explosion. A lot of fun! I know this won’t work against decent pitching staff, but you’ve got to take advantage of bad pitches, if you want to be good.

    Anyway it was pretty invigorating (and not just the cold weather!). Great win. Go Tigs!

  123. What a night! Tiff, thanks for joining my pre-birthday gathering!
    Let’s do it again tomorrow Tigers!!

  124. We’re tied for 2nd in walks taken (with Toronto). In 22nd place for strikeouts. 4th in OBP, 11th in SLG, 9th in AVG, tied for 8th in Hits, 4th in Runs Scored, are 11-0 in stolen base attempts (the only team except for the Padres who haven’t been caught, and they’ve only tried 6 times), and we started the season 0-7. We got shut-out twice in a row, and four times already in 22 games.

    All things considered, that’s pretty darn good.

    Not to mention that when we play the Yankees, we’ll actually HAVE our A-Rod.

  125. The Rangers have walked 15 hitters, hit 5, and thrown a collective 374 pitches in the first two games of this series.

    Not exactly a pitching coaches dream series.

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