PREGAME: From the Tigers perspective this game could be deemed the quest for .500. After the 0-7 and 2-10 start the Tigers and their fans would like nothing more to effectively hit RESET on the season. And it can all come true with a drubbing of Livan Hernandez and another surprising start from Armando Galarraga.
Galarraga continues his tour of the upper midwest (and Canada) as he heads to the dome in Minnesotra. He’s two for three in quality starts and has spun a 1.50 ERA.
Hernandez was a target of the Tigers this offseason while they were looking for a 5th starter. Actually I think he was leverage to use against Scott Boras while negotiating Kenny Rogers contract but that’s neither here nor there. He started off the season in dazzling fashion allowing 6 runs total in his first 3 starts while going 7 innings in each. But he’s struggled a little as of late including being tagged for 7 runs by the Rangers in his last start.
DET @ MIN, Friday, May 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com
Game Time 8:10
POSTGAME: It could have been worse. Okay, not much worse. Galarraga wasn’t sharp. Guillen had a costly error. The Tigers couldn’t take advantage of numerous scoring opportunities. The bullpen got shelled. And Denny Bautista left the game with an apparent shoulder injury. Yeah. This wasn’t good.
Anybody home? Armando struggling a little bit.
That was an odd pitch. I’m surprised that the didn’t throw over when Gomez was on 1st base. Just inexperience.
hi kathy
he sure is…hopefully it’s just the tigers regular first inning woes.
I do like how the MIN TV broadcast has Det up 1 – 0 . I wonder how long it will take them to figure that one out.
Yeah, I just noticed that, Kevin. That’s hilarious. Is this the game where Armando finally comes back to earth?
Maggs!!!!
Awesome. The Twins announcer just finished saying “that’s what speed will do for you.” And his next line was “And now the game is tied.”
That’s what power will do for you.
Uh, looks like we can run on Gomez next time.
Now, that’s a d*** shame! Bases loaded and can’t get a run in.
Pudge followed by Jones is just a rally-killer waiting to happen.
And Raburn and Thames ridin the pine. What a waste.
Are you frickin kidding me?! Nice work Pudge, Jones. PLAY THAMES, JONES IS WORTHLESS!
After billfer’s post and everything, Pudge goes in there and swings at the 1st pitch after 4 straight balls…Killer. I think we are gonna light Hernandez up though. I like the swings thus far.
Jones flat-out sucks. We have got absolutely NOTHING for him…
I keep waiting for Jones to return to his normal ‘below average’ and it just doesn’t happen. The way Jones is performing right now(a full month now)Inge is a significant upgrade offensively and probably defensively as well in LF.
Goodness did he spank that ball. A slower CF and that ball goes to the wall.
Again, run on Gomez.
Well this is ugly. Wild pitching in a run. Walking in a run. An error on a double play ball. Wasting a bases loaded no out situation.
No problem, the boys should be used to coming back from being a few runs down by now.
I’d rather be down 3-1 to Min than 1-0 to CWS.
Where should Carlos get the cortisone shots…in his eyes or his knees!
This game is making me grouchy. See y’all later.
Great snap throw, if Cabrera is in position, we may be out of this inning already.
Props to Hernandez, he’s really spotting and changing up his pitches well.
Should I say something that poo-poos the Tigers tonight and have this turn into a ‘W’ for the third night in a row?
Hey, the White Sox lost – that’s a plus 🙂
Tigers 1Run on 7 Hits
Twins 4 Runs on 5 hits….
more hits…..
fewer runs…..
deja vu
Hernandez is really dealing. Fun to watch.
I want to wake up tomorrow and read that Jones has been released from the Tigers. I understand how the Tigers need a left hand bat, but if he can’t hit then WTF? My grandma can bat left handed– doesn’t exactly translate into hitting, now does it?
Not gonna win them all. Get it all out tonight. I’m happy for the pen to get shelled on a night when the other team’s starter was throwing darts.
Yes, sometimes they take that lefty/righty thing too far. Jones is hitting .191 vs. rigthies. Inge is a RH hitting .281 vs. righties.
Well, on second glance, I guess 8 hits off of Hernandez isn’t exactly throwing darts, but he pitched well.
Twins owed “us” this one. Back to fight again tomorrow, hopefully V can get back to dominance.
Suck.
It’s not over yet! 10 quick runs and this is a brand new ballgame!
🙂
Hopefully, Bautista can get out of his recent funk. I get the feeling that Cruceta is going to win the 8th inning setup role by the end of May, regardless.
And hopefully, Lopez can immediately get back to the form he was in in April.
But if our bullpen pitchers are going to blowup their ERAs to somewhere near their career averages on games where the Tigers are going to lose anyway, and if they do not struggle when Tigers have a tight lead, then I’ll take it.
I did a google search on “first pitch swing” and it brought me to this site. From there I was able to find the log about this game.
I was unable to watch the game last night, but I read that pudge flew out after Rentaria walked on the Detroit News site. It instantly wondered how many pitches it took for Rentaria to walk (looks like 4 according to the log), and how many pitches Pudge took (looks like zero) before hitting a lazy fly ball to right field. This is the third time in the last couple of weeks pudge has swung at the first pitch following a walk and either hitting a lazy fly ball to right or a foul ball. My little league coach would have benched me for doing that. Take a friggin pitch for crying out loud. Are you trying to take less than the 9 walks from last year?
I agree that it is very frustrating to see these types of ABs in these types of situations. If I were a pitcher who just walked a batter to load the bases (no outs) on just 4 pitches, the thing I would hope to get is to have the next hitter swing on the 1st pitch. Pudge helped Hernandez out of a jam in a big, big way. If Pudge would have instead taken pitches early in the AB, he then would have seen what Hernandez was capable of at that time and he might have gotten a better pitch to hit.
If the Tiger lineup could ever start grinding out ABs in a consistent manner, they are going to really start crushing people. Or at the very least they will chase good opposing pitchers off the mound sooner by running up the pitch counts.
The Tigers have been quite good at grinding out at-bats.
http://www.detroittigersweblog.com/2008/05/patience-is-a-virtue-and-a-technique/
I understand that they do have “grind-out” at bats overall. That is not the issue. The point is that there needs to be a tendency to have better approaches at the plate in certain situations. If a pitcher loads the bases with no outs on 4 pitches, you don’t swing at the very 1st pitch.