2008 Season, Game Post

Game 100: Tigers at Royals

102 Comments

PREGAME: The Tigers will try and score some more runs, providing they aren’t too tired from circling the bases last night. They won’t have Jimmy Gobble to beat up because he’s now on the DL.

The Tigers are facing Kyle Davies who they have a tangential relationship with. The Royals decided to take up the Braves offer of Kyle Davies for reliever Octavio Dotel last year at the trade deadline over the pitching prospect the Tigers offered up – which was rumored to be significant and rumored to be Jair Jurrjens.

Davies is coming off a quality start against Seattle, and was one out short of one in his prior start.

The Tigers send out Kenny Rogers who has been giving up more than his share of hits as of late. In his last two starts he’s surrendered 20 hits and 4 walks, but only 7 of those runners came around to score.

DET @ KCR, Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 8:10

POSTGAME: Kenny Rogers pitched a one-hitter over 6 innings to the 8 guys not named Mark Grudzelianekdsaskeak. In a rare outing for Kenny he fanned more than he walked and basically cruised through 6 innings and likely would have had enough for the 7th at least if not for a rain delay.

The offense dispelled questions about “using up their hits” in the 19 run outburst by scoring a run in the first inning. And basically just standing at the plate daring Kyle Davies to throw a strike. Davies was done after 4 innings and a ton of hitters counts.

About those hitters counts, it appears that Curtis Granderson is in a mini-funk. Yes, he has 3 hits in the series, but let’s take a closer look. He went 0 for 5 on Sunday. And of the 3 hits one was a swinging bunt. Another was a grounder through the pitcher that should have been fielded, and the last was a soft liner. But what makes it stand out is that he has been in 3-1 counts continually the last 2 nights, and hasn’t hit the ball hard. I’m not panicing or upset, I’m just sayin…

Placido Polanco had one of those patented, “wow, Polly just hit one out” homers that come out of nowhere and with no one on base. Gary Sheffield drove the ball well missing a homer by about 3 feet and hitting a deep sac fly to centerfield. Carlos Guillen was ripping the ball and had a 12 pitch walk to boot.

The one thing I really question is using both Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya. Rodney appeared by the boxscore at least (yeah, I went to bed) to be nasty, much like in his Baltimore outing (7 of his last 10 outs have been K’s). And using him 2 innings means he’s not available. But then to use Joel Zumaya with a 6 run lead, very late at night, with a day game today, seems to not be very forward thinking.

102 thoughts on “Game 100: Tigers at Royals”

  3. Apparently you can. I wish I would get 15 days off if I completely sucked at my job.

    Line-up
    1. Grandy
    2. Polly
    3. Guillen
    4. Maggs
    5. Miggy
    6. Catt
    7. Shef
    8. Pudge
    9. Our Struggling Shortstop

  5. Joel:
    Greinke did last year. In Gobble’s case it is probably shell shock.

  9. Coleman:

    Thames will go in as a pinch runner and Leyland will have him try to steal third. In the 7th inning, down by 1 with two outs.

  11. Tigers are 1-1 when Popo goes deep…maybe the stat wouldn’t have been so crazy if he hadn’t gone nuts and had himself a 2HR game.

  16. “KANSAS CITY’S MIKE AVILES EXTENDED HIS HITTING STREAK TO 12 GAMES WITH A DOUBLE IN THE FIRST INNING.” I’m glad they finally put this up I was getting all tense waiting for it…

  20. Is it just me, or does Renteria’s swing look as crappy as the results have been?

  21. Renteria is awful… When is Leyland going to bench this mistake of an acquisition and let Santiago take his job away?

  24. Looks like he’s trying to shave a humpbacked goat with a switch of bamboo while standing on a hill after twisting his ankle.

  26. That makes Shef 6-for-6 in SB….which is pretty good considering how many times he has actually been on base this season…

  27. Looks like the Sox are well on their way to winning, while the Twins are down big late.

  29. Yankees beating up on the Twins 7-2, but no help from Texas v Chi tonight – Sox up 6-0 in the 6th.

  31. so Jim Price is saying ‘nice area’ out of spite now, huh?

    way to get Davies out early! Lets take advantage.

  32. Hah, I’ve noticed that. “Where’s he from? – Nice area”. Is there a story behind that?

  33. Great opportunity for Maggs here. Of course the DP is possible too, and he and Renteria lead the team with 14 GIDP each. Surprisingly Sheffiekd is thrid with 10 – all of them average about in in 25 PA.

  34. Though they’ve been saying that Joyce has a sore throat..hope he can hit one outta the ball park right about now

  35. Finally cashing in on this situation. I was beginning to get a little worried there. More please!

  36. Got the station to station going tonight.

    Joyce absolutely has to play every day. It kind of takes the bat out of Thames hands again, but the kid is doing a fantastic job right now.

  37. Totally agree Vince! Hope his sore throat was just the air conditioning like they speculated and nothing more serious. Uggh!

  38. It’s too bad that Joyce isn’t a shortstop… We’ve got to keep him in the lineup without losing Thames ABs.

  39. Joyce has only had 7 AB vs LHP so far (3 for 7 with 2 doubles), so I guess Leyland is thinking platoon. However, I would be tempted to play him every day for a while just to see how he does. Again though, that would leave Thames sitting on the bench unless they can rotate him between 1B, DH and RF on occasion.

  40. Ryan I’m not sure where the ‘nice area’ bit came from, someone mentioned it here a few weeks ago and I’ve been chuckling ever since.

    Would love to find a way to keep Thames and Joyce in the lineup.

  42. That’s 3 quality starts in a row after Billfer declared the season blown Saturday night.

  47. I say they should call the game. It’s official–Tigers win! We will only be 4 games behind the Twinkies.

  51. Just heard an update, they are waiting out the current “cell” and will make a decision after that. No time table was given. Apparently, Kauffman has drainage problems in center field, so calling the game is a possibility.

  52. Just got back from Mets-Phils games. Egads, nothing like blowing 3 run lead with 50,000 watching to send home a small city of fans angry and punching things.

  53. I bet the Royals manager would be happy to have the game end as an offical Tiger victory. Their bullpen needs the rest in a big way.

  54. How many wins do the Tigers need in the last 62 games of the season? My guess is 44. Could be fewer if they take care of business in the remaining games against the CWS (9) and the Twins (3) and go 10-2 or so.

  55. The rule is a game is a regulation game if it has completed 4 1/2 innings with the home team in the lead or 5 innings with the visitors leading. If a game is suspended after that after the top of the inning. The Home team must be given the opportunity to bat only if the Visitors have tied the game or taken the lead in the top of the inning.

    In tonight’s case the Tigers had the lead going into the 7th, so the game could be final as it stands.

  57. 12:50pm ET? 🙁 *sigh* thought we could catch a break and just call this game a Tigers win

  58. Well at least that gave me time to do some research, which I can share as the game goes on.

    My first discovery–well, more of a confirmation actually:

    Beer is good.

  59. Coleman, I’d be curious to hear the methodology you employed in your recent study.

  60. How many wins do the Tigers need in the last 62 games of the season?

    Six more than the Sox and five more than the Twins. 44-18 means you’re expecting the Sox to go 38-24 or the Twins to go 39-23. That isn’t likely to happen.

  61. I confess it was not a purely scientific methodology; in fact I suppose it was something of a mixture of the Trial-and-Error method with an Applied Philosophical method.

  62. Uncle ‘Nando looked nasty. I haven’t been able to see his outings as of late (that series in Baltimore I missed most of it) and that was very exciting to see. I don’t ever remember Nando hitting 97 (98 on MLB Gameday).

  65. “Uncle Nando” is an Anti-Samsonite. (or a reversed tilde perhaps)…

    He has gained strength from the shearing of his locks…

  67. Since there is a break, I will elaborate further the the benefit and edification of Kevin in Austin.

    See the usual problems that subjectivity presents in any attempt towards science are multiplied in this instance since the hypothesis itself–that the consumption of beer will be good–posits a conclusion that is itself fraught with subjectivity.

    Not only that, but the subject evaluating the results of the trial (myself) is on top of all this making the evaluation while potentially affected by the substance under investigation.

    I solved this dilemma by reasoning thus: any effect that consuming the substance
    has on the subject can be a good effect, a bad effect, or an indifferent one. If indifferent, it is not an issue. If bad, it would invalidate the results. But what if the effect is good? Could it still not skew the judgment and therefore invalidate the results? Well, logically, no–since the hypothesis was that the effects of consumption would be good, then it is logically impossible that A) they would cause misjudgment, and also B) that they would lead to judging the experiment a success, since by definition the good result in discussion is our definition of a successful experiment, and therefore condition “A” would not apply.

  70. Edgar Renteria’s blazing speed forcing an error on what should’ve been at least a force out. It’s like he was 20 years old again on that play!

    Kind of.

    But not really.

  73. Zumaya is coming in.. are you kidding me, Leyland? Why is else Casey Fossum on the foster but to mop up in a blowout/get out lefties?

    Now we’re screwed if we need a decent reliever in a close game tomorrow.

  74. I’m sure Kevin is out studying in Austin, but for future reference: please note I am re-evaluating the results of my experiments based upon the discovery of new evidence; for I seem to have made an allusion to the movie Tommy Boy.

  75. I think Bobby Seay should have come in on this one. Why waste your silver bullet when you don’t need to. Also, distribute the pen workload. Seay hasn’t pitched since last Saturday, if I’m not mistaken.

  77. Speaking of Uncles and relievers, Zumaya has a serious Uncle Remus beard going on in his MLB.com photo.

  78. Nice win. Kept pace with the Sox and picked up another on the Twins. Keep pounding away boys. How about a little sweep?

  79. On the other hand, re. Zumaya, the Smoking Man might actually be smarter than us all.

    Think about it; the game started about, oh, a day ago; the Tigers have had about many innings of huge lead; the bullpen vibe is probably…a bit like high school on the last day of school? Probably a bit of clowning around going on? And in such clowning, who is most likely to have a freak accident involving, say, a hose and a broken car antenna? See what I’m saying?

  80. following up a 19 run game with a healthy 7 runs… I like the second half.

    As far as using Zumaya, I remember reading that Leyland wants to try him in different situations, including back to back games, to see if he can handle it..so maybe this is one of those times?

  81. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zumaya pitched today if needed. Really unfortunate that the rain cost us 1-2 more innings from Kenny.

  82. I was wondering yesterday when the last Tigers bullpen “wow” had been. Last night was “wow.” Cool.

  84. As if we’ll even need our bullpen this afternoon. This series is already over. The Tigers just have to show up. The fat lady is singing “A sweep is on its way”.

  85. “Ooh, Edgar Burn.”

    I noticed that. too. I think the burn was in the mind of the beholder, but certainly Edgar came to mind first. He had 2 hits, though. He is the Shortstop Who Will Not Die Already.

    What’s up with Joyce and the error? Rain-related? He is supposed to be Thames’s “defensive replacement,” so I’m a little concerned.

  86. He just air-mailed the throw home. I don’t think they had a play anyways, but it allowed the runner to advance to 2nd.

  88. I love it when the phrase “air mailed” is used to describe a throw. It conjures up images of the player stuffing the ball into a parcel and dropping it off at the local post office.

  89. “Air-mailed” as a negative way to descrbe a throw doesn’t really make sense, when you think about it (but I knew exactly what Ryan meant without thinking about it). I mean, of course it’s air mail. The question is, was it delivered to the correct address?

  90. Baseball sure does have a lot of strange phrases. Especially in Detroit, probably. Way to go Rod.

  91. Baseball is a strange game. One of the strangest things is its lack of a true regulation field of play.

    It’s too bad they don’t take it even further. A team like the Tigers could benefit from a home field where the bases were, say, 60 feet apart. OK, I’m exaggerating. 40 feet apart. But imagine having to play in the Metrodome then, where the bases would be 180 feet apart.

  92. I am not worried about Zoom, Bilfer. He had two days off anf just pitched one inning last night. He should be fin for today, or he should not be in the bigs. He will get another day off tomorrow.

  93. I would refrain from making any negative comments about Zumaya on this website. His dad may be reading and feel compelled to go batsh*t insane and break something.

  94. “I wouldn’t not play him unless I thought he wasn’t going to get the job done,” Leyland said about Renteria. “But there are going to be balls in emergency situations where he’s not going to take a chance at the ball at all.”

    Er… what?

    Translation:

    “I think he can get the job done. But I don’t think he can get the job done.”

    Resolutely irresolute.

  95. “But then to use Joel Zumaya with a 6 run lead, very late at night, with a day game today, seems to not be very forward thinking.”

    When you’re as old and you smoke as much as Jim Leyland, you live for today…

  96. Chris:

    Lest you think I was criticizing, I highly approve of the Remus beard.

  97. Looked at the 2 prior games against Greinke. The lineup I’d like to see:

    CF Granderson
    2B Polanco
    DH Guillen
    RF Ordonez
    1B Cabrera
    LF Joyce
    3B Raburn
    C Inge
    SS Santiago

  98. Renteria made a great play in the ninth. Apparently the pressure front that moved in agreed with his agility. That was the best play I’ve seen him make all year. Now it would be nice to see him make the same quality of play when it matters.

    EDIT: Or maybe I just have a skewed reference point? Something akin to Snow in July, Rain in the Sahara, Renteria Ranging to Snag a Hit — but now I’m questioning myself — it was a great play right?

  99. I wish the Tigers website had video of the 9th inning Renteria play. I’d like to see it.

  100. Speaking of that, does anyone else just log on to the Tigers’ MLB.com website and watch the 2006 playoff videos (Maggs’ homer and the following celebration for the most part) when the Tigers are sucking or you get really depressed about baseball? I must have watched them 3 times a week early in the season.

  101. “watch the 2006 playoff videos”

    I suspect that this would actually depress me more, Ryan. The current team ought to be better than that team, and it’s not.

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