Monthly Archives: July 2008

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 84: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: Minimalist preview today. For the series win it’s Eddie Bonine and Nick Blackburn. Factoid of the day on opposing pitcher: big reverse platoon splits for Blackburn with 10 of 11 homers allowed coming from righties.

DET @ MIN, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

Game Time 1:10

POSTGAME: Minimalist postgame today. I missed this one completely. Couldn’t even listen in at all. And given a quick perusal of the box score it didn’t seem worth watching the archived version. I guess the Tigers were due for a series loss, and to lose back to back games, and at some point a crippled lineup wasn’t going to be able to piece together rallies, and a rookie pitcher was going to struggle. On to Seattle.

Links

links for 2008-07-02

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2008 Season, Minors

Tigers Minor League Wrap 7-1-08

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Toledo 7 Columbus 9
Jeff Larish homered and walked. Brent Clevlen singled and tripled. Yorman Bazardo was rocked for 7 runs on 7 hits and 5 walks in 4.1 innings.

Akron 9 Erie 1
Dusty Ryan walked and homered driving in the only Erie run. Danny Christensen gave up 8 runs in 4.1 innings.

Lakeland 5 Clearwater 6
Ryan Strieby hit his 11th homer. Cale Iorg went 2 for 5. Jeramy Laster had a single and 2 walks. Both Iorg and Laster stole 2 bases as well. Jonah Nickerson didn’t make it out of the first inning before surrendering 4 unearned runs on a hit and 3 walks.

Fort Wayne 4 West Michigan 9
Hayden Parrott was a double short of the cycle. Audy Ciriaco walked twice and homered. Alfredo Figaro struck out 5 and walked 1 in allowing 3 runs in 6 innings.

Oneonta 0 Lowell 3
Joe Bowen reached base 3 times on 2 walks and a single. Matt Hoffman pitched 4.2 innings of relief and the only hit allowed was a homer while fanning 5 and walking 1.

GCL Tigers – box not available.

2008 Season

Pinch me

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When a team puts together an 18-4 type run, usually said team is doing it by playing well and getting some breaks. Some of those breaks the Tigers have been getting of late have come in the form of pinch hitters.

The Tigers have used pinch hitters 26 times this season and are hitting a robust 435/440/913 in those situations. That’s good, but like so many of the Tigers other stats they look a whole lot better when you look at the month of June.

In 11 June pinch hitting plate appearances the Tigers are 6 for 9 with a walk and a sacrifice fly. Of those hits 2 were homers, 1 was a triple, and 1 was a double. Three of the plate appearances gave the Tigers the lead and 2 tied the score. Yes small sample size and unsustainable production and so forth. But there is no denying the Tigers made the most of some high leverage opportunities.

And what makes it even more amazing is that only one of those 9 plate appearances came from what you’d consider a starter. It’s Jeff Larish and Ryan Raburn and Mike Hollimon, and Clete Thomas, and Matt Joyce getting it done.

Now Jim Leyland I guess deserves a little credit for “pushing the right buttons” but the decisions have largely been elementary. Yesterday Clete Thomas was forced in for an injured Miguel Cabrera. And 9 of the PA’s came in NL parks where it was mostly a matter of hitting for a pitcher.

But there are two of the situations where Leyland had a choice, and made the correct one. Of course there was last night where Leyland went with the platoon advantage and sent in Matt Joyce over Ryan Raburn. The other was a tougher call where he sent in Marcus Thames as a platoon partner for a hot Curtis Granderson. That was of course successful when Thames hit a 2 run go ahead homer.

2008 Season, Game Post

Game 83: Tigers at Twins

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PREGAME: I’ll be honest with you. Going into this series I didn’t have big demands. As long as the Tigers didn’t get swept, I figured things would be okay. However, with that requirement out of the way I’m going to greedy and ask for a series win.

Tonight it will be Nate Robertson taking on Scott Baker. With the lefty on the mound today there is no Joe Mauer or Jason Kubel for the Twins.

Baker is riding a 4 game quality start streak, but he’s racked up pitch counts of over 100 by the sixth inning in each of the last 3. That typically isn’t a problem for him against the Tigers who seem to swing early and often against Baker. Baker sports a 2.28 ERA at home with only 2 of his 10 homers allowed at the Metrodome. Miguel Cabrera is out of the lineup so it will be Grandy in center and kids on the corners.

  1. Granderson, CF
  2. Polanco, 2B
  3. Guillen, 3B
  4. Thames, 1B
  5. Joyce, RF
  6. Sheffield, DH
  7. Thomas, LF
  8. Renteria, SS
  9. Rodriguez, C

Expect the Twins to test Marcus Thames at first base with a handful of bunts.
DET @ MIN, Tuesday, July 1, 2008 Game Preview – Baseball-Reference.com

POSTGAME: Well, the defense was good. The Tigers turned 5 double plays, including 3 in the first 3 innings. Clete Thomas chipped in a nice diving catch on a foul ball. Of course there were plenty of opportunities for double plays because Nate Robertson (and later Zach Miner) was pretty awful. It was the first time this year that Robertson didn’t make it through 5 and the first time he allowed more than 5. He basically pitched from the stretch all night.

Meanwhile Scott Baker was quite good. He seemingly was ahead of most Tigers hitters either 0-2 or 1-2 and that’s a tough way to hit. It explains why the Tigers were probably going after so many first pitches. From a pitch count stand point that made Baker work, but that’s because they were missing or fouling off those first pitches.

The Tigers got decent middle of the order production with multi hit games for Guillen, Thames, and Sheffield. But run scoring was limited because Granderson and Polanco combined to never reach base.

But all good things must come to an end. Time for a new winning streak tomorrow.