PREGAME: Armando Galarraga takes the mound for the Tigers tonight and he’s looking to avoid being the weak link in the rotation. The Tigers have 7 quality starts in their last 8 games, the lone non-quality start belongs to Galarraga when he was chased in the first inning by the A’s. In May the Tigers have 12 quality starts in 19 games and 4 of the non-quality starts belong to Galarraga.
For the Rockies it will be Jason Marquis. Marquis has middling peripherals and a middling ERA (4.75) to go along with them. But he has compiled some very nice games this year, and they’ve been on the road where he has a 1.138 WHIP. In Colorado that WHIP is 1.583.
The lineup courtesy of Jason Beck is:
- Granderson, CF
- Polanco, 2B
- Thomas, RF
- Cabrera, 1B
- Ordonez, DH
- Inge, 3B
- Raburn, LF
- Larish, C
- Everett, SS
Colorado vs. Detroit – May 23, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday
POSTGAME: And the streaks are over. The seven game winning streak – gone. The eight game Comerica winning streak – gone. The undeated on days of the week that start with the letter S – gone. The Tigers had the go ahead run on base in the 9th, but they were outplayed by a larger margin.
The Rockies hit the ball hard consistently off of Armando Galarraga and probably could have had more runs with some better luck. Heck, they lost a run when Chris Ianetta couldn’t score because he pulled a hammy. As for the Tigers offense? Two-thirds of the runs came when the Rockies failed to throw out Magglio Ordonez on a failed hit and run. The Tigers got another gift when Ordonez wasn’t punched out on a full count pitch in the 9th.
- Galarraga wasn’t awful, but he wasn’t good either. Most troubling was that when the team did get him off the hook for the loss he came up and went 3-0 to Todd Helton and then served up a meatball. But for most of the game he wasn’t nearly as nibbly as he has been.
- Some nice bullpening tonight from the beleaguered Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon who combined to allow 2 baserunners, no runs, and a stranded runner on second in 3.2 innings with 3 K’s.
- The top of the order was brutal with a combined 0 for 12 from the top 3 and only one well struck ball in those 12 pa’s
Larish should be Laird. 🙂
I saw the KC score and thought it was accidentally reprinted from yesterday. Another 5-0 loss for the Royals.
Larish is catching?
Beck sucks at tweeting the lineups, and Billfer sucks at posting them 🙂
Laird is catching and batting 8th.
Fowler was safe, but Clete has a major league arm. Wow can he peg that thing.
The only two Rockies fans in Detroit are sitting next to us. Of course.
I’m predicting someone will get ejected for arguing balls and strikes tonight. Wally Bell is terrible.
Also, Armando is hanging the slider often. Not good.
Galarraga is still throwing his arm across his body. When he was good he threw more overhand and towards the plate. Can’t believe Rick Knapp can’t fix this. Get the old tapes out please.
Gallaraga = streak killer
A zero! Now, on to the 1-2-3.
Cabrera was set to let that drop and get the double play. Atkins wasn’t even running.
But Stewart pops out so Galarraga’s streak of allowing at least a run in an inning ends at 5.
Marquis is way too comfortable. Someone needs an 8-9 pitch at-bat to throw off his rhythm. I’m looking to Brandon.
Wow. I feel like half our runs this season have come after errors. The other half from home runs.
Love Galarraga’s pitch count. Just 67 pitches though 5.
Holy crap. Did Magglio just steal 3rd base? LOL. Then he scores on the wild throw.
It was a botched hit and run. Magglio would have been out by a mile if it wasn’t for the missed catch by the third basemen.
Leyland likes to call that play with slow runners on 2nd base for some reason, when not surprisingly, the runner gets thrown out. Usually it is Thames, but since he is on the DL I guess it fell to Maggs
Galarraga threw 41 pitches in 2/3 of an inning during his last start. Huge improvement in that department.
Good gawd. Helton crushed that 3-0 pitch.
Bilfer – do you think Bondo will be ready in time for Gallaraga’s next start?
Nope. Bondo is making another rehab start for Toledo next week.
He pitched Thursday and has another Toledo start next week, so I’ll easily venture and say no.
Doesn’t matter. Even Miner would be an improvement.
Agreed. Does anyone know Galarraga’s options status?
I believe he is out. His contract was purchased by the Rangers in Oct 05. He spent time in the minors in 06, 07, and 08 meaning I think he’s used all 3.
Gal needs to take some time off and clear his head and fix his mechanics. By the way I recommend that everyone goes ahead and avoid watching any O’s-Nats games in the future.
And this particular lineup just isn’t going to score a lot of runs – Thomas and Everett seem to be reverting to form, Grandy in another slump, Maggs now a singles hitter. The Oakland series was an anomaly, I think. If the pitching falters, they could just as easily go into a long losing streak (e.g. the sweep in MN).
Granderson (despite the home runs) and Polanco have been uncharacteristically bad. Curtis has been consistently popping everything up, but he started slow in 2007, so I’m sure things will change. Thomas can’t be considered a long-term solution for the 3 spot, and I’m guessing that experiment will be ending soon — although a replacement isn’t really obvious right now.
Well, yeah. If the hitting and pitching both falter the team will lose games.
What I meant was that the hitting probably just isn’t going to be good enough to compensate if the pitching isn’t spot-on most of the time. For example, the Yankees last year had terible pitching, but their hitting helped them to a winning season. I don’t see the Tigers having that luxury in the event the pitching hits a bad spot.
I know, I was teasing. But the offense isn’t awful either. I expect Granderson and Polanco and Ordonez to hit better. With Polanco and Ordonez they likely won’t hit at career numbers as they age, but they should be better than they are now. Granderson is in his prime and shouldn’t be regressing. I don’t think the offensive situation is that dire.
Vince don’t be a downer! Its a one run game!
Nice job by Nate tonight. 2 innings, 2 baserunners, no runs, and stranded a guy on second.
Nate was auditioning for a spot in the rotation 🙂
At bad has Galarraga has been lately his ERA (5.74) is still a run better than Lyon’s (6.75).
Time for some late inning heroics from the Tigers.
Does anyone really see Maggs on this team next year? 3M buyout vs paying him 18M? (Secretly hoping that prompts him to hit a game-tying HR in the 9th)….
Yes. He has a vesting option that he will likely get that kicks in both option years.
Ugh. Well that’s bad news.
If Magglio does not pick it up soon they will release him before that vesting option kicks in. I know he is having some kind of personal problems but he is sucking way to bad to pay him another 18 next year. Maybe the Cubs will get desperate enough and trade us for him.
Gutsy call by Leyland to have Anderson steal there. Bravo!
Good game. This loss didn’t sting as much as some of the others. Just outplayed.
All good things must come to pass. Still, a good game, and despite Galarraga’s poor oting, they were in it until the end.
ugh, just ugh
and I would have yanked armando at the latest after they scored there 2nd run… they were hitting line shots deep like crazy off him