2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.067: Brewers at Tigers

99 Comments

PREGAME: After an extensive 11 game road trip, the Tigers finally return home to Comerica Park. They welcome in the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers are 37-29. They have a propensity to slug the ball and rank 3rd in the NL in slugging percentage. The plurality of that power comes from Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder who are OPSing 991 and 1.024 respectively.

Tonight Armando Galarraga will try to suppress some of the slugging. Unfortunately Galarraga has been especially susceptible to the long ball and he’s allowed the 3rd most in the AL this season with 14.

Braden Looper is on the mound for the Brewers. Looper has had his own homer problems with 13 allowed. The difference is that he’s walk a third fewer hitters.

For more on the Brewers I encourage you to check out Brew Crew Ball.

Milwaukee vs. Detroit – June 19, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Other than Armando Galarraga getting hammered again, and an uncharacteristic butchering of balls by Adam Everett and Brandon Inge, this was a nice game. The bats broke out in a big way and got Tigers fans Arby’s + 1. Don Kelly threw in a nice defensive play and the Tigers got good (but rain-limited) bullpenning from Zach Miner, Joel Zumaya, and Bobby Seay. Getting the first win of the series should take a little bit of pressure off of Alfredo Figaro (who will already be really nervous) in the Fox afternoon tilt.

99 thoughts on “Game 2009.067: Brewers at Tigers”

  1. Ryan Braun is the best young hitter in the game, and also one of my favorite players.

    When your comparable batters are Babe Ruth, Manny Ramirez and Ralph Kiner, you know you’re doing something right.

  4. Tigers signed 16 draft picks:

    (3) 3B Wade Gaynor, Western Kentucky

    (7) CF Jamie Johnson, Oklahoma

    (9) C John Murrian, Winthrop

    (10) 2B Christopher Sedon, Pittsburgh

    (11) LHP Adam Wilk, Long Beach State

    (13) CF Michael Rockett, Texas-San Antonio

    (14) RHP Kevan Hess, Western Michigan

    (16) LHP Kenny Faulk, Kennesaw State

    (17) RHP Nathan Newman, Pepperdine

    (18) C Eric Roof, Michigan State

    (19) 3B Rawley Bishop, Middle Tennessee State

    (20) SS James Gulliver, Eastern Michigan

    (22) CF Matthew Mansilla, College of Charleston

    (23) RHP Cory Hamilton, California-Irvine

    (24) RHP Wade Kapteyn, Evansville

    (27) SS Patrick McKenna, Bryant University

  5. Pingback: Game 2009.067: Brewers at Tigers

  6. after one batter it is sure good to see that sinking fastball be a sinking fastball strike

    guess I shudda kept my mouth shut

  7. WTF….. is it cheaper to buy two tickets out of town for Willis and Armando or one

  8. Butterstar is serving up some serious meatballs. We may be looking for a 4 and 5 starter now.

  12. That was a meatball to Fielder in the 1st, wasn’t it? But Fielder does that to a lot of guys… If Galarraga settles down from here, he can still put together a nice start.

  14. with Maggs not playing maybe as a wake up call hopefully…. I see a little more urgency in the Tigers batters who have all struggled lately…Nice to see Cabrera get some results from those three bullet outs he made last night

  17. I’m so confused. I just checked in and see that a Miguel got a homer on a review and then Ryan got one taken away? So lost.

    Aaaand Curtis is an effing beast.

    1. Ryans definately hit the yellow line to be in play and Cabbys definately went over the yellow line and bounced back….both reviewed and called correctly

    2. Actually they scored too much–well that and the home run reviews…a little quicker scoring and we wouldn’t have to worry about any “so sorry, do over please” rainout nonsense…

  19. Brilliant move by our extended manager to bring Dusty Ryan up for the 67th game of the year.

    1. if you average the three batting averages of the catchers now.. The Tigers catchers are batting about .500. And all because of an extended manager too..

      1. You can’t argue with the numbers. Over the last four inings they are better than Joe Mauer.

      1. His OPS is up above .850 from right around .800 a few days ago. But I guess three homers in a few days will do that.

    1. I’m wondering the same thing. I’m in the Ann Arbor area right now and it is thunderstorming and raining pretty hard. It’s not gonna be that long before this weather hits Detroit. HOWEVA, they only need to finish 1.1 more innings before its a ballgame. I really hope the umpire sends them out there for at least a little more baseball.

  22. Ryan/Coleman

    Not one of my usual snarky comments, but a serious question (perhaps I should have prefaced it with: Serious question:…). I don’t get to see the games, so can’t tell if he looks comfortable or not and can only guess by recent box scores, etc. Lately he has had a few multi-hit games sandwiched around some o-fers, which doesn’t tell me much. With the recent upsurge in HR I would guess he is “coming around”, but you fellas who get to watch him on a regular basis would have a better idea.

    1. I don’t know that Granderson has struggled, at least to the extent of some of the other guys. He just hasn’t had the same type of consistency we’re used to. The reason is he has become an extreme flyball hitter, which leads to a lower babip, and more homers.

      1. His homers are up, doubles and triples way down from last year. Is he pulling now?

        1. He’s not pulling noticeably more than usual…it’s more that he’s Inge-ing, more flly balls than line-drive / ground balls…oh, which it looks like billfer pretty much just said, look at that. The BABIP number ends up looking silly for guys like Inge and Granderson; i think Inge’s is around .180, which has led some people to say things like he’s been unlucky…no, it’s just that a large number of the balls he hits go over the fence (thus not in play and excluded)…

          1. I see where BABIP probably isn’t a very relevant gauge for power hitters (or players who are temporarily hitting lots of hR). It makes me wonder what Dave Kingman’s BABIP was in those many seasons where he was eithr striking out or hitting homers most of the time.

            Granderson’s XB are so skewed so far this year 7-2-16 (before tonight) compared to last year. And although his BA is down some his Ks are on about par with last year. That is why I thought perhaps he had changed his approach. On the other hands maybe it is due to his body changing or pitchers adjusting over time. Baseball is sure a complicated game.

    2. I think Granderson (along with Inge) has seen it as one of his team roles–and a leadoff hitter’s role– to see a lot of pitches and make the pitchers work (he has the 2nd highest pitcher/plate appearance after Inge). He has been getting behind in the count a lot, and having problems (like most hitters do) when he does.

      When Leyland moved him to 5th he started swinging earlier in the count (probably seeing his role in the 5-spot as more to knock in runs), and hitting dramatically better, which I think has him hitting more confidently back in the leadoff spot.

      That’s my very very speculative take on Curtis (the pitch count aspect is not speculation; he does have a higher PPA avg batting leadoff vs 5th, and a higher PPA in the 1st inning when leading off the game–along with a double-take inducing line of .167 / .271 / .262).

        1. Northern or Southern?

          (By the way if you squint the SF Giants look a lot like the Tigers…can’t score runs, no power, dominating starting pitching, and somehow a 34-31 record. And a ham-sandwich playing SS).

    1. Again thanks for the insight. Top notch. I didn’t know about the Arby’s deal, is that new? What is Arbys? What is roast beef? I don’t know where I would be without you slimmduude.

      1. The Tigers scored more runs than the Brewers and that means they win. I’m going to start a blog.

  25. At a rehearsal dinner, can I get a quick update on a restart? (don’t worry, not mine)

    2. The continuation of the game seems to have fallen into “who the @$*!! knows” territory…

  29. They are now saying the tarp is back on and it looks unlikely that they will be finishing this one…

  30. Um, OK, now they are starting to take the tarp OFF again…so have these guys been like rolling the tarp on and off constantly, back and forth, this whole time? Does the grounds crew need reinforcement yet?

  36. There is going to be another burst of thunderstorms. At least there was in Ann Arbor. But hey, it’s an official game. 🙂

      1. runners on first and second GB wide of Cabrera he wheels and throws to second for the force and Everett doesn’t throw back to first he turns and throws to Inge getting the runner heading to third….thank u Mario

        2. The fact that it was a line drive short hop meant that the runners had to hold momentarily.

  42. he’s slowly becoming a very good defensive player..too bad he only has about 15 years left

  46. How about Miner…..maybe is more valuable at what he just did rather than starting ??????

  47. the idea here might be if Zoom is in the area code of home plate for 1 out he can pitch the 8th…if not ….next…..

  51. Hello Offense, it is nice to see you again. Feel free to come back often, you are more than welcome.

  52. So…are they just going to call this thing? I don’t think its going to get any better at this point.

  54. The radar looks brutal. I think this one is a wrap. If it’s not it won’t start for at least an hour. That’s enough for me tonight.

    2. enough for me too…
      I can’t even get a reliable signal over here (West Bloomfield Comcast)

  57. Yep, good win. The rain saved a couple innings from our bullpen, which is a bonus.

    I really think it is time to re-insert Miner into the starting role. He does struggle from time to time, but I think he is good enough to be that #4 or #5 starter. I can’t say that about Galarraga, Willis or Bonderman at this time.

    1. You know Chris, Miner has definitely earned that consideration, but he really seems to thrive in the get out of a screwed up situation role. I’d like to see him remain as the go-to guy for any inning.

  58. At least Rodney couldn’t come in and walk the bases loaded! (sorry I hate being a negative nelly)

  60. Despite the rain it was a good game.
    Nice to see Dusty Ryan make an impact on the team in his 1st game back.
    Don Kelly with a great catch.
    Thames swinging a hot bat went deep twice.
    Cabrera and Granderson with homers also.

    Time to start a long winning streak.

    2. If the game had been called after 5 innings, though, Galarraga would have gotten the win. MLB Rule 10.17 Six or more innings, though, the starting pitcher has to complete 5 innings to qualify.

Comments are closed.