PREGAME: Gio Gonzalez takes on Armando Galarraga.
Galarraga continues to teeter on the edge of the rotation. Gonzalez makes just his 2nd start of the season. He was rocked in his first start and was knocked out in the 4th inning after allowing 10 hits (but with 6 K’s).
- Granderson
- Polanco
- Cabrera
- Thames
- Raburn
- Inge
- Ordonez
- Ryan
- Everett
Detroit vs. Oakland – June 30, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday
POSTGAME: This wasn’t the text book way to go about getting a win, but it’s a win.
You aren’t supposed to win when your starter gives up 6 walks, but the A’s didn’t hit Galarraga hard at all so there were only 2 baserunners via hits and only 1 run to show for all of their patience. I guess that’s what you call scattering your walks. But Galarraga did seem to have some bite on his slider and it was inducing some swings and misses – I just think he used it too often, like when he was ahead of Jack Cust 0-2 and he threw 3 straight sliders nowhere near the zone.
You aren’t supposed to win when you make 2 baserunning errors where outs are made between 3rd and home. Those are runs you have to have, or at least not toss away so easily. The baserunning mistakes, and the ill advised sacrifice bunt attempts early in the game against a struggling pitcher are why the Tigers only plated 3 runs off of Gio Gonzalez despite having 7 hits, 3 of which were for extra bases, and 2 walks in 5 innings.
You aren’t supposed to win when you make 3 error-like plays in the field. But Galarraga pitched around a dropped foul fly by Ryan Raburn, a fumbled grounder by Everett, and another play by Everett where the Tigers only got 1 out instead of 2.
You aren’t supposed to win when your closer allows 3 baserunners and a home run, but Rodney only let the game get to 2 runs before a double play grounder ended the night on 19 pitches. Oddly, it was Rodney’s fastball getting hit and really, his control improved after an initial walk.
- Ryan Raburn and Placido Polanco were the offensive stars. Raburn hit everything hard. Polanco drove in 3 of the 5 runs and is on a mini-Marcus power surge as of late.
- Inge was having a rough night offensively but he got a blooper to drop behind a drawn in infield to score an insurance run.
- Dusty Ryan was patient, and he took called 3rd strikes his last 2 times up
- Magglio, I don’t know. He did drive a ball to right field once, and a 2-0 count. He was also late on a 3-1 fastball. He also swung and missed a ball well off the plate as it looked like he was gearing up to try and pull a fastball.
- Bobby Seay and Joel Zumaya (pictured above thanks to photos from westcoasttigerfan) had good games. Zumaya hit 102.7 and 102.6 matching his fastest pitches from the Cubs series.
Galarraga’s mechanics looked all out of whack to Kennedy.
I understand reasonable minds can disagree about such things, but I don’t like the sac bunt there. Pitcher struggling to find the zone. Early in the game. And you give them an out.
I agree completely.
Raburn’s mechanics looked all out of whack from Kennedy.
tryiing to watch on MLB is frustrating….screen keeps freezing up
These Tiger errors and poor base running and failure to score in great opportunities remind me of last year. Whatever causes this I hope they have the spirit to shake it off.
You can try watching it here:
http://atdhe.net/
Fortunately, someone is streaming the game tonight so I get to watch!
Must be reminding Galarraga of last year too. He’s pitching a little better now. Maybe. Knock on wood.
try reducing the video quality
thanks for that website Anson!
No Problem. This is only the third/forth Tiger game that’s been streamed but at least it gives people who are stuck in Baltimore (or any other Tigerless city) a chance to see the Tigers with paying for MLBTV. Oh and naturally I was at home visiting my parents the one time this year the Tigers are in Baltimore aka 5 blocks from my house.
hey I live in California and never see the Mudhens so thanks from here also…good site
Yeah I have no idea who or why they are streaming AAA-ball. I was going to try watching a Mud Hens game tonight but I got lucky with the real game instead.
WHY IS ARMANDO NOT COMPLETELY AWFUL TODAY, I AM SO CONFUSED
nevermind, i found the real armando.
good to see Battlestar with some battle in him…ball moving much better than it has in awhile…so far so good
Whoa Dusty Ryan is huge. He’s like Matt Wieters size, aka the future savior of Baltimore baseball.
Huge but a rather timid fellow really, if you saw him in action during the Sheffield-Carmona deathmatch (haha) last season…
Anybody watching on FSN HD? It’s listed on my Comcast guide, but I’m getting the vertical rainbows
Here comes the Battlestar Galarraga implosion.
Ugh, PP. These throws home have me a bit worried. I seem to remember him having a stronger arm. (Insert billfer stats here proving the counterpoint)
I meant “relay throws”
gee does that #75th GIDP keep the Tigers in first place in GIDP in the majors
the saddest thing about those DP’s is Jimbo only runs Grandy about once a week if that and hardly ever uses his speed
Rod says the large number of walks the Tiger pitchers have started to allow has become “an issue”…..I thought it was more of a frickin problem!!!
I agree. Issuing passes is a frickin’ problem.
Whoa was that the first time Maggs beat out the GIDP this year?
he is starting to worry about breaking the All time record for GIDP / Season so he was flying…well flying for him
Well I believe I will deserve some of the credit if we win tonight, since I put up a foot-long post explaining how Granderson NEVER gets on base in the 1st inning and whenever he does Polanco is doomed to the GIDP…clearly they thought it would be great fun to make me look foolish and this inspired the unusual first inning which contained “runs.”
I’m not sure where it fits into the chicken-egg of Galarraga-ness, but Armando seems to have a less puzzled expression on his face tonight, almost a funny little Elvis sneer at times…
I’m not sure who else is watching the game with the link I posted earlier, but the switch from Mario and Rod to the A’s announcers is awful. They have no emotion and have talked about out of town scores for the majority of the last two innings. No wonder no one likes the A’s.
wALK THAT .225 HITTER
All things considered pretty good job by Battlestar seemed to keep the ball down better and had some movement…the 1000000000 BB’s basically the only negative…we’ll take it
let the real game begin!!!!!!!!!
I’m hitting the sack, you better win Tigers.
Oh look, perfect timing. I can count Zumaya’s walks to help me fall asleep.
Rod further states the walks by Zumaya have also become an issue…….I think those walks are a huge frickin problem!!!!
And you can count Sea Lions or whatever animal that is that was trying to field that play…
can we take a breath now???
According to Gameday Zumaya matched his fastest pitches for the season in that ab with Holliday. He he a 102.7 and a 102.6. The Oakland gun seems a little slow, so if you see 101, it’s really 102+
Holliday did a great job fouling off them high 100+ MPH fastballs.
What do you think..should Marcus really be in that line-up?
Marcus has had a string of horrible at-bats. For sure he doesn’t belong in clean-up.
He reminds me a lot of Craig Monroe…..big news for a short time…then forgot how to judge the strike zone and make contact
if Thames doesn’t bat behind Cabrera and Jimbo isn’t gonna bat Inge there then Cabrera doesn’t see alot of good pitches..Thames is doing just fine
Now there’s a rarity! Curtis never gets hit with no pitch..that’s his 1st of the season, in fact he has been HBP 12 times IN HIS CAREER…
So what would you guys think of an alternate blue and white jersey circa 1905-06?
http://exhibits.baseballhalloffame.org/dressed_to_the_nines/detail_page.asp?fileName=al_1905_detroit.gif&Entryid=80
Boy does that look bad when they go to the Plain Dumb D instead of the ol’ English…and those 1922 home jerseys look a bit…Yankee-ish, no?
And what happened in 1960? A year with no “D” (and jerseys that look quite Dodger-ish…)
they look fantastic, one of my favs
Stray phrase you don’t want to hear after wandering away from the game thinking everything is under control: “Rodney has yet to find the strike zone…”
So let me get this straight Nomar changes his gloves into specialty sliding gloves when he gets on base and then runs holding his batting gloves in his hands? Does he have extra dainty hands?
I love it how Rodney always tries to make the game interesting for the other team’s fans.
I find it rather annoying, to be perfectly frank.
Once again not pretty but Rodney got the job done. Nice outing by Galarraga tonight hopefully he can keep it going.
Nice win. Tigers have won the last 3 games that Galarraga pitched and have won 4 out of his last 5 starts. Got to like that.
Well, you have to hand it to the Tigers. That game could have been a blowout, but they managed to keep it close.
I think the players were all somewhat distracted worrying whether Youkilis and Pedroia will both make the All-star team, since the voting is really close, which apparently is the most important story in baseball today no matter where you look…
….and in fact has been since about April 1st.
I like that JL got Lyon up there. Let Rodney know that he’s still got room to improve.
I like the way Anderson is being used – 3 AB in his last 9 games – but I question whether or not we can afford the luxury.
Pujols hit his 29th and 30th HRs. OMG.
60 HR and 150 RBI are within reach.
I’ve been away. Just got back from a really scary place called “Real Life.” I don’t recommend it. Nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there.
Anyway, thanks to Billfer and DTW and everyone posting here, I was able to catch up with and get the inside scoop on the 2009 Detroit Tigers at last – in one evening. It’s been a pretty surprising and delightful season, on balance. I’m still ignorant of the stats and standings and other such niceties, and I’ve missed so much that I should spend the rest of the season lurking rather than embarrass myself with comments. Still, I wanted to check in to say a couple things: 1. Hi. 2. THANK YOU.
Keep it up, Tigers.
Stick around and have at it. No one else here has a LEGITIMATE claim to have the inside scoop on anything. Mostly it is just blustery opinion, occasionally spiffed up with a statistic or two. If you want to make an impression just include acronyms such as P/PA, K/BB ratio, WHIP or OPS+, etc. You will instantly be recognized as another expert.
It looks like billfer’s favorite Pirate, Nyjer “Stirrups” Morgan was traded; unfortunately he is heading for the Nook Logan Memorial Career Graveyard (Washington); I suppose a ‘Nyjer’ is probably the best you’re going to do trying to find a match for the ‘Lastings’ you want to trade…
I knew that name sounded familiar when billfer was commenting on him before; he’s hockey guy–he grew up in San Fran and San Jose, saw the Olympics on TV, and decided hockey was cool and he wanted to play. So he left home at 16 and went to Saskatchewan and ended up playing for the Regina Pats in the Western Hockey League (and needless to say was the only African American on the ice, if not in the town)…same team apparently that Larry Walker tried out for…Walker didn’t make the team though…
I wonder if he could have foreseen that he would be a future National if he would have stayed in Regina and tried hockey a bit longer…