2009 Season, Game Post

Game 2009.051: Red Sox at Tigers

47 Comments

PREGAME: It just has to be better tonight right? Fewer errors. Fewer baserunning mistakes. More big hits with runners on base. No plunking in a run? Does that sound good to everybody?

Armando Galarraga will try and build on his last start, which was his only quality start in the month of May. He faced Boston once last year and wasn’t good, but he managed a no decision despite allowing 5 runs and not getting out of the 6th inning.

Meanwhile the Tigers will face Josh Beckett. Beckett faced the Tigers once last year and destroyed them with 8 K’s, no walks, and just 1 run in 7 innings. And Beckett is rolling with 5 quality starts in a row and his last 2 starts he has allowed 1 earned run in 15 innings with 13 K’s.  Game on.

Boston vs. Detroit – June 3, 2009 | MLB.com: Gameday

POSTGAME: Well, Josh Beckett was really good. The Tigers offense has had their share of struggles lately. But this is one of those tip-your-cap games. Beckett was nasty and worked the edges of a big strike zone masterfully. Tuesday the Tigers let Matsuzaka off the hook. Tonight was a pitcher on his game toying with a struggling offense.

But there is some good to take from the game. Armando Galarraga looks to be regaining his 2008 form with his second consecutive quality start. And the Tigers once again made the 9th inning way more interesting than it should have been with some good at-bats. And Curtis Granderson tripled.

Of course the bullpen proved to be awful with Zach Miner and Nate Robertson turning the game into a laugher. Leyland had no way of knowing that the Red Sox would forget how to field the ball in the 8th and how to throw strikes in the 9th and the Tigers 4 run deficit appeared insurmountable at the time. And conserving some bullpen in a lost cause isn’t a bad tactic. Still, those runs proved to be the difference.

47 thoughts on “Game 2009.051: Red Sox at Tigers”

  3. Davidson’s strike zone, for Beckett at least, is about the size of my garage door.

    1. I was just going to ask that…I was away and “groundout to 3rd runner scores on pitcher’s fielding error” is somewhat mystifying…a run-down perhaps?

    2. Green broke for third after Inge made the throw to first base. Cabrera wildly threw it up the left field line, so Green broke for home. Galarraga was a few feet away from the line backing up Inge, so Green (cheaply, in my opinion) put his head down and practically tackled Galarraga and got the baserunner interference call.

  5. Did Rod Allen just say “I saw Randy Johnson for 5 years in Arizona — at least 30 starts a year which by my math is 120 starts.”

    ….

  6. Goodness battery, Youkilis with a steal? That’s embarrassing. I’m okay with getting no-hit, but come on.

  7. Damn, these Red Sox are playing good. They are in a different universe than what we’re in right now. Sorry Youk, but the Ump owed us that one.

    1. Actually the Red Sox have been so-so lately; but the Tigers are certainly making them look like the 1927 Yankees.

  8. The Tigers have scored 5 runs for Galarraga while he’s been on the mound during his last 7 starts. That’s over 35.2 innings, so the opposition has a 1.26 ERA against him. It’s like Grienke is pitching every time.

  11. Nolan Ryan? Just guessing.

    Beckett’s really dealing, but getting an extra three inches on the outside half of the plate is helping.

  13. Wow. The strike zone is expanding faster than the most interesting man in the world’s reputation.

  14. Gorkys Hernandez was used as a trade piece again in the Nate McClouth deal. I found that noteworthy.

    1. It would of made me feel better if they threw Jurrjens into that deal. I guess that ship has sailed already though.

  17. And tomorrow we have Wakefield. Who wants to bet he has his best knuckleball working and the Tiger bats get baffled again? This sucks.

  18. All Rod and Mario can do at this point is talk about The Adam’s Family and the Canadian Olympic Team.

  19. I’d like for a massive rainstorm to start now and end in time to start tomorrow’s game.

  21. Here’s some good news-
    KC down 9-0 in the 7th
    Min down 6-0 in the 4th
    Chw down 4-2 in 4th

  23. Let Miner get ripped in a throw-away game, no big deal. The rest of the division that matters is losing, let’s keep an eye on those games.

    2. The frustrating thing is absolutely NO offensive. It’s not just tonight, or last night … it started with the Rockies series, continued through the O’s series entire, and is now on life-support in the first two games of this series. Yes Beckett is dealing, but at some point the opposing line-up’s lack of production tends to make a pitcher look better than he is. Give the Tigers some kudos for making Beckett look like Cy Young tonight. If it wasn’t for everything-but-a no-hitter preformance from Jackson the last outing and the last couple Verlander outings, this team could easily be riding on an 8-game losing streak.

      Verlander and Jackson have been lights out, Porcello has been outstanding, and Gallaraga and Willis have both been pitching good enough to win. But none of them are gonna win anything if the lineup doesn’t start scoring some runs.

      1. We can win the Central with a weak hitting lineup. It’s a long way out, but with truly outstanding starting pitching, anything can happen in the playoffs. I’m just enjoying the ride, last year wasn’t quite so fun.

  25. Robertson sucks! His career has degraded to to role of a mop-up guy. He’s our ’09 version of Grilli.

  27. That’s a major league hissy fit from Youkilis. Anderson barely touched him.

  28. Another hit or two here and we could even win thecgame…too bad so many guys have been taken out of the lineup already…

  29. I don’t have the stats to back this up, but I would guess we’ve scored more than half our runs this season via the home run or error.

    1. I disagree with that actually. I think they have strung together a lot of hits. That said, what is the problem with hitting HRs?

  32. I’m not frustrated with the team at all. I’m about as happy as can be. We’re in 1st place and 5 games above .500, and we’ve been struggling for the past 10 games or so. This team has been over-achieving for the most part. When looking at our line-up I pretty much expect the offense to have some major struggles like this. We don’t have many players that can play on both sides of the field. We’re either going to have a decent offensive club (when Thames and Guillen are back) or a good defensive club (with Anderson and Thomas in the outfield). We’ll never have it both ways.

  33. Tonight, they got beat by a good pitcher throwing a good game. Same thing happened with Buehrle a few weeks ago in Chicago. Then, it was no big deal because they were playing competent baseball on the other days. This loss stings more than it really should because of the 2 they lost in Baltimore and the heartbreaker yesterday when they had done everything right except hit with someone on base. Beckett saw a big zone tonight and worked it like good pitchers do. The series should be tied 1-1 right now, but because they couldn’t cash in against a bad pitcher yesterday, today hurts more.

  34. I have zero doubt that if Cabrera had hit in the 9th, he would’ve tied the game. But alas, it was not to be.

    Encouraged by Galarraga. After that wicked awful pitch to Drew, he really settled it down. (Since the Tigers are playing Boston, I feel it appropriate to use the ‘wicked’ modifier) That was the very definition of a BP fastball, though. Anyhoo, I’m afraid the sweep is in order this afternoon. Hopefully the Twins/White Sox/Royals will have mercy on us all and lose miserably as well.

Comments are closed.